What is a Woman?

The question "what is a woman" is tossed around by mostly right wing pundits as a sort of gotcha question.

The question "what is a woman" looks for a simple answer to what can be a complex situation. 

Let's start by asking if someone is talking about sex or gender when they ask the question? Sex and gender, despite many people using the terms interchangeably, are actually two different things. Sex is based upon physical characteristics such as chromosomes and genitalia. Gender defines the behavior and attitudes that society associates with a given sex.

The thing with gender is that it can vary from society to society and over time in any given society. Neither my mother nor my mother-in-law ever learned how to drive because that wasn't something that women did in their generation.

When people deviate from gender expectations we call that "gender non-conformity." Gender is something of a spectrum with man on one end, woman on the other end, and varying degrees of gender non-conformity in between. I suppose a "woman" on the gender spectrum would be someone who mostly exhibits behaviors and attitudes that society associates with the female sex.

A good example would be the fictional character Albert Goldman played by Nathan Hale in the movie "The Birdcage." Albert is a physical male but acts like the caricature of a female.

If the question refers to sex and not gender then I would say that it perhaps should be phrased as "what is a female" instead but let's go with "what is a woman" in reference to sex.

I can give an example. My wife is a woman but not every woman is my wife. I could say that a woman is someone with no Y chromosome but then where do people with Swyer Syndrome fit in?

Someone with Swyer syndrome has XY chromosomes but underdeveloped female sex organs. They don't produce ova but, if the uterus is reasonably developed, some can become pregnant with a donated egg or embryo and give birth.

I could say that a woman is someone with female genitalia but there are females with ambiguous or abnormal genitalia but they're still women. Some can even possibly become pregnant and give birth with donated eggs or embryos like those with Swyer Syndrome can.

You can't say that a woman is someone who can get pregnant and give birth because many women, due to age or physical issues, can't do that.

The problem really becomes that for any definition exceptions can be found. So the question doesn't have a simple answer.