Is woman a gender?

[Everythingtastesbetterwithcheese]

Ive been having a "discussion" with someone on social media, who claims that the word "woman" is just a social construct and describes someone's gender which means it can be used to describe anyone who identifies as one as gender is just how someone feels . The scientific word is female. Im quite confused now. I asked him what the word for a group of adult human females that didnt include adult human males was, and his reply was ciswomen. Can someone explain this to me? Is "woman" a gender?

In addition ot all of the above - and particularly

People who come out with this tosh are time wasting grievance gerbils and you should not waste your time debating with their nonsense.

• they are different parts of speech. Woman is a noun, female is an adjective.

They should master KS1 SPAG before they attempt biology.

For many years most people quite happily used the words woman and female interchangeably. Also, the words sex and gender were often used when the other would have worked just as well. Problem now is that some people want to use the word woman to include males - thus we find ourselves having difficulty describing the group of people who are female.

(Wheras clearly what I need to work on is MN formatting - there should be a dash, not a bullet, in the above.)

I LOVE “time wasting grievance gerbils” and will be using this from now on 😂

OP's question goes straight to the point of the entire transgender debate but looking at definitions:

Is a woman an adult biological female or can a woman be a biological male who in their own opinion has feminine traits?

Now many years ago a woman was mostly seen as the same thing as an adult female. And a man was seen as the same thing as an adult male. A male with feminine traits or identity would have been described as effeminate and a female with masculine traits or identity would have been described as a tomboy.

However today there is no universal acceptance on the definitions of the terms woman and man.

Or more simply put a sentenced criminal biological male who identified as a woman could argue that they should be sent to a " Woman's Prison" but they could not and should ask be sent to a "Female Prison ".

I am not recommending this but the whole transgender debate could be cleared up immediately if the words woman and man were abolished and replaced with female and male.

but the whole transgender debate could be cleared up immediately if the words woman and man were abolished and replaced with female and male.

Wouldn't help at all. Apart from being a grammatical nonsense - as above - there are plenty of TRAs claiming 'female' as well as 'woman'.

What is your definition of "woman", please? To identify as something, you have to know what it is you're aligning yourself with.

And people who call women 'females' as a noun tend to be either red-pill incels or chronic overusers of reflexive pronouns.

Here’s my understanding of how woman and man work under the sex and gender definition. I can see how the sex definition works, but I’ve yet to be given any clear definition of how the gender version is grouped, or why it is useful. I think a graphic representation is pretty useful.

Um, no it wouldn’t but there are plenty of males who now claim to be female too. You have to understand that when they say TWAW they mean it absolutely literally, and not just as a social identity. Because they mean TWAW literally, and because women are female, therefore they ( males who identify as women) are also female, and their bodies and penises are female bodies and penises. That’s how the thinking works. That’s why they think there is nothing wrong with males in female sports, or prisons, or changing rooms, or survivors of male violence services.

And no, female does not accurately describe women. Female ( and male) refer to the reproductive status of any species ( even plants). For animal species we also have words to describe the male and female of that species. We have these words as they are crucially useful for meaningful communication of an important difference. Are you really saying that human females are the only species not deserving of a word to describe the females of their species? Why would you think that’s the case? Do you really think it’s progress to have to refer to ‘adult females’ and ‘juvenile females’. Do you really think that will aid Plain English and clear communication, including to people for whom English is a second language and those with learning disabilities?

@HarpyValley I thought I had been clear. There are two sexes, male and female. Identified at birth and differentiated by chromosomes. Anyone with an XY chromosome is female. Most females identify as women. Some females identify as men. Similarly anyone with XX is male. Most males identify as men but some identify as women.

Then there is sexual orientation which includes straight, gay, bi, pan.

It's all been around since the dawn of time. Some of us are liberal in our views, others are fundamentalist.

What seems to be a shame is that the majority has been swept away. This manifests in things like chest feeding leaflets and rainbow crossings. It's a shame because if everyone were treated with dignity, so many more people would be happier or satisfied.

There's also a load of them who insist that no-one ever claims to have changed sex. Seems they haven't been updated with the latest talking points, they don't even know what they're defending!

This is the part that's not clear, @SpringNotSprung

Most females identify as women. Some females identify as men. [...] Most males identify as men but some identify as women.

What does 'identify as a man/woman' mean?

Sex is what a person is: XX male, XY female.
Gender is what a person identifies as

This is a new definition of 'gender'.

Sex is biology - male or female.
Gender (masculine or feminine) is the role that we are expected to play, based on our sex. Gender rules change across cultures and throughout time; the only constant is that most societies have gender roles, and that women are punished for breaking them.

@BinturongsSmellOfPopcorn may I gently suggest you look up the word identify in the Oxford English Dictionary, if you don't know what it means.

Dictionary says female is an adjective or a noun

Ask the "time wasting grievance gerbil" (my thanks @AlisonDonut for such an excellent description) what they mean by 'gender' and how they would recognise 'woman gender'.

They will then come out with a load of stereotype waffle. This will make their day, as I am sure they love the sound of their own voice.

@SpringNotSprung no I'm afraid you haven't been clear. You define sex as XY or XX, male or female - fine. But you have not defined "woman". You can't jump from your definition of sex to "most females identify as a woman" without explaining, clearly and without any circular definitions, what this entity you call "woman" is that apparently "most females identify as".

That is a good question and i did ask him that. His reply was, strangers, people , whatever, a greu, whatever that means. I also said said we have a word for a collective of female dogs which is bitch which definitely isnt a social construct, but his reply was thats not scientific. I feel a lot better knowing im not wrong and that i didnt miss something where it all changed.

Women is a sex category that biological females of the species belong to.

You have your XX and XY the wrong way around.

XX is female and XY is male.

Most females " identify " as women because they think women means adult human female - shorthand speak if you like

If you decide it doesn't mean that you can't go around saying women identify as women when they don't mean what you mean

They would like to know what it does mean before applying your label to themselves

I don't understand what isn't scientific about having a word for a thing that exists. Female dogs...exist.

No.

Frost gender is a thing.
Goliath gender is a thing.
Pangender is a thing.

And on. And on.

Woman is an adult human female, not a chosen avatar.

That last sentence, wouldn't it go down well? Isn't that what it is? Or is it the sex they believe they are, whatever evidence to the contrary?