A comment from a reader has made me think I concentrate too much on divisions among women and girls, so I’d like to recognize all the sharing and synergy that is present among women–at least in my life.

1. My collaboration with Demian and another group of women I call the “Ophelia Gals” None of them have asked me for a penny, but donate their time and energy and support so generously. They believe in the cause!

2. The hundreds (and I mean hundreds) of emails I get from women cheering me on

3. My new Ugandan Girls Project–two of my former (although I joke they never will be completely free of me) Club Ophelia mentors are just leaving Uganda where they recruited 20 adolescent girls to be part of an exciting new project to be described in a new website soon. These girls, and my mentors (one is now a medical student and the other a freshman in college) had such excitement for discussing and sharing relationship issues.

4. A Penn State work project I’m in which involves close work with a group of nurses–we “get” each other in a way the men just don’t.

5. A new Club Ophelia launching at the YWCA

6. An exciting research study about to begin comparing US and Japanese girls on relational aggression.

7. My cadre of Club and Camp Ophelia girls who are still hanging in there with me, providing art, writing, creative energy, etc. even though they’re no longer eligible for the programs.

8. Five very best friends (or, in girl language VBFs) who I can always always always go to for help, comfort, understanding, etc. We’re talking 30+ years of friendship!

9. The angels who appear to help me–always female–just as I’m getting snowed under with academic work, book work, and Club and Camp Ophelia work. (If you’d like to join those angels, you know how to reach me!)

10. Women who pray for me.

Okay, everyone who’s ready to write and tell me how awfully sexist this is and how men can do all the same things–perhaps. I like to think men bring a different quality to my life–making it all the richer. Note I didn’t say “better quality” or “women are superior”, or any such stuff. We each have our strengths–I just happen to be a woman expert!

Just felt a need to express something that has held true for me on my travels around this country and abroad–there’s something universal and GOOD about what women share, even though challenges which can divide us.