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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.
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 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 suffer having an abnormal hormone or chromosomal difference (such as congenital adrenal hyperplasia), or some women
can be born intersexed and either have had their sex assigned at birth or sought to
reassign their sex later in their lives. (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 questioned 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.
Outside the workplace, 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.
See also
External links
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