On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. The symbol of the Roman goddess Venus is used to represent the female valentines gifts sex in biology.

It also stands for the planet Venus and is the alchemical symbol for copper. A female has larger gametes than a male. The exact mechanism of female gamete evolution remains unknown. In species that have males and females, sex-determination may be based on either sex chromosomes, or environmental conditions. Most female mammals, including female humans, have two X chromosomes.

In humans, the word female can also be used to refer to gender in the social sense of gender role or gender identity. The word female comes from the Latin femella, the diminutive form of femina, meaning “woman”. It is not etymologically related to the word male, but in the late 14th century the English spelling was altered to parallel that of male. Biological sex is conceptually distinct from gender, although they are often treated interchangeably. The word can also refer to the shape of connectors and fasteners, such as screws, electrical pins, and technical equipment. Under this convention, sockets and receptacles are called female, and the corresponding plugs male.

Oogamous species, which include humans, in which the female gamete is much larger than the male and has no ability to move. Oogamy is a form of anisogamy. Other than the defining difference in the type of gamete produced, differences between males and females in one lineage cannot always be predicted by differences in another. In some species, female and hermaphrodite individuals may coexist, a sexual system termed gynodioecy. Photograph of an adult female human, with an adult male for comparison.

Note that both models have partially shaved body hair to show anatomy, i. A distinguishing characteristic of the class Mammalia is the presence of mammary glands. Mammary glands are modified sweat glands that produce milk, which is used to feed the young for some time after birth. Mammalian females bear live young, with the exception of monotreme females, which lay eggs. In sex determination for mammals, female is the default sex, while in the poplar genus Populus the default is male.

The sex of a particular organism may be determined by genetic or environmental factors, or may naturally change during the course of an organism’s life. During reproduction, the male contributes either an X sperm or a Y sperm, while the female always contributes an X egg. The young of some species develop into one sex or the other depending on local environmental conditions, e. The question of how females evolved is mainly a question of why males evolved. The first organisms reproduced asexually, usually via binary fission, wherein a cell splits itself in half. The advantages are explained by the evolution of anisogamy, which led to the evolution of male and female function.

The evolution of female genitalia remains poorly understood compared to male genitalia, reflecting a now-outdated belief that female genitalia are less varied than male genitalia, and thus less useful to study. The difficulty of reaching female genitalia has also complicated their study. Look up female in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. The Male and Female Symbols of Biology”. Using ‘Lady,’ ‘Woman,’ and ‘Female’ to Modify Nouns”. Archived from the original on November 11, 2012.

Office of Research on Women’s Health. Archived from the original on 2020-07-23. 167: “To minimize confusion, the connector portions with projecting prongs are referred to as the ‘male’ portion, and the sockets as the ‘female’ portion. Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior. Living at Micro Scale, Chapter 20.

Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts ISBN 978-0-674-03116-6. Bachtrog D, Mank JE, Peichel CL, Kirkpatrick M, Otto SP, Ashman TL, et al. Sex determination: why so many ways of doing it? Transitions Between Sexual Systems: Understanding the Mechanisms of, and Pathways Between, Dioecy, Hermaphroditism and Other Sexual Systems. Strange but True: Males Can Lactate”. Default Sex and Single Gene Sex Determination in Dioecious Plants”.