Woman

A woman is an adult female human being, as contrasted to an adult male, which is a man. The term woman (irregular plural: women) is used to indicate biological sex distinctions, cultural gender role distinctions, or both.

Womanhood is the period in a female's life after she has transitioned from a girl.

A girl is a female human child, as contrasted to an male child, which is a boy. The term girl is used to indicate biological sex distinctions, cultural gender role distinctions, or both.

After they mature, they become known as a woman with various colloquial exceptions, for example the word is also commonly used when discussing adult females in relationships, such as in the word girlfriend.

Sex

In terms of sex, women have various sexual characteristics that differentiate them from men. In women, the sex organs are involved in the reproductive system, whereas the secondary sex characteristics are involved in attracting a mate or nurturing children.

Although fewer females than males are born (the ratio is around 1:1.05), women make up the majority of the adult population. This is because males of all ages have a slightly higher death rate (even in the womb) and women live, on average, five years longer than men. This is thought to be a result of a combination of factors: genetics (redundant and varied genes present on sex chromosomes in women); sociology (such as military service); health-impacting choices (such as use of cigarettes and alcohol); the presence of the female hormone estrogen, which has a cardioprotective effect in premenopausal women, and the effect of high levels of androgens in men.

After the onset of menarche, most women are able to become pregnant and bear children. The study of female reproduction and reproductive organs is called gynecology. Women generally reach menopause in their late 40s or early 50s, at which point they can no longer become pregnant.

In general, women suffer from the same illnesses as men; however there are some sex-related illnesses that are found more commonly or exclusively in women.

Biological factors are usually not the sole determinants of whether a person considers themselves as man or is considered a woman or not, for example, it is estimated that one in 30,000 people are women who have been born without a typical female physiology (that is, they are transgendered or transsexual women), or some women can have an abnormal hormone or chromosomal difference (such as congenital adrenal hyperplasia), or another intersex condition; some of those intersex people who have had a male sex assigned at birth sought to reassign their sex later in their lives (or vice versa). (See gender identity)

Gender roles

Main article: gender role

Gender roles of women have changed greatly in history. Traditional gender roles for women would involve work tasks that are centered around home maintenance, a central role in caring for a family, and did not involve entering employment for an independent salary. Later, throughout the general feminist movement, these gender roles changed. These changes include many women were able to choose between this traditional, so called "homemaker" role in certain countries, or could enter into employment for an independent salary; labour related to home and family was divided amongst both adults in the home.

Study including the gender roles of women, and how they have changed over history, and the feminism movement is often termed "women's studies".

Terms for women

While the usual definition of the word girl is "female child", girl is also often used to refer to a young or unmarried woman. Since the early 1970s such usage has been challenged by feminists. Today, using the word in the workplace (as in office girl) is typically considered inappropriate in the United States because it implies a view of woman as infantile but remains commonplace in several other English-speaking countries.

Conversely, in certain non-Western cultures, the word girl is still generally used to refer to a never-married woman in English; in this sense it is used in a fashion roughly analogous to the obsolete English maid or maiden. Referring to an unmarried female as woman can, in such a culture, imply that she is sexually experienced, which would be considered insulting.

In more colloquial settings, the use of girl to refer to an adult female is also common practice in certain usage (such as girls' night out). In this sense, girl may be considered to be the analogue to guy or bloke for a man (the latter being rare in U.S. English). Usages that are non-parallel, such as men and girls, are regarded by many as sexist.

In the popular culture of the 20th and 21st century, several unofficial slang terms have appeared in the English language to describe women. Most such terms are intended in a negative light. The most common and recognizable are as follows:

• Bitch: used to describe a hateful and vindictive woman
• Ho: A shortening of the word whore, indicated a promiscuous woman
• Fox: An extremely attractive woman
• chicken, used to describe all women
• Burger: A term invented on The Cosby Show intended to describe the degree to which a woman is attractive
• Husnock: A science fiction term which, when applied to women, indicates an extremely hateful and spiteful woman
• Sister: A term which women, most often in the African American community, use when addressing each other. The same term is also used within some strands of feminism, and also in the transsexual community in referring to other transsexual women.
• Famous women in history
• Female roles in the world wars
• Gender and sexuality studies
• Girl Scouts of America
• Heroines in literature
• List of women poets
• Matriarchy
• Misogyny
• New Woman
• Nü shu, the women-only language
• Obstetrics
• Olympic medalists in athletics (women)
• Role of women in Judaism
• Taliban treatment of women
• White slave trade
• Women in science fiction
• Women science fiction authors