womanism, feminist intellectual framework that focuses on the conditions and concerns of women of color, especially Black women. Womanists work to address injustices that have not been generally recognized within mainstream feminism. The term womanist was coined by the American author Alice Walker

uterus, an inverted pear-shaped muscular organ of the female reproductive system, located between the bladder and the rectum. It functions to nourish and house a fertilized egg until the fetus, or offspring, is ready to be delivered. The uterus has four major regions: the fundus is the broad curved

Karen Horney: She introduced the concept of womb envy, suggesting that male envy of pregnancy, nursing, and motherhood—of women’s primary role in creating and sustaining life—led men to claim their superiority in other fields.

wombat, (family Vombatidae), any of three large terrestrial species of Australian marsupials. Like woodchucks, wombats are heavily built and virtually tailless burrowers with small eyes and short ears. Wombats, however, are larger, measuring 80 to 120 cm (31 to 47 inches) long. Chiefly nocturnal

Gender Issues in Malawi: Women, many of whom not only raised children but also tended food crops to support their families—in some cases without the assistance of their husbands—often bore the greater burden. The situation began to change slowly after independence, as even the conservative Pres. Hastings Kamuzu Banda…

WAVES, military unit, established on July 30, 1942, as the U.S. Navy’s corps of female members. During World War II some 100,000 WAVES served in a wide variety of capacities, ranging from performing essential clerical duties to serving as instructors for male pilots-in-training. Initially, they did

Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP), U.S. Army Air Forces program that tasked some 1,100 civilian women with noncombat military flight duties during World War II. The Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) were the first women to fly U.S. military aircraft. WASP had its origins with a pair of

Eddie Van Halen: Career with Van Halen: …on to release the albums Women and Children First (1980), Fair Warning (1981), and Diver Down (1982), the last of which includes the track “Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now),” a jazzy single that showcases Jan Van Halen on clarinet.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman: In 1898 Perkins published Women and Economics, a manifesto that attracted great attention and was translated into seven languages. In a radical call for economic independence for women, she dissected with keen intelligence much of the romanticized convention surrounding contemporary ideas of womanhood and motherhood. Her notions of redefining…

Alison Lurie: A collection of ghost stories, Women and Ghosts, was published in 1994. The Last Resort (1998) follows a naturalist writer and his wife on a trip to Key West, where they encounter human vanity and sexual desires. Truth and Consequences (2005), which follows two couples courting divorce, revisits Lurie’s invented…

Joseph McElroy: In 1986 McElroy published Women and Men, a 1,191-page novel about a journalist and a feminist who live in the same apartment building in New York City but never meet. More accessible is The Letter Left to Me (1988), which centres on a letter of advice written by the…

When we talk about the gender pay gap, one thing that sometimes gets overlooked is how it affects women later in life. Women are more likely than men to live in poverty during what should be their golden years. And ironically, the general longevity that women experience doesn’t help. It’s an

John P. Marquand: His last important novel, Women and Thomas Harrow (1958), is about a successful playwright and is partly autobiographical.

Ana Castillo: Women Are Not Roses (1984), for example, explores the difficulties of poor and working-class women who must choose between devoting their energies to erotic relationships or to class struggle. Castillo characterized these arenas as feminine and masculine, respectively, and looked at how women claim their…

Surrealism: Women artists: …Chadwick in her groundbreaking book Women Artists and the Surrealist Movement (1985).

historiography: Women’s history: …Charles Beard, and also wrote Women as a Force in History, arguably the first general work in American women’s history.

Elfriede Jelinek: …the satiric Die Liebhaberinnen (1975; Women as Lovers, 1994), she described the entrapment and victimization of women within a dehumanizing and patriarchal society. Her semiautobiographical novel Die Klavierspielerin (1983; The Piano Teacher, 1988) addressed issues of sexual repression; it was adapted for the screen in 2001. In her writings, Jelinek…

Women at the Ecclesia, drama by Aristophanes, performed about 392 bce. One of Aristophanes’ less-appealing plays, it treats the takeover by the women of Athens of the Ecclesia, the Athenian democratic assembly. They carry out this mission dressed as men, and, once they have achieved their goal,

Women at the Thesmophoria, play by Aristophanes, performed in 411 bce. The play develops from Euripides’ discovery that the women of Athens, angered by his constant attacks upon them in his tragedies, mean to discuss during their coming festival (the Thesmophoria) the question of contriving his

English literature: Other Jacobean dramatists: …fore in his great tragedies, Women Beware Women (c. 1621) and The Changeling (1622), in which the moral complacency of men of rank is shattered by the dreadful violence they themselves have casually set in train, proving the answerability of all men for their actions despite the exemptions claimed for…

Women in Black, international network of women who organize silent protests for peace and in opposition to war, violence, and militarism. With no central organization or official membership, the hundreds of Women in Black groups around the world are linked by a common form of protest—public vigils

United States Women’s Bureau, U.S. federal agency, established in 1920 and charged with promoting the rights and welfare of working women. Such events as the Triangle shirtwaist factory fire in a New York City sweatshop—in which 146 women and girls died—alerted the public to the desperate

Women in Love, novel by D.H. Lawrence, privately printed in 1920 and published commercially in 1921. Following the characters Lawrence had created for The Rainbow (1915), Women in Love examines the ill effects of industrialization on the human psyche, resolving that individual and collective

Larry Kramer: Film and stage work: …and wrote the screenplay for Women in Love (1969), an adaptation of the D.H. Lawrence novel directed by Ken Russell. He received an Academy Award nomination for best adapted screenplay. His final screenwriting effort—a musical adaptation (1973) of an earlier movie (1937) based on James Hilton’s Lost Horizon

Leymah Gbowee: Gbowee joined the Women in Peacebuilding Network (WIPNET) and quickly became a leader within the organization. Moved to action by the pain and suffering that she witnessed, Gbowee mobilized women of various ethnic and religious backgrounds to protest against Liberia’s ongoing conflict. The WIPNET-led group, which eventually became…

During her acceptance speech for the 1929 Pictorial Review Annual Achievement Award, Florence Rena Sabin said, Sabin, an anatomist, was one of the leading scientists in the United States. In 1925 she had become the first woman elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. But she underestimated

This infographic shows graphs that compare aspects of the lives of women in the United States over a century. Spotlight, women, United States, gender, statistics, life expectancy, marriage, children, education, workforce participation,

Julia O’Faolain: O’Faolain probed women’s roles in Women in the Wall (1975), a fictional account of Queen Radegund, who in the 6th century founded a monastery in Gaul. No Country for Young Men (1980), set in Dublin, traces three generations of an Irish family. The Obedient Wife (1982), in which an Italian…

Women have long played a vital role during wartime. In World War I (1914–18), however, their contributions grew dramatically. Millions of women entered the workforce to fill jobs that were traditionally held by men. In addition, tens of thousands of women served as nurses and doctors, and many held

Tawakkol Karman: …several of her colleagues founded Women Journalists Without Chains in 2005 to advocate for women’s rights, civil rights, and freedom of expression.

Women have long faced an uphill battle for gender equality in politics. Globally, only about one-third of countries have ever had a female head of state, and in legislatures women make up less than 30 percent of the members. Recent years, however, have brought significant progress. In the 2020s

James Tiptree, Jr.: In “The Women Men Don’t See” (1973), a plane carrying three Americans—a male federal agent and a mother and daughter—crashes in the Yucatán. An alien spacecraft also crashes nearby, and, despite the efforts of the man, the women choose to leave Earth—a planet where women do…

Eugène Delacroix: Development of mature style: …Moroccan impressions are collected in Women of Algiers in Their Apartment (1834), in which three Arab women and their surroundings are portrayed in a blaze of exquisitely warm colour harmonies. Delacroix’s other recapitulations of his North African experiences include Convulsionists of Tangier (1837–38) and Jewish Wedding in Morocco (1839). He…

Women of All Red Nations (WARN), American organization, founded in 1974, that developed out of a group of women supporting the American Indian Movement (AIM) in the early 1970s. Though both men and women were involved in AIM’s activism, only the former were severely punished for their participation

F.E. McWilliam: …a series of powerful bronzes, Women of Belfast, in response to the bombing of the Abercorn restaurant in Belfast. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1959 and was made Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1966. McWilliam was the subject of a retrospective exhibition at…

Oprah Winfrey: The Oprah Winfrey Show and films: …performance in the television miniseries The Women of Brewster Place (1989). Winfrey formed her own television production company, Harpo Productions, Inc., in 1986, and a film production company, Harpo Films, in 1990. The companies began buying film rights to literary works, including Connie May Fowler’s Before Women Had Wings, which…

The Women of Brewster Place, novel by Gloria Naylor, published in 1982. It chronicles the communal strength of seven diverse black women who live in decaying rented houses on a walled-off street of an urban neighbourhood. As the middle-aged matriarch of the group, Mattie Michael is a source of

The title “doctor of the church” is granted to saints in the Roman Catholic Church whose writings and teachings are of particular importance. Considered to be altogether holy, heroic, and learned, doctors of the church have advanced the church’s knowledge of God, especially as Christ. Of the 38

Russia: Political process: …in the 1990s was the Women of Russia party, which captured 8 percent of the vote in the 1993 State Duma election, though its level support had dropped by about three-fourths by the end of the decade. In 2001 a number of parties merged to form the pro-Putin United Russia…

Janet Campbell Hale: …other works of fiction included Women on the Run (1999), which contains six short stories. Bloodlines: Odyssey of a Native Daughter (1993) is a collection of autobiographical essays that reflect on her past and her heritage, with accounts of her paternal grandmother, who was a follower of the Nez Percé…

Pedro Almodóvar: Films: …un ataque de nervios (1988; Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown) won international acclaim, including an Academy Award nomination for best foreign-language film.

Leymah Gbowee: …of the founders of the Women Peace and Security Network–Africa (WIPSEN-Africa), an organization active in several western African countries that encouraged the involvement of women in peace, security, and governance issues. She was named executive director of WIPSEN-Africa the next year. Also in 2007 she received a master’s degree in…

Women Picking Olives, one of at least 15 paintings of olive groves that Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh created in 1889 during his voluntary confinement in the asylum of Saint-Paul-de-Mausole in Saint Rémy in Provence and one of three versions depicting three women picking olives. Van Gogh was

Women Strike for Peace (WSP), organization that evolved out of an international protest against atmospheric nuclear testing held on November 1, 1961. On that day between 12,000 and 50,000 women in various nations demonstrated to protest nuclear testing and to voice concern, in particular, about the

Frances McDormand: …was based on Miriam Toew’s novel about female members of a cloistered religious community who contemplate leaving after a series of sexual assaults.

Sarah Polley: …2022 she earned praise for Women Talking, an adaptation of Miriam Toews’s novel, which was inspired by a true story. The drama centres on female members of a cloistered religious community who contemplate leaving after a number of sexual assaults. For her adapted screenplay, Polley won her first Oscar.

Richard Ford: Rock Springs (1987), Women with Men (1997), A Multitude of Sins (2001), and Sorry for Your Trouble (2020) are collections of short stories.

The Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) is Africa’s premier women’s football (soccer) tournament, held every two years. The tournament is organized by the Confédération Africaine de Football (CAF; the governing body for international football in Africa). It first took place in 1991, as the

Iceland: The status of women: …enjoying great popularity, and the Women’s Alliance was first represented in the parliament in 1983. However, the Icelandic president typically is not influential in politics. Moreover, women still earn less income than men, suggesting that they have not yet obtained full equality. Nonetheless, when the Independence Party left the governing…

Nancy Lieberman: …newly created professional circuit, the Women’s American Basketball Association (WABA). Because fan interest in a women’s professional league still was not strong enough to generate financial success, however, the WABA was also short-lived.

Women’s Armed Services Integration Act, law enacted in 1948 that permitted women to serve as full members of the U.S. armed forces. During World War I many women had enlisted as volunteers in the U.S. military services; they usually served in clerical roles. When the war ended, they were released

Women’s Army Corps (WAC), U.S. Army unit created during World War II to enable women to serve in noncombat positions. Never before had women, with the exception of nurses, served within the ranks of the U.S. Army. With the establishment of the Women’s Army Corps (WAC), more than 150,000 did so. In

Women’s British Open, golf tournament conducted annually that is recognized by the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) as one of the four major tournaments in women’s golf. The event is open to all qualified amateur and professional female golfers and is held at a variety of golf courses

cricket: Women’s cricket: In 1926 the Women’s Cricket Association was founded, and in 1934–35 it sent a team to Australia and New Zealand. Australia paid a return visit in 1937, and, since World War II, tours have increased. The International Women’s Cricket Council was formed in 1958 by Australia, England, the…

Marine Biological Laboratory: It was established by the Women’s Educational Association of Boston, the Boston Society of Natural History, and other organizations and was modeled on the Naples Zoological Station (1872) in Italy. The laboratory’s summer research program played a vital role in furthering American research and teaching in the biological sciences in…

Marine Biological Laboratory: It was established by the Women’s Educational Association of Boston, the Boston Society of Natural History, and other organizations and was modeled on the Naples Zoological Station (1872) in Italy. The laboratory’s summer research program played a vital role in furthering American research and teaching in the biological sciences in…

Women’s Equality Day, annual event in the United States, observed on August 26 since its inception in 1971, marking American women’s advancements toward equality with men. Many organizations, libraries, workplaces, and other institutions have observed the day by participating in events and programs

Women’s Equity Action League (WEAL), former national women’s organization committed to improving the status of women in the United States through legal action and lobbying for institutional and legislative change. Established and incorporated in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1968 by Elizabeth Boyer and local

All-China Women’s Federation (ACWF), the official, state-sponsored organization representing women’s interests in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Founded on April 3, 1949, the basic mission of the All-China Women’s Federation’s (ACWF) is to represent and safeguard the rights and interests of

historiography: Women’s history: In the 19th century, women’s history would have been inconceivable, because “history” was so closely identified with war, diplomacy, and high politics—from all of which women were virtually excluded. Although there had been notable queens and regents—such as Elizabeth I of England, Catherine de…

bowling: Organization and tournaments: The Women’s International Bowling Congress (WIBC) was organized in 1916 and conducted annual national championships from 1917. While the ABC and WIBC are autonomous organizations, each billing itself as the “world’s largest” men’s or women’s sports organization, respectively, they share a number of functions, including equipment…

Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti: …FNWS became affiliated with the Women’s International Democratic Federation, and Ransome-Kuti was elected a vice president of the organization. She subsequently lectured in several countries on the conditions of Nigerian women. After the NCNC rejected her bid for a second candidacy for the assembly in 1959, she ran as an…

Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), organization whose opposition to war dates from World War I, which makes it the oldest continuously active peace organization in the United States. It encompasses some 100 branches in the United States and has other branches in

tennis: The open era: …which in 1986 became the Women’s International Tennis Association (WITA). Previous player unions had been ineffective, but the ATP showed itself a potent political force when the majority of its members boycotted Wimbledon in 1973 in a dispute over the eligibility of the Yugoslav pro Nikki Pilic. The women’s union…

Okuni: The popularity of onna (“women’s”) Kabuki remained high until women’s participation was officially banned in 1629 by the shogun (military ruler) Tokugawa Iemitsu, who thought that the sensuality of the dances had a deleterious effect on public morality. Not only were the dances considered suggestive, but the dancers…

Women’s Land Army (WLA), U.S. federally established organization that from 1943 to 1947 recruited and trained women to work on farms left untended owing to the labour drain that arose during World War II. By the summer of 1942, American farmers faced a severe labour shortage—since 1940 some six

women’s rights movement, diverse social movement, largely based in the United States, that in the 1960s and ’70s sought equal rights and opportunities and greater personal freedom for women. It coincided with and is recognized as part of the “second wave” of feminism. While the first-wave feminism

history of publishing: Women’s magazines: Women’s magazines frequently reflect the changing view of women’s role in society. In the 18th century, when women were expected to participate in social and political life, those magazines aimed primarily at women were relatively robust and stimulating in content; in the 19th,…

Women’s March, demonstrations held throughout the world on January 21, 2017, to support gender equality, civil rights, and other issues that were expected to face challenges under newly inaugurated U.S. Pres. Donald Trump. The march was initially scheduled to be held only in Washington, D.C., but

Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), American women’s professional basketball league that began play in 1997. (Read James Naismith’s 1929 Britannica essay on his invention of basketball.) The WNBA was created by the National Basketball Association (NBA) Board of Governors as a women’s

Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) champions, winners of the annual playoff basketball tournament that is held after every Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) season. Each WNBA playoff field consists of the 8 teams in the 12-team league with the best regular-season records,

Amelia Stone Quinton: …and Bonney had formed the Women’s National Indian Association (WNIA), which with several other Indian rights associations led a comprehensive campaign for Indian policy reform. In 1887 Congress enacted the Dawes General Allotment Act, which granted Indians citizenship and allotments of reservation land to be used for farming.

Women’s National Loyal League, organization formed on May 14, 1863, by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton that sought to end the American Civil War through an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that abolished slavery. To this end they organized a Mammoth Petition that urged Congress to

Women’s Peace Society, interwar feminist and pacifist organization, active from 1919–33, that was focused on total disarmament and the immorality of violence. The Women’s Peace Society was founded in October 1919, with its headquarters in New York City. Its ideals were based on the moral principles

Women’s Political Council, organization that was established for African American professional women in Montgomery, Alabama, U.S., and that became known for its role in initiating the Montgomery bus boycott (1955–56). The Women’s Political Council was founded in 1946 by American educator Mary Fair

Harriot Eaton Stanton Blatch: …name was changed to the Women’s Political Union, and in 1916 it was merged with the Congressional Union (later the National Woman’s Party) under Alice Paul.

Abigail Hopper Gibbons: …its reorganization as the independent Women’s Prison Association and Home in 1853. In 1859 she became president of the German Industrial School. She was also a frequent visitor to the New York City children’s asylum on Randall’s Island. For nearly four years during the American Civil War, she worked as…

Women’s Prize for Fiction, English literary prize for women that was conceptualized in 1992 and instituted in 1996 by a group of publishing industry professionals—including agents, booksellers, critics, journalists, and librarians—who were frustrated by what they perceived as chauvinism in the

basketball: U.S. women’s basketball: …occasionally formed, such as the Women’s Professional Basketball League (WPBL); begun in 1978, the WPBL lasted only three years. Eventually filling the void was the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA). Aligned with the powerful NBA, the WNBA held its inaugural season in 1997 with eight teams. By 2006 the WNBA…

Ladies Professional Golf Association: The first, the Women’s Professional Golf Association (WPGA), was chartered in 1944. Standout players soon emerged, including Patty Berg, Louise Suggs, Betty Jameson, and, especially, the multisport legend Babe Didrikson Zaharias. Even Zaharias’s popularity, however, could not ensure success for the WPGA, which folded in 1949. Nevertheless, it…

Mob Convention, woman suffrage meeting, held September 6–7, 1853, in New York City, that earned its popular label owing to the numerous disruptions to it by protesters. The New York state meeting of the Women’s Rights Convention was attended by some 3,000 people and was the culmination of a series

women’s rights movement, diverse social movement, largely based in the United States, that in the 1960s and ’70s sought equal rights and opportunities and greater personal freedom for women. It coincided with and is recognized as part of the “second wave” of feminism. While the first-wave feminism

Florence Green: Patterson joined the newly created Women’s Royal Air Force (WRAF) on September 13, 1918, at age 17 and was assigned to work as a steward in the officers’ mess halls at the Marham and Narborough airfields in Norfolk, England. Prior to the war this job would have been done by…

Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), militant wing of the British woman suffrage movement. WSPU was founded in Manchester in 1903 by Emmeline Pankhurst. Along with the more conservative National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), founded in 1897, the WSPU sought votes for women in a

Donna de Varona: …others, de Varona organized the Women’s Sports Foundation. She served as that organization’s first elected president (1976–84). De Varona graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles with a B.A. in political science in 1986.

Betty Friedan: …efforts, helping to organize the Women’s Strike for Equality—held on August 26, 1970, the 50th anniversary of woman suffrage—and leading in the campaign for ratification of the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. A founding member of the National Women’s Political Caucus (1971), she said it was organized…

women’s suffrage, the right of women by law to vote in national or local elections. Women were excluded from voting in ancient Greece and republican Rome, as well as in the few democracies that had emerged in Europe by the end of the 18th century. When the franchise was widened, as it was in the

Catherine Helen Spence: Advocating for women’s right to vote and other social issues: …vice president of the influential Women’s Suffrage League in South Australia, which was led by Mary Lee and Mary Colton, two key drivers of the women’s suffrage movement. The organization was instrumental to securing passage of the Constitutional Amendment (Adult Suffrage) Act in December 1894 in the South Australian Parliament;…

Naomi Osaka: …to the top of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) world rankings. In addition, Osaka is known as an advocate for social justice.

Women’s Trade Union League (WTUL), American organization, the first national association dedicated to organizing women workers. Founded in 1903, the WTUL proved remarkably successful in uniting women from all classes to work toward better, fairer working conditions. The organization relied largely

football: North and Central America and the Caribbean: The Women’s United Soccer Association (WUSA) began with eight teams and featured the world’s star player, Mia Hamm, but it disbanded in 2003.

Met Gala: The red carpet: Women’s Wear Daily traces the start of the over-the-top fashions to 2004. That year the theme of the gala was “Dangerous Liaisons: Fashion and Furniture in the 18th Century,” and model and actress Amber Valletta wore a contemporary look inspired by Marie-Antoinette. The ensemble included…

Ela Bhatt: …a cofounder in 1979 of Women’s World Banking (WWB), a global network of microfinance organizations that assist poor women. She served as chairperson of WWB from 1984 to 1988. In 1986 the president of India appointed Bhatt to the Rajya Sabha (Council of States), the upper house of India’s parliament,…

Women’s World Cup, international football (soccer) competition that determines the world champion among women’s national teams. Like the men’s World Cup, the Women’s World Cup is governed by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) and takes place every four years. The field for

rite of passage: Life-cycle ceremonies: … and the fading rite of churching of women, to a ceremony of thanksgiving for mothers soon after childbirth. These rites involve the parents as well as the child and in some societies include the couvade, which in its so-called classic form centres ritual attention at childbirth upon the father rather…

Woman, Life, Freedom, protest slogan that affirms that the rights of women are at the centre of life and liberty. The slogan is best known in English-language media for its use within the context of Iran. In September 2022 protesters in Iran and abroad adopted the slogan after Jina Mahsa Amini died

Annette Bening: Career: …in Running with Scissors (2006), The Women (2008), and Mother and Child (2009), Bening received her fourth Oscar nomination, for her starring role opposite Julianne Moore in The Kids Are All Right (2010), a dramedy about a married lesbian couple whose two children seek out their birth father.

Anita Loos: …scripts were San Francisco (1936), The Women (1939, adapted from Clare Boothe Luce’s play), and I Married an Angel (1942). Her dramatization of Colette’s Gigi was produced in 1951, and she subsequently produced a number of other adaptations from French sources. She wrote Twice Over Lightly: New York Then and…

Annie Leibovitz: First museum exhibition, Olympic Portraits, and Women: …as a traveling exhibition, “Women: New Portraits.”

won, monetary units of South Korea and North Korea. The Bank of Korea has the exclusive authority to issue banknotes and coins for South Korea. Banknotes are issued in denominations ranging from 1,000 to 50,000 won. The notes are adorned on the obverse with early Yi (Chosŏn) dynasty figures,