What makes a woman a woman?

Obviously ladies are fragile, demure, hesitant, shy, dainty, mysterious, changeable, and our brains are like pancakes.

Men like to spit and they have waffle brains.

If you have a Y chromosome, you are male. If you do not have a Y chromosome, you are female.

Gender stereotypes should be shot down in flames where they belong. I have daughters under 12, worked very hard to make sure they knew they could wear any colour, play any game, use any toy. These things don't belong to males or females. Along comes the trans movement, and suddenly if you don't subscribe to extreme versions of gender stereotypes, you're transphobic.

I am not phobic of trans people. I AM phobic of spiders.
Happy for trans people to do their thing, but not at the cost of women/girls and they should play sport according to their sex. Not how they like to dress and whether they like to wear make up or not.

Males should not be given access to female spaces, jobs, awards, sports teams, etc etc. The males who don't want to be "masculine" can force other men to accept that this is also male. Not force women to accept them in their spaces.

I dont believe that gender roles sterotypes can erase biology. Some do

Biology is one level, and the only level of chromosomal expression of large/small gamete producers.

Socialisation (gender) is a different level and does not impactnupon biology, its only about societal expectations (historically harmful to women) and stereotypical roles.

And excuse me, but wtf is Barbie doing being acticely promoted again. All thats wrong with the worst of female gender role stereotyping.

Nothing we can do about sex, apart from try to alter physical appearance through harmful means

So so much we can do about harmful gender stereotypes which seem to have become so fixed in some peoples minds, with worsening outcomes.

Why can't society finally come to grips with the end of gender sterotypical roles, expectations, and expression of sex.

Wear what you want, be who you want, and remove pressures to conform to a label.

Me wearing a hard hat, boots, driving a jcb, running the country, short hair, shooting, etc, all old gender sterotypes don't make me a man, equally heels and lippy doesn't make me a woman.

Regardless of what I wear, or my choice of profession, clothing and appearance, I am still a woman. If I were to prefer jeans to mini skirts and high heels, Im still a woman, even if I didn't paint my nails

I still have ovaries and all thats encumbant with that, and I'm still xx.

One can't conflate biology with social constructs, one has arisen from the other, i.e. discrete entities

One is based in scientific evidence the other in social interaction.

One is fixed, immutable. The other eminently subjective and flexible, and extremely harmful, based on evidence of actual deaths, severe harm and discrimination to date for women.

Biology is what makes a woman a woman and a man a man.

Sex and gender used to be used interchangeably which is why they meant the same thing to you growing up. But languages evolve and current usage gives those two words different meanings

World Health Organisation Glossary:

Sex

The different biological and physiological characteristics of males and females, such as reproductive organs, chromosomes, hormones, etc.

Gender

Refers to the socially constructed characteristics of women and men – such as norms, roles and relationships of and between groups of women and men. It varies from society to society and can be changed. The concept of gender includes five important elements: relational, hierarchical, historical, contextual and institutional. While most people are born either male or female, they are taught appropriate norms and behaviours – including how they should interact with others of the same or opposite sex within households, communities and work places. When individuals or groups do not “fit” established gender norms they often face stigma, discriminatory practices or social exclusion – all of which adversely affect health.

If you have XX chromosomes, you're a woman.

What else makes us women? Constantly having to be aware of our surroundings and evaluating whether anybody nearby could be about to rape or assault you. Being ignored when you contribute an idea in a group, only for a man to say the same thing a bit louder right after and receive hearty approval. Learning how to manage regularly bleeding out of your vagina, probably when you're still just a child. Being called a "slag" if you dress to accentuate your body, being seen as frigid or frumpy if you don't. Having your boobs grabbed or bra undone at school because "boys will be boys". Feeling like a buxom fertility goddess around ovulation, raging through PMS and crippled by pain during your period. Having to "just get on with it" through debilitating menopause symptoms while the world carries on. Being discriminated against by employers because you're a woman of childbearing age, even if you can't or won't have children. Growing life inside your body and feeling your baby move. The message that we should just accept birth injuries as natural and how selfish of you to complain, you got your baby out of it, didn't you? Being patronised by men who don't have half of your experience or understanding. "She's in a bad mood, must be the time of the month". All the unseen home and family work that goes unseen and unappreciated. And so much more.

Not all women experience all of the above, but we share most of it and can understand the other bits we haven't been through. How can these "trans women" even begin to understand the female experience?

I think gender is used in popular discussion as a synonym for 'sex' - however, in biology it is always sex. We don't talk about 'gender chromosomes', do we?

I think it's useful to distinguish between biological sex (XX or XY) which is written at the cellular level and not changeable by any medical treatment; and gender, which captures society's expectations of masculine and feminine eg clothing, voice, pronouns etc. I would argue most gender stereotypes are culturally imposed and self-reinforcing - and have nothing to do with biological sex. If I never wore a dress, or make-up, or shaved my body hair, if I sat with my legs spread wide open on the Tube, wore aftershave rather than perfume, it wouldn't make me one iota less female. Every cell of my body confirms it. But I would stand out in society and probably be labelled as 'masculine' or more PC 'gender non-conforming'. Frankly, the sooner we ditch all gender stereotypes and just let people wear, look and behave how they want to regardless of sex, the better for everyone.

I'm not sure how old you are FierceMamaBear but to mid 40s me the word gender is a prudish, Americanised modern imposition. When I was growing up everyone spoke only about sex, sexism, sexist stereotypes. Gender was only really used to refer to masculine and feminine nouns in gendered languages.

do you think we are still entertaining this question because a whole generation of 'educated' young people don't read books ( except for their university reading list), and therefore haven't read the classic texts from the various liberation movements of the past?

I'm not sure if it is a lack of reading as such but there does seem to be a disconnect between the current 'trans movement' and past liberation movements where fighting for your rights, or even supporting those fighting for their rights, came at real, material cost.

By contrast what is going on today all looks a bit of a lark. Well to do, well educated people 'enjoying' a spot of 'campaigning' in the manner they might enjoy a music festival. No threat of arrest, of losing their jobs, of being ostracised by their families.

do you think we are still entertaining this question because a whole generation of 'educated' young people don't read books ( except for their university reading list), and therefore haven't read the classic texts from the various liberation movements of the past? And instead have been exposed only to post modernism and queer studies at university - particularly in certain arts/humanities degrees?

It always strikes me as an incredibly regressive movement, whilst positioning itself as somehow innovative and revolutionary.

Gender is surely what you are born with, and gender stereotypes is what's subjective and toxic?

Sex is what you’re born with. Gender is all the nonsense society piles on top of it.

Mammals cannot change sex.

That's an excellent point, for when people talk about clownfish.

the mum kept saying no that's for boys no that's for boys

Then, when the child thinks "I must be a boy, then, because I like x,y,z" and says that to her parent - everyone declares "he told us from such a young age - it's obviously the truth".

I hate gender stereotypes and believe they restrict men and women and society.
Biology is factual not cultural and biology makes a female adult not culture.
I believe every cell of the human body has dna in it along with chromosomes which tell whether someone is female or male. I feel scared by the new attitude that everyone must treat a transgender person as factually being of the opposite sex. I think it's a symptom of our over-genderrred society where every teenage girl must join a cult obsessed with so called girly things, appearance etc to be a girl. No! And teen boys must be tough , macho and not have any traits considered as female.
I have total sympathy for anyone who feels trans and feel they need support kindness and to be freed from stereotypes.
To be told they can dress, act and do absolutely ANYTHING
they want in a free society. We are all individuals. Complex. Not in crazy old restrictive gender categories.
Wearing make up, preferring long hair and fashion does not make you a woman.

A healthy human body is a beautiful thing, so precious .
Anyone can live in any way they choose, but every cell of a human is either female or male.
Except blood cells with no nucleus or DNA, I believe. And also eggs and sperm I think have half the DNA chromosomes.
Sorry for long post . But I believe if we were all more science-literate then being born in the wrong body would be seen as a feeling caused by society and not real.

www.quora.com/Are-sex-chromosomes-present-in-every-cell-in-human-body

My brain waves don't match my body. That makes me an epileptic. Its got sod all to do with my sex.

Biology

Everything else is how your raised

Eg, girl in a shop yesterday kept choosing a boy comic book the mum kept saying no that's for boys no that's for boys she was dressed in pink and a pink tutu

Woman is the word used to describe females of the human species who have reached adulthood.

Just like mare is the word used to describe females of the horse species who have reached adulthood.

Like horses humans are mammals. Mammals cannot change sex.

No horse born male will ever be a mare. No human born male will ever be a women.

The word for horses born male who reach adulthood is stallion. Unless they are castrated when we call them geldings.

The word for humans born male who reach adulthood is man. Unless they are castrated in when we call them eunuchs or castrati depending on the cultural reasons behind the castration.

The biological sex class is what defines someone as woman or man.

Unlike some here I think gender is an inevitable result of having two sex classes in a social species with culture and politics, and so also some sense of what is masculine or feminine may go along with that almost inevitably. But that isn't what makes you a man or woman, that's an ass-backward analysis.

This is exactly my perspective as well.