'Text Me When You Get Home' Celebrates The Complexities Of Female Friendship

Women in the Middle Ages were excluded from many realms: the law, universities, and surprisingly, from friendship, writes author Kayleen Schaefer. The term "friend" was reserved for the half of humanity that purportedly possessed superior morals — men — and only used to describe other men.

With our fictional and real worlds populated with duos like Abby and Ilana, Oprah and Gayle, and Thelma and Louise, a world without female friendship seems as distant as one withoutcharts our growing appreciation for relationships between women. In telling this complex history, the book takes readers to intriguing locations and moments, from the cul-de-sac where the author Judy Blume once longed for female companions to a stately New York apartment building with 375 single rooms, all occupied by women.