FRIENDSHIP, AGE, AND GENDER

This article discusses two different concepts of friendship in regard to men and to women. While Simmel and Tenbruck assume that friendship is basically men's business, Fischer/Oliker have more recently hypothesized that women by their very nature are more apt to engage in friendship. This paper presents data regarding friendship patterns of men and women older than 70 years and drawn from the Berlin Aging Study. Results do not indicate major gender specific differences in friendship patterns, neither in their structural, nor in their functional aspects.