Ah, I remember friends… Staying in Touch: One More Thing At Which Women Beat Out Men:
Male relationships follow a different pattern. Men tend to build friendships until about age 30, but there’s often a steady fall-off after that, researchers say. Among the reasons: Male friendships are more likely to be hurt by geographical moves, lifestyle changes, or differences in career trajectories. And many men turn to wives, girlfriends, sisters or platonic female friends to share emotional issues, assuming male friends will be of little help.For perhaps some of the same reasons, women tend to turn to close female friends for emotional support rather than their spouses. Consequently, women with strong friendships often have closer marriages, in part because they don’t burden husbands with all their emotional needs, according to research by Stacey Oliker, a sociology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.