Male word for woman is man. They are both gender and their characteristics change all the time.
Which of course they are not, because a woman is an adult human female.
Both the genders, woman and man are assigned to describe the male and female humans and the characteristics change. Breast are female and we associate it with woman. Penis is male but we can associate with man. You can also, have females born without breast because of medical condition.
Deciding that there is a philosophical significance regarding what is a woman is a political decision. Why is this a philosophical issue? there is a philosophical issue, not just with woman but with both man and woman. It's what we assign to what is woman and man. They are societal influences rather than something you cannot change. So when men where wearing high heels when men did. It would have been considered a mans foot wear but now we associate it with women.
Social construct in regards to this thread. it's what we as society ( people living together) agree upon as what is the norm ( what we deem normal ).
It is those things that are not innate or inbuilt in us as humans (in simple terms, they are relative = it changes with time, place and groups ie society) Every each society will have what they see as a things that makes you a man or woman. These may include things like circumcisions (it also includes FGM) both for both sexes. Those who mark milestones for adulthood, have criteria that you have to pass before you are considered a woman or man. Those who do not are either ostracised or not seen as woman enough or man enough. ( sometimes people ask men to man up because we are asking them to live up to a standard of what it is to be man. That is why the phrase is sexist). If woman or man was concrete and not abstract the same way sex is, they would not need social milestones as a way to indicate who we are.
It matters what the word means because particular physical things happen to members of the group called women - forced birthing, fgm etc and because so many women hate their own physical bodies.
That is why feminist who fight for the female sex believe that that the characterisation of what woman is or man hold stereotypes ( over simplified image of the sexes in form of gender) of what we are meant to be, do and like.
If we were not conditioned ( brain trained to think in a certain way from the moment are born) we would have less patriarchal dominance (a system where men rule ).
People who don't understand this should ask themselves why there are so any comments on Mn about why they don't want their little girl wearing pink, comments about the colour of bedrooms, toys and subjects in schools, maths. This would not be an issue if it wasn't an issue in the first place. They are things that hold women back.
They stunt the growth of women when society behaves in a sexist way. The problem here is that there is already a perception of gender of the sexes. women and men are in box with ascribed rules of behaviour, conduct and Aspirations.
By changing what constitutes women or men and believing that all women can achieve what men can and men being what they want (including not having guilt that they have to be the bread winner or act macho ) by definition you are making this gender fluid. The boundaries for things such, girls don't like maths, boys are good at science, becomes pointless because we would all be achieve the same standard. Everyone would be encouraged and developed to the same standard. When people say that vagina is part of what it is being a woman, I would say that it's not but its part of being a human female. When you get your menstruation it's because you are biologically human female and not just because you are a woman or man. Menstruation is not ascribed by society. It is a natural occurrence of the human female body while liking a doll by a young girl is social condition by us for them to be naturing to prepare them for womanhood where the female can give birth and raise future children to serve the male dominated society.