All girl getaways: The importance of female friendship throughout the life-cycle
A recent article, published in Annals of Leisure Research, 'Girlfriend getaways over the life course: change and continuity' by Gibson, Berdychevsky and Bell discusses the burgeoning trend of all-female holidays, the many different purposes and effects for those participating and the relationship to the life-cycle of the women. The basis of the article was a study conducted by the authors featuring 79 women of different race, social class, nationality and marital and familial status. They were interviewed about their experiences of an all-female holiday and the information was categorised into themes such as bonding, escape, personal growth and adventure. For each person they fulfil a different role, depending on life stage. Their findings were divided into four life-stages: adolescence, early adulthood, middle adulthood and late adulthood.