Woman

A woman is an adult female human.[a][2][3] Prior to adulthood, one is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent).[4]

Typically, women inherit a pair of X chromosomes, one from each parent, and are capable of pregnancy and giving birth from puberty until menopause. More generally, sex differentiation of the female fetus is governed by the lack of a present, or functioning, SRY-gene on either one of the respective sex chromosomes.[5] Female anatomy is distinguished from male anatomy by the female reproductive system, which includes the ovaries, fallopian tubes, uterus, vagina, and vulva. An adult woman generally has a wider pelvis, broader hips, and larger breasts than an adult man. Women typically have less facial and other body hair, have a higher body fat composition, and are on average shorter and less muscular than men.

Throughout human history, traditional gender roles have often defined and limited women's activities and opportunities, resulting in gender inequality; many religious doctrines and legal systems stipulate certain rules for women. With restrictions loosening during the 20th century in many societies, women have gained wider access to careers and the ability to pursue higher education. Violence against women, whether within families or in communities, has a long history and is primarily committed by men. Some women are denied reproductive rights. The movements and ideologies of feminism have a shared goal of achieving gender equality.

Trans women have a gender identity that does not align with their male sex assignment at birth,[6] while intersex women may have sex characteristics that do not fit typical notions of female biology.

Etymology

The spelling of "woman" in English has progressed over the past millennium from wīfmann[7] to wīmmann to wumman, and finally, the modern spelling woman.[8] In Old English, wīfmann meant 'woman' (literally 'woman-person'), whereas wermann meant 'man'. Mann had a gender-neutral meaning of 'human', corresponding to Modern English 'person' or 'someone'; however, subsequent to the Norman Conquest, man began to be used more in reference to 'male human', and by the late 13th century it had begun to eclipse usage of the older term wer.[9] The medial labial consonants f and m in wīfmann coalesced into the modern form "woman", while the initial element wīf, which had also meant 'woman', underwent semantic narrowing to the sense of a married woman ('wife').

It is a popular misconception that the term "woman" is etymologically connected to "womb".[10] "Womb" derives from the Old English word wamb meaning 'belly, uterus'[11] (cognate to the modern German colloquial term "Wamme" from Old High German wamba for 'belly, paunch, lap').[12][13]

Terminology

The word woman can be used generally, to mean any female human, or specifically, to mean an adult female human as contrasted with girl. The word girl originally meant "young person of either sex" in English;[14] it was only around the beginning of the 16th century that it came to mean specifically a female child.[15] The term girl is sometimes used colloquially to refer to a young or unmarried woman; however, during the early 1970s, feminists challenged such use because the use of the word to refer to a fully grown woman may cause offence. In particular, previously common terms such as office girl are no longer widely used. Conversely, in certain cultures which link family honor with female virginity, the word girl (or its equivalent in other languages) is still used to refer to a never-married woman; in this sense it is used in a fashion roughly analogous to the more-or-less obsolete English maid or maiden. Different countries have different laws, but age 18 is frequently considered the age of majority (the age at which a person is legally considered an adult).[citation needed]

The social sciences' views on what it means to be a women have changed significantly since the early 20th century as women gained more rights and greater representation in the workforce, with scholarship in the 70's moving toward a focus on the sex-gender distinction and social construction of gender.[16][17]

There are various words used to refer to the quality of being a woman. The term "womanhood" merely means the state of being a woman; "femininity" is used to refer to a set of typical female qualities associated with a certain attitude to gender roles; "womanliness" is like "femininity", but is usually associated with a different view of gender roles. "Distaff" is an archaic adjective derived from women's conventional role as a spinner, now used only as a deliberate archaism.

Menarche, the onset of menstruation, occurs on average at age 12–13. Many cultures have rites of passage to symbolize a girl's coming of age, such as confirmation in some branches of Christianity,[18] bat mitzvah in Judaism, or a custom of a special celebration for a certain birthday (generally between 12 and 21), like the quinceañera of Latin America.