Awoman is an adult female human.[a][2][3] Before adulthood, a female child or adolescent is referred to as agirl.[4]
Typically, women inherit a pair ofX chromosomes, one from each parent.Sex differentiation of the femalefetus is governed by the lack of a present functioningSRY gene on either one of the respective sex chromosomes.[5]Female anatomy is distinguished from male anatomy by thefemale reproductive system, which includes theovaries,fallopian tubes,uterus,vagina, andvulva. A woman generally has a widerpelvis, broaderhips, and largerbreasts than a man. These characteristics can facilitate pregnancy,childbirth andbreastfeeding. Women typically have less facial and otherbody hair, have a higherbody fat composition, and are on average shorter and less muscular than men. Women are at greater risk of certain diseases like breast cancer, and at lower risk of other diseases like lung cancer.
It is apopular misconception that the term "woman" isetymologically connected to "womb".[13] "Womb" derives from the Old English wordwamb meaning'belly, uterus'[14] (cognate to the modern German colloquial term "Wamme" from Old High Germanwamba for'belly, paunch, lap').[15][16]
"Young Woman" redirects here. For the painting by Isabel Bishop, seeYoung Woman (painting).
Three generations: grandmother, daughter, and granddaughter.
The wordwoman can be used generally, to mean any female human, or specifically, to mean an adult female human as contrasted withgirl. The wordgirl originally meant "young person of either sex" in English;[17] it was only around the beginning of the 16th century that it came to mean specifically afemale child.[18] The termgirl 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 offense. In particular, previously common terms such asoffice girl are no longer widely used. Conversely, in certain cultures which link family honor with femalevirginity, the wordgirl (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 Englishmaid ormaiden.[citation needed]
The social sciences' views on what it means to be a woman have changed significantly since the early 20th century as women gained more rights and greater representation in the workforce, with scholarship in the 1970s moving toward a focus on thesex–gender distinction andsocial construction of gender.[19][20]
Different countries have different laws, but age 18 is frequently considered theage of majority (the age at which a person is legally considered an adult).[21] Menarche, the onset ofmenstruation, occurs on average at age 12–13. Many cultures haverites of passage to symbolize a girl'scoming of age, such asbat mitzvah in Judaism, or a custom of a special celebration for a certain birthday (generally between 12 and 21), like thequinceañera of Latin America.
Typically, the cells of female humans contain two X chromosomes, while the cells of male humans have an X and a Y chromosome.[23] Duringearly fetal development, all embryos have phenotypically female genitalia up until week 6 or 7, when a male embryo's gonads differentiate into testes due to the action of theSRY gene on the Y chromosome.[24]Sex differentiation proceeds in female humans in a way that is independent of gonadal hormones.[24] Because humans inheritmitochondrial DNA only from the mother's ovum,genealogical researchers can tracematernal lineage far back in time.[25]
Female puberty triggers many bodily changes. In response to chemical signals from thepituitary gland, theovaries secrete hormones that stimulate maturation of the body, including increased height and weight, body hair growth, breast development andmenarche (the onset of menstruation).[26] Most girls go throughmenarche between ages 12–13.[27][28]
Menstruation is a monthly hormonal cycle that involves the shedding of thelining of the uterus. Blood and tissue exit through the vagina. Menstrual cycles may be irregular at first, and usually become more regular by a woman's 20s.[29] Most women are able to perform all their daily activities during menstruation,[30] though some women experience symptoms ranging from uncomfortable to disabling[31] or are prohibited from regular activity by strong social stigma.[32]
A pregnant woman
The changes of puberty typically enablesexual reproduction. Pregnancy generally requiresfertilization of a woman's egg cells with a man'ssperm cells. Humans are similar to other large mammals in that they usually give birth to a single offspring per pregnancy, but are unusual in beingaltricial, meaning young are undeveloped at time of birth and require the aid of their parents or guardians to fully mature.[33] Sometimes humans havemultiple births, most commonly twins.[34]
Usually between ages 49–52, a woman reachesmenopause, the time when menstrual periods stop permanently, and they are no longer able to bear children.[35][36][37] Symptoms of menopause include hot flashes, night sweats, headaches, and more; both lifestyle changes and medications can help to mitigate these symptoms.[38]
In terms ofbiology, the femalesex organs are involved in the reproductive system, whereas thesecondary sex characteristics are involved inbreastfeeding children and attracting a mate.[39] Humans areplacental mammals, which means the mother carries the fetus in the uterus and the placenta facilitates the exchange of nutrients and waste between the mother and fetus.[40][41]
Themammary glands are hypothesized to have evolved from apocrine-like glands to produce milk, a nutritious secretion that is the most distinctive characteristic of mammals, along with live birth.[44] In mature women, thebreast is generally more prominent than in most other mammals; this prominence, not necessary for milk production, is thought to be at least partially the result ofsexual selection.[39]
Estrogens, which are primary female sex hormones, have a significant impact on a female's body shape. They are produced in both men and women, but their levels are significantly higher in women, especially in those of reproductive age. Besides other functions, estrogens promote the development of femalesecondary sexual characteristics, such as breasts andhips.[45][46][47] As a result of estrogens, duringpuberty, girls develop breasts and their hips widen. Working against estrogen, the presence oftestosterone in a pubescent female inhibits breast development and promotes muscle and facial hair development.[48]
Circulatory system
Women have lowerhematocrit (the volume percentage ofred blood cells in blood) than men; this is due to lower testosterone, which stimulates the production oferythropoietin by the kidney. The normal hematocrit level for a woman is 36% to 48% (for men, 41% to 50%). The normal level ofhemoglobin (an oxygen-transportprotein found in red blood cells) for women is 12.0 to 15.5 g/dL (for men, 13.5 to 17.5 g/dL).[49][50][51]
Women'shearts have finer-grained textures in the muscle compared to men's hearts, and theheart muscle's overall shape and surface area also differs to men's when controlling for body size and age.[52][53] In addition, women's hearts age more slowly compared to men's hearts.[54]
Sex distribution
Girls are born slightly less frequently than boys (the ratio is around 1:1.05). Out of the total human population in 2015, there were 1018 men for every 1000 women.[55]
Intersex women have an intersex condition,usually defined as those born with ambiguous genitalia, atypical chromosomes, or atypical gonads.[56][57] Most individuals with ambiguous genitaliaare assigned female at birth, and most intersex women arecisgender.[58][59] The medical practices to assignbinary female to intersex youth is oftencontroversial.[60]
Some intersex conditions are associated with typical rates of femalegender identity, while others are associated with substantially higher rates of gender transition compared to the general population.[61][62]For example, women with CAIS showed no psychological differences from non-intersex women, including in gender identity or orientation.[63] Women with other intersex conditions, such as 5alpha-RD-2 or 17beta-HSD-3, showed increased rates of gender transition to live as men.[64]
Most cultures use agender binary by which women are of one of two genders, the others being men; other cultures have athird gender.[67][68][69]Femininity (also calledwomanliness orgirlishness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles generally associated with women and girls. Different people have held femininity to be socially constructed,[70] biologically influenced,[70][71][72][73] or on some point in the spectrum between "nature" and "nurture".[72][71][73] It is distinct from the definition of the biological female sex,[74][75] as both men and women can exhibit feminine traits.
Factors that specifically affect the health of women in comparison withmen are most evident in those related toreproduction, butsex differences have been identified from the molecular to the behavioral scale. Some of these differences are subtle and difficult to explain, partly due to the fact that it is difficult to separate the health effects of inherent biological factors from the effects of the surrounding environment they exist in.Sex chromosomes and hormones, as well as sex-specific lifestyles, metabolism, immune system function, and sensitivity to environmental factors are believed to contribute to sex differences in health at the levels of physiology, perception, and cognition. Women can have distinct responses to drugs and thresholds for diagnostic parameters.[80][page needed]
The medical practice dealing with female reproduction and reproductive organs is calledgynaecology (etymologically, "science of women").[81][82]
Disease Risk
Women have higher rates of some diseases, such as osteoporosis, auto-immune diseases, Alzheimer’s,[83] and breast cancer.[84]
Women have lower rates of other diseases, such as lung cancer, Parkinson's, chronic liver disease,[83] hypertension, diabetes, and HIV/AIDS.[85][86]
Some female-specific diseases includeendometriosis.[87] PCOS,[88] and gynecologic cancers such as uterine or cervical cancer.[89]
Maternal mortality or maternal death is defined by WHO as "the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and site of the pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management but not from accidental or incidental causes."[90]
Between 2000 and 2023, the rate of maternal mortality dropped by 40% worldwide. In 2023, around 260,000 women died from complications of pregnancy, delivery, or abortion. Over 90% of maternal mortality deaths occurred in low-income or lower-middle income countries, with sub-Saharan African and South Asian women accounting for 87% of the deaths. Most of these deaths were preventable. Maternal mortality can be reduced by ensuring pregnant women have adequate healthcare access, administering medications forpreeclampsia and hemorrhage, and using good sanitation practices during delivery.[91]
Pink: Countries where female life expectancy at birth is higher than males. Blue: A few countries in southern Africa where females have shorter lives due to AIDS.[92]
Thelife expectancy for women is generally longer than men's. This advantage begins from birth, with newborn girls more likely to survive the first year than boys. Worldwide, women live six to eight years longer than men.[93] However, this varies by place and situation. For example,discrimination against women has lowered female life expectancy in some parts of Asia so that men there live longer than women.[93]
The difference in life expectancy are believed to be partly due to biological advantages and partly due to gendered behavioral differences between men and women.[93][94] On average, women are less likely to engage in unhealthy behaviors like smoking and alcohol use, and consequently have fewerpreventable premature deaths from such causes.[93]
In some developed countries, the life expectancy is evening out. This is believed to caused both by worse health behaviors among women, especially an increased rate ofsmoking tobacco by women, and improved health among men, such as lesscardiovascular disease.[93] TheWorld Health Organization (WHO) writes that it is "important to note that the extra years of life for women are not always lived in good health."[93]
The fact that humans live a significant amount past reproductive age is unusual for mammals.[95] Many elderly women contribute to the care of grandchildren and other family members,[96] and many biologists believe that the extended human lifespan is evolutionarily driven bykin selection, though other theories have also been proposed.[97][98][99][100]
... the human rights of women include their right to have control over and decide freely and responsibly on matters related to their sexuality, including sexual and reproductive health, free of coercion, discrimination and violence. Equal relationships between women and men in matters of sexual relations and reproduction, including full respect for the integrity of the person, require mutual respect, consent and shared responsibility for sexual behavior and its consequences.
The World Health Organization reports that based on data from 2010 to 2014, 56 million induced abortions occurred worldwide each year (25% of all pregnancies). Of those, about 25 million were considered asunsafe. The WHO reports that in developed regions about 30 women die for every 100,000 unsafe abortions and that number rises to 220 deaths per 100,000 unsafe abortions in developing regions and 520 deaths per 100,000 unsafe abortions in sub-Saharan Africa. The WHO ascribes these deaths to:
restrictive laws
poor availability of services
high cost
stigma
conscientious objection of health-care providers
unnecessary requirements, such as mandatory waiting periods, mandatory counseling, provision of misleading information, third-party authorization, and medically unnecessary tests that delay care.[102]
Puabi (c. 2600 BCE), or Shubad – queen ofUr whose tomb was discovered with many expensive artifacts. Other known pre-Sargonic queens of Ur (royal wives) include Ashusikildigir, Ninbanda, and Gansamannu.[109]
Kugbau (c. 2500 BCE), a taverness fromKish chosen by theNippur priesthood to become hegemonic ruler ofSumer, and in later ages deified as "Kubaba".
Baranamtarra (c. 2384 BCE), prominent and influential queen ofLugalanda ofLagash. Other known pre-Sargonic queens of the first Lagash dynasty include Menbara-abzu, Ashume'eren, Ninkhilisug, Dimtur, and Shagshag, and the names of several princesses are also known.
Shibtu (c. 1775 BCE), kingZimrilim's consort and queen of the Syrian city-state ofMari. During her husband's absence, she ruled as regent of Mari and enjoyed extensive administrative powers as queen.[115]
The glyph (♀) for theplanet and Roman goddessVenus, orAphrodite in Greek, is thesymbol used to represent the female sex.[116][117][118] In ancient alchemy, the Venus symbol stood for copper and was associated withfemininity.[118]
An Egyptian Muslim woman who works as a men's hairdresser to "confront the customs and traditions of her society and conquer their criticism."
In recent history, gender roles have changed greatly. At some earlier points in history, children's occupational aspirations starting at a young age differed according to gender.[119] Traditionally, middle class women were involved in domestic tasks emphasizing child care. For poorer women, economic necessity compelled them to seek employment outside the home even if individual poor women may have preferred domestic tasks. Many of the occupations that were available to them were lower in pay than those available to men.[120]
Two women U. S. Marinespatrolling in Afghanistan, 2010
As changes in the labor market for women came about, availability of employment changed from only "dirty", long hour factory jobs to "cleaner", more respectable office jobs where more education was demanded. Married women's participation in the U.S. labor force rose from 5.6–6% in 1900 to 23.8% in 1923.[121][122]
In the 1970s, many female academics, including scientists, avoided having children. Throughout the 1980s, institutions tried to equalize conditions for men and women in the workplace. Even so, the inequalities at home hampered women's opportunities: professional women were still generally considered responsible for domestic labor and child care, which limited the time and energy they could devote to their careers. Until the early 20th century, U.S. women's colleges required their women faculty members to remain single, on the grounds that a woman could not carry on two full-time professions at once. According to Schiebinger, "Being a scientist and a wife and a mother is a burden in society that expects women more often than men to put family ahead of career." (p. 93).[123]
Movements advocateequality of opportunity for both sexes andequal rights irrespective of gender. Through a combination of economic changes and the efforts of thefeminist movement, in recent decades women in many societies have gained access to careers beyond the traditionalhomemaker. Despite these advances, modern women in Western society still face challenges in the workplace as well as with the topics of education, violence, health care, politics, and motherhood, and others.Sexism can be a main concern and barrier for women almost anywhere, though its forms, perception, and gravity vary between societies and social classes.
...any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.
It identifies three forms of such violence: that which occursin the family, that which occurswithin the general community, and that which is perpetrated or condonedby the State. It also states that "violence against women is a manifestation of historically unequal power relations between men and women".[127]
Violence against women remains a widespread problem, fueled, especially outside the West, by patriarchal social values, lack of adequate laws, and lack of enforcement of existing laws. Social norms that exist in many parts of the world hinder progress towards protecting women from violence. For example, according to surveys byUNICEF, the percentage of women aged 15–49 who think that a husband is justified in hitting or beating his wife under certain circumstances is as high as 90% inAfghanistan andJordan, 87% inMali, 86% inGuinea andTimor-Leste, 81% inLaos, and 80% in theCentral African Republic.[128] A 2010 survey conducted by thePew Research Center found thatstoning as a punishment foradultery was supported by 82% of respondents inEgypt andPakistan, 70% inJordan, 56%Nigeria, and 42% inIndonesia.[129]
There have also been many forms of violence against women which have been prevalent historically, notably theburning of witches, the sacrifice ofwidows (such assati) andfoot binding. The prosecution of women accused ofwitchcraft has a long tradition; for example, during the early modern period (between the 15th and 18th centuries),witch trials were common in Europe and in the European colonies in North America. Today, there remain regions of the world (such as parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, rural North India, and Papua New Guinea) where belief in witchcraft is held by many people, and women accused of being witches are subjected to serious violence.[133][134][135] In addition, there are also countries which have criminal legislation against the practice of witchcraft. InSaudi Arabia, witchcraft remains a crimepunishable by death, and in 2011 the country beheaded a woman for 'witchcraft and sorcery'.[136][137]
It is also the case that certain forms of violence against women have been recognized as criminal offences only during recent decades, and are not universally prohibited, in that many countries continue to allow them. This is especially the case withmarital rape.[138][139] In the Western World, there has been a trend towards ensuringgender equality within marriage and prosecutingdomestic violence, but in many parts of the world women still lose significant legal rights when entering a marriage.[140]
Map of countries by fertility rate (2020), according to thePopulation Reference BureauPercentage of births to unmarried women, selected countries, 1980 and 2007[143]
Thetotal fertility rate (TFR) – the average number of children born to a woman over her lifetime – differs significantly between different regions of the world. In 2016, the highest estimated TFR was inNiger (6.62 children born per woman) and the lowest in Singapore (0.82 children/woman).[144] While most Sub-Saharan African countries have a high TFR, which creates problems due to lack of resources and contributes tooverpopulation, most Western countries currently experience asub replacement fertility rate which may lead topopulation ageing andpopulation decline.
In many parts of the world, there has been a change in family structure over the past few decades. For instance, in the West, there has been a trend of moving away from living arrangements that include theextended family to those which only consist of thenuclear family. There has also been a trend to move from marital fertility to non-marital fertility. Children born outside marriage may be born tocohabiting couples or tosingle women. While births outside marriage are common and fully accepted in some parts of the world, in other places they are highly stigmatized, with unmarried mothers facing ostracism, including violence from family members, and in extreme cases evenhonor killings.[145][146] In addition,sex outside marriage remains illegal in many countries (such as Saudi Arabia, Pakistan,[147] Afghanistan,[148][149] Iran,[149] Kuwait,[150] Maldives,[151] Morocco,[152] Oman,[153] Mauritania,[154] United Arab Emirates,[155][156] Sudan,[157] and Yemen[158]).
The social role of the mother differs between cultures. In many parts of the world, women with dependent children are expected to stay at home and dedicate all their energy to child raising, while in other places mothers most often return to paid work (seeworking mother andstay-at-home mother).[citation needed]
Single-sex education has traditionally been dominant and is still highly relevant.[citation needed] Universal education, meaning state-provided primary and secondary education independent of gender, is not yet a global norm, even if it is assumed in most developed countries.[citation needed] In some Western countries, women have surpassed men at many levels of education. For example, in the United States in 2005/2006, women earned 62% of associate degrees, 58% of bachelor's degrees, 60% of master's degrees, and 50% of doctorates.[159][160]
In 2020, 87% of the world's women were literate, compared to 90% of men; at the same time, only 59% of women in sub-Saharan Africa were literate.[161] The educationalgender gap inOrganisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries has been reduced over the last 30 years. Younger women today are far more likely to have completed a tertiary qualification: in 19 of the 30 OECD countries, more than twice as many women aged 25 to 34 have completed tertiary education than have women aged 55 to 64. In 21 of 27 OECD countries with comparable data, the number of women graduating from university-level programmes is equal to or exceeds that of men. 15-year-old girls tend to show much higher expectations for their careers than boys of the same age.[162]While women account for more than half of university graduates in several OECD countries, they receive only 30% of tertiary degrees granted in science and engineering fields, and women account for only 25% to 35% of researchers in most OECD countries.[163]
Research shows that while women are studying at prestigious universities at the same rate as men they are not being given the same chance to join the faculty.[citation needed] SociologistHarriet Zuckerman has observed that the more prestigious an institute is, the more difficult and time-consuming it will be for women to obtain a faculty position there. In 1989, Harvard University tenured its first woman in chemistry, Cynthia Friend, and in 1992 its first woman in physics, Melissa Franklin.[citation needed] She also observed that women were more likely to hold their first professional positions as instructors and lecturers while men are more likely to work first in tenure positions.[citation needed] According to Smith and Tang, as of 1989, 65% of men and only 40% of women held tenured positions and only 29% of all scientists and engineers employed as assistant professors in four-year colleges and universities were women.[citation needed] Women show a drop in self-esteem in the first year of college.[164] In the Soviet Union, 40% of chemistry PhDs went to women in the 1960s.[165]
In 1992, women earned 9% of the PhDs awarded in engineering, but only one percent of those women became professors. In 1995, 11% of professors in science and engineering were women. In relation, only 311 deans of engineering schools were women, which is less than 1% of the total. Even in psychology, a degree in which women earn the majority of PhDs, they hold a significant amount of fewer tenured positions, roughly 19% in 1994.[166]
Suffrage is the civil right to vote, andwomen's suffrage movements have a longhistoric timeline. As an early example, in districts ofFriesland, in the Netherlands, women began voting in 1689.[168] On the other end of the spectrum, inKuwait women gained the right to vote in 2005,[169] and inSaudi Arabia women gained the right to vote in 2015.[170] Organizations that fought for women's right to vote in different countries are numerous, from Switzerland'sAssociation internationale des femmes (which was formed in 1868) to Liechtenstein'sKomitée für das Frauenstimmrecht (founded in 1969).[171] As of 2025, theVatican City only allows women to vote in limited lay capacity,[172] and other countries such asAfghanistan lack functional democracies entirely.[173]
Chemist and physicistMarie Curie was the first woman to be awarded a Nobel Prize, and the only person to win a Nobel Prize in two different scientific fields.[174]
Women have historically had access to practicemidwifery,obstetrics andgynecology. In Europe, prior to the 18th century, caring for pregnant women was undertaken by other women. However, from the mid-18th century onwards, society began to require rigorous formal education to practice medicine. Since women were prohibited from higher education, women's reproductive healthcare was transferred to male practitioners.[175][176]
Early women in other scientific fields includeHypatia (b. 350-370 CE), a mathematician and astronomer who edited theAlmagest.
The earliest author known by name was an Akkadian woman namedEnheduanna, who wrote in the 23rd century BCE.[177]Ghosha, an Indian composer of hymns in theRigveda, was active around 1500-900 BCE.[178] The first recorded female Chinese poet wasDuchess Mu of Xu, who wrote in the 7th century BCE.[179] TheTale of Genji, one of the earliest novel-like works and sometimes called "the first novel", was written by the JapaneseMurasaki Shikibu in the 11th century CE.[180]
In Western society, writing was generally considered acceptable for upper-class women. However, achieving success as a female writer in a male-dominated world could be very difficult; as a result, some women writers adopted male pen names (e.g.George Sand,George Eliot,Currer Bell,Ellis Bell,Acton Bell, andVernon Lee).[181] This has continued into more modern times, with 20th-century writers such asAndre Norton andJames Tiptree Jr[182] adopting male pseudonyms, and some authors such asJ.K. Rowling[183] andHarper Lee adopting purposefully unisex pen names.
Women comprise a significant proportion of instrumental soloists in classical music and the percentage of women in orchestras is increasing. A 2015 article on concerto soloists in major Canadian orchestras, however, indicated that 84% of the soloists with theMontreal Symphony Orchestra were men. In 2012, women still made up just 6% of the top-rankedVienna Philharmonic orchestra. Women are less common as instrumental players in popular music genres such as rock andheavy metal, although there have been a number of notable female instrumentalists andall-female bands. Women are particularly underrepresented inextreme metal genres.[184] Women are also underrepresented in orchestral conducting, music criticism/music journalism,music producing, andsound engineering. While women were discouraged from composing in the 19th century, and there are few womenmusicologists, women became involved inmusic education "... to such a degree that women dominated [this field] during the later half of the 19th century and well into the 20th century."[185]
According toJessica Duchen, a music writer for London'sThe Independent, women musicians in classical music are "... too often judged for their appearances, rather than their talent" and they face pressure "... to look sexy onstage and in photos."[186] Duchen states that while "[t]here are women musicians who refuse to play on their looks, ... the ones who do tend to be more materially successful."[186]
According to the UK's Radio 3 editor, Edwina Wolstencroft, the classical music industry has long been open to having women in performance or entertainment roles, but women are much less likely to have positions of authority, such as being theleader of an orchestra.[187] In popular music, while there are many women singers recording songs, there are very few women behind theaudio console acting as music producers, the individuals who direct and manage the recording process.[188]
^Female may refer to sex orgender.[1] The pluralwomen is sometimes used in certain phrases such aswomen's rights to denote female humans regardless of age.
^"wīfmann": Bosworth & Toller,Anglo-Saxon Dictionary (Oxford, 1898–1921) p. 1219. The spelling "wifman" also occurs: C.T. Onions,Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology (Oxford, 1966) p. 1011
^Webster's New World Dictionary, Second College Edition, entry for "woman".
^Stanton, Elizabeth Cady (2002). "The Book of Genesis, Chapter II".The Woman's Bible: A Classic Feminist Perspective. Mineola, New York:Dover Publications. pp. 21–22.ISBN978-0486424910.Next comes the naming of the mother of the race. "She shall be called Woman", in the ancient form of the word Womb-man. She was man and more than man because of her maternity. (Originally published in two volumes, 1895 and 1898, by The European Publishing Company.)
^Used in Middle English from c. 1300, meaning 'a child of either sex, a young person'. Its derivation is uncertain, perhaps from an Old English word which has not survived: another theory is that it developed from Old English 'gyrela', meaning 'dress, apparel': or was a diminutive form of a borrowing from another West Germanic Language. (Middle Low German has Gör, Göre, meaning 'girl or small child'.) "girl, n.". OED Online. September 2013. Oxford University Press. 13 September 2013
^By late 14th century a distinction was arising between female children, often called 'gay girls' – and male, or 'knave girls' -: a1375 William of Palerne (1867) l. 816 ' Whan þe gaye gerles were in-to þe gardin come, Faire floures þei founde.' ('When the gay girls came into the garden, Fair flowers they found.') By the 16th century, the unsupported word had begun to mean specifically a female: 1546 J. Heywood Dialogue Prouerbes Eng. Tongue i. x. sig. D, 'The boy thy husbande, and thou the gyrle his wyfe.' The usage meaning 'child of either sex' survived much longer inIrish English. "girl, n.". OED Online. September 2013. Oxford University Press. 13 September 2013
^Poeschl, Gabrielle (7 June 2021). "A hundred years of debates on sex differences: Developing research for social change".Journal of Social and Political Psychology.9 (1):221–235.doi:10.5964/jspp.6399.hdl:10216/134531.
^Haig, David (April 2004). "The inexorable rise of gender and the decline of sex: social change in academic titles, 1945-2001".Archives of Sexual Behavior.33 (2):87–96.doi:10.1023/b:aseb.0000014323.56281.0d.PMID15146141.
^"age of majority".LII / Legal Information Institute. Retrieved20 December 2023.
^abInstitute of Medicine (US) Committee on Understanding the Biology of Sex and Gender Differences; Wizemann, Theresa M.; Pardue, Mary-Lou (2001)."Sex Begins in the Womb".Exploring the Biological Contributions to Human Health. National Academies Press (US).doi:10.17226/10028.ISBN978-0-309-07281-6.PMID25057540.All human individuals – whether they have an XX, an XY, or an atypical sex chromosome combination – begin development from the same starting point. During early development the gonads of the fetus remain undifferentiated; that is, all fetal genitalia are the same and are phenotypically female. After approximately 6 to 7 weeks of gestation, however, the expression of a gene on the Y chromosome induces changes that result in the development of the testes.
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^"Menopause: Overview". Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. 28 June 2013.Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved8 March 2015.
^Oftedal, Olav T. (2002). "The mammary gland and its origin during synapsid evolution".Journal of Mammary Gland Biology and Neoplasia.7 (3):225–252.doi:10.1023/a:1022896515287.PMID12751889.
^Callens, N; Van Kuyk, M; van Kuppenveld, JH; Drop, SLS; Cohen-Kettenis, PT; Dessens, AB; Dutch Study Group on, DSD (November 2016). "Recalled and current gender role behavior, gender identity and sexual orientation in adults with Disorders/Differences of Sex Development".Hormones and Behavior.86:8–20.doi:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2016.08.008.PMID27576114.
^Dreger, Alice D.; Herndon, April M. (2009). "Progress and Politics in the Intersex Rights Movement: Feminist Theory in Action".GLQ.15 (2):199–224.doi:10.1215/10642684-2008-134.Project MUSE261479.
^Furtado, Paulo Sampaio; Moraes, Felipe; Lago, Renata; Barros, Luciana Oliveira; Toralles, Maria Betânia; Barroso, Ubirajara (November 2012). "Gender dysphoria associated with disorders of sex development".Nature Reviews Urology.9 (11):620–627.doi:10.1038/nrurol.2012.182.PMID23045263.
^Hines, Melissa; Ahmed, S. Faisal; Hughes, Ieuan A. (2003). "Psychological Outcomes and Gender-Related Development in Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome".Archives of Sexual Behavior.32 (2):93–101.doi:10.1023/A:1022492106974.PMID12710824.
^Cohen-Kettenis, PT (August 2005). "Gender change in 46,XY persons with 5alpha-reductase-2 deficiency and 17beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase-3 deficiency".Archives of Sexual Behavior.34 (4):399–410.doi:10.1007/s10508-005-4339-4.PMID16010463.
^Manifestations of Venus: art and sexuality pg 93 By Katie Scott, Caroline Arscott pg 93-"...began its consideration of Venus by describing her as .... who presided over all feminine charms, for..."
^The Pacific muse pg 49 By Patty O'Brien "The young beautiful Venus wringing water from her tresses was a configuration of exotic femininity that was…
^Kevin L. Nadal,The Sage Encyclopedia of Psychology and Gender (2017,ISBN978-1-4833-8427-6), p. 401: "Most cultures currently construct their societies based on the understanding of gender binary—the two gender categorizations (male and female). Such societies divide their population based on biological sex assigned to individuals at birth to begin the process of gender socialization."
^Moscucci, Ornella (2005).The science of woman: gynaecology and gender in England 1800 – 1929. Cambridge history of medicine (1. paberpack ed., transf. to digital print ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.ISBN978-0-521-44795-9.
^Corso, G.; Gandini, S.; d'Ecclesiis, O.; Mazza, M.; Magnoni, F.; Veronesi, P.; Galimberti, V.; La Vecchia, C. (2023). "Risk and incidence of breast cancer in transgender individuals: a systematic review and meta-analysis".European Journal of Cancer Prevention.32 (3):207–214.doi:10.1097/CEJ.0000000000000784.PMID36789830.
^Peccei, Jocelyn Scott (2001). "Menopause: Adaptation or epiphenomenon?".Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews.10 (2):43–57.doi:10.1002/evan.1013.
^Directive 2002/73/EC – equal treatment of 23 September 2002 amending Council Directive 76/207/EEC on the implementation of the principle of equal treatment for men and women as regards access to employment, vocational training and promotion, and working conditions[1]
^In 2006, the UN Secretary-General'sIn-depth study on all forms of violence against women found that (p. 113): "Marital rape may be prosecuted in at least 104 States. Of these, 32 have made marital rape a specific criminal offence, while the remaining 74 do not exempt marital rape from general rape provisions. Marital rape is not a prosecutable offence in at least 53 States. Four States criminalize marital rape only when the spouses are judicially separated. Four States are considering legislation that would allow marital rape to be prosecuted."[2]
^InEngland and Wales, marital rape was made illegal in 1991. The views of Sir Matthew Hale, a 17th-century jurist, published inThe History of the Pleas of the Crown (1736), stated that a husband cannot be guilty of the rape of his wife because the wife "hath given up herself in this kind to her husband, which she cannot retract"; in England and Wales this would remain law for more than 250 years, until it was abolished by theAppellate Committee of the House of Lords,in the case ofR v R in 1991.
^For example, inYemen, marriage regulations state that a wife must obey her husband and must not leave home without his permission.[3] InIraq husbands have a legal right to "punish" their wives. The criminal code states at Paragraph 41 that there is no crime if an act is committed while exercising a legal right; examples of legal rights include: "The punishment of a wife by her husband, the disciplining by parents and teachers of children under their authority within certain limits prescribed by law or by custom"."The Penal Code – With Amendments"(PDF). Iraqi Ministry of Justice. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 21 October 2012. Retrieved21 October 2012. In theDemocratic Republic of Congo the Family Code states that the husband is the head of the household; the wife owes her obedience to her husband; a wife has to live with her husband wherever he chooses to live; and wives must have their husbands' authorization to bring a case in court or to initiate other legal proceedings.[4]
^Brainard, Suzanne G.; Carlin, Linda (October 1998). "A Six-Year Longitudinal Study of Undergraduate Women in Engineering and Science".Journal of Engineering Education.87 (4):369–375.doi:10.1002/j.2168-9830.1998.tb00367.x.ProQuest217940422.
^Jung, Daun (December 2017). "Critical Names Matter: 'Currer Bell,' 'George Eliot,' and 'Mrs. Gaskell'".Victorian Literature and Culture.45 (4):763–781.doi:10.1017/S1060150317000201.
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