Female

From Peaceful Beginnings

Female is the sex of an organism, or a part of an organism, which produces egg cells. The "egg cell" (ovum) is defined as the larger gamete in a heterogamous reproduction system, while the smaller, usually motile gamete (sperm cell) is produced by the male. A female individual cannot reproduce sexually without access to the gametes of a male. Some organisms can reproduce both sexually and asexually.

There is no single genetic mechanism behind sex differences in different species, and the existence of two sexes seems to have evolved multiple times independently in different evolutionary lineages. 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. The concept is not limited to animals; egg cells are produced by chytrids, diatoms, water molds, and land plants, among others. In land plants, 'female' and 'male' designate not only the egg- and sperm-producing organisms and structures, but also the structures of the sporophytes that give rise to male and female plants.

A common symbol used to represent the female gender is ♀ (Unicode: U+2640), a circle with a small cross underneath. This symbol also represents the planet Venus and is a stylized representation of the goddess Venus' hand mirror.

The mammalian female is characterised by having two copies of the X chromosome as opposed to the male which carries only one X and one smaller Y chromosome. To compensate for the difference in size one of the female's X chromosomes is randomly inactivated in each cell. Conversly in birds it is the female who is heterozygote and carries two Z chromosomes whilst the male carries a Z and a W.

For both birds and mammals the sex of offspring is determined by the sex chromosomes however in reptiles the sex is often determined by the temperature that the eggs are incubated.

In humans, there are several different components (in addition to genetics) to both biological sex and gender identity by which people assign the label "female".

See also

• Feminine side
• Male
• Sex-determination system
• Woman and girl, female humans
• Mammal
• Hermaphrodite
• Secondary sex characteristic
• Gestation

Template:Wiktionaryca:Femella de:Weiblich eo:femalo es:Hembra fr:Femelle gd:Boireannach he:נקבה ja:メス pl:Samica pt:Feminino ru:Самка simple:Female sk:Samica su:bikang fi:Naaras zh:雌性

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