How can I make female friends when I struggle socially?

[Madmax29]

So ive not got many friends, but i would like to make some female friends, just to chat to and have a laugh with, either that be online or maybe in person.

I find it hard to get chatting to people, i only go to the gym late at night due to my working pattern, and my hobbies are mainly male orientated.

Please help me out.

If you're looking to make some online, look for female friendship groups on facebook or google a platonic friendship app.

What are your hobbies / interest @Madmax29?
You’re going to want to make friends with people who have similar interests and outlooks.

Bumble has a friends specific app (I’m not sure how good that is). Maybe look on Meetup and see if there’s any groups that interest you?

Are you female or male, @Madmax29?

Im male

I would go to ‘meet ups’ online like walks or hikes. You could also try to join a pub quiz team, your male knowwdge will be helpful for female heavy team. Are you sporty? If so padel and tag rugby are great for meeting people.

If you join a more sociable gym like David Lloyd or the library they have book groups too

A short language course or other course like cooking, baking, painting and drawing

Why do you want female friends rather than male friends?

Do you not mix with people at work?

Brilliant! I wondered who'd be the first to ask that...

Sometimes it makes all the difference to the point of a thread. 😀

Well, it means there’s no point in suggesting female only groups.

Ah ok you're a bloke. I'm guessing that many women will think you're interested in them romantically if you try and approach them for friendship.

Is there a particular reason why you feel you need female friends? I wouldn't go out of my way to make more male friends. Unless I was looking for sex.

This is a good question, too.

Do you mean you want female friends which leads to something else?

Or do you just genuinely want to expand your social circle 👀

Oh yes, I enjoy Padel, just non of my male friends want to go, but maybe I should just join in a match and go for it. Like I say I do struggle at first to make friends, have male friends, but also looking for some female friends also.

I genuinely just want to widen my circle, I have plenty of male friends, but sometimes chatting to a female about stuff also is nice.

There’s presumably opportunities to join / play with others at your paddle group? Try that.

Theres lots of mixed social events on Meetup, join a group and go along. They’re generally full of welcoming people.

OP are you ND? The framing and the requirement that you need female friends because you have male friends sounds like some arbitrary requirement.

You have male interests, that's why you have male friends.

I think basically you want female friends because you think a romantic relationship is going to spawn from it.

Are you in a relationship?

What does being ND got to do with it? Is it because you find it a strange request or the way that the op worded it.

I don't think there is anything wrong with wanting friends of the opposite sex. I am ND and I have both.

Sometimes female friends can have empathy and understanding which a male friend may not be able to give op. Perhaps the op would like to have female friends to discuss more sensitive things that he cannot with his male counterparts. Or it maybe that he just wants some female friends!

I don't believe everything has to have a nefarious reasoning behind it. I am actually quite suspicious of a lot of the male variety but on here, people take it to a new level sometimes.

No, its only males at my work,

Exactly this, sometimes its hard to talk to male friends about things and its probably easier to talk to a female and like said they can understand and listen better than most males, as males dont really like to talk about sensitive stuff.

I had a male friend who only seemed to want me to listen & empathise. It didn’t last.

You also need to think about what women would get out of being friends with you.

@Madmax29 Read the above.

Maybe a psychologist would be better?

It's not a bad thing to ask, maybe clumsily phrased. It has to be more specific, however. The OP doesn't want to meet just any 'women' - there has to be a context.