The traditional meaning of the concept of woman refers to a member of the female sex.
From the Latin mulĭer , a woman is a person of the female sex . It is a term that is used in contrast to man or male , concepts that name male human beings.
The most specific use of the word woman is linked to the female person who has already reached puberty or adulthood. Therefore, the girl becomes a woman, according to cultural parameters, from her first menstruation.
Changes in the social role of women
The social role of women has changed throughout history . For centuries, society considered that women should limit themselves to fulfilling their roles as wife and mother. Over time, women began to occupy more relevant social roles in different functions, both in the world of work and in politics.
Nowadays, it is common to find women serving as president of a country (as happened with Michelle Bachelet in Chile and Cristina Fernández in Argentina ) or directing large companies (like Carol Bartz at Yahoo! ).
Pregnancy is a process that only people who, according to biology, were born as women can go through.
A commemoration that grows every year
It should be noted that International Women's Day is celebrated on March 8. It is intended to commemorate the struggle that women have maintained throughout the world for centuries to achieve equality with men. Thus, since 1911 this special day has been celebrated, which serves especially to remember women who died working.
Specifically, it involves the death of a total of 126 women, between 48 and 14 years old, as a result of the fire that broke out in the Triangle Shirtwaist shirt factory (New York) where they worked. And they died because the owners had closed each and every one of the doors of the industry as a result of the movements they had led to demand decent treatment.
Gender equality, however, has not yet been fully achieved. It is common for a man to receive higher remuneration than a woman for a job with identical responsibilities, for example.
Women and feminism
Feminism is the ideological current that fights for equal opportunities and opposes machismo . Certain social practices and customs, however, are still maintained: when a woman marries, she becomes "the wife" of the man in question. On the other hand, the husband is not named as "the man" of the wife.
There are different expressions and terms that are part of our colloquial language and that are used to refer to various types of women. Thus, for example, it is common to hear the term femme fatale . This is used to refer to those women who have great physical attractiveness and a sexual power that drives men crazy, who by falling in love with them suffer unfortunate consequences.
In the same way, it is also common to talk about the object woman . In this case, it is used to mention all those women who are only valued for their physical beauty, for their attractiveness, and not for the rest of the qualities they may have.