Some recent feminist philosophers admit straightforwardly that the commonly used meaning of “woman” is “adult human female.” Rather than disputing that, they think that for justice purposes the meaning of the word “woman” ought to be changed, so as to include so-called “trans women” or perhaps even anyone who “identifies as a woman.”

Before we leave Byrne’s “Are women adult human females?” let’s look at a few interesting observations he makes about this attempt of theirs. For one thing, he observes that

The hope is not just that the meaning of “woman” can be . . . adjusted, but that no synonym of “woman” with its earlier meaning will emerge to enjoy widespread use, else the problem of “exclusion and marginalization” [that these feminist philosophers are concerned about] would remain.

Section 3.3

But what is the chance of that? After all,

. . . for millennia, languages used by wildly diverse human cultures have had single words for this category [of adult human females]. Words mark useful distinctions, and this universal pattern . . . suggests that having a simple label for adult human females is not something we can easily do without. . . There is no reason to think that the utility of a word for the category adult human female will markedly decline in the foreseeable future. Unlike scullery maids, cigarette girls and switchboard operators, the mature females of our species will continue to be an important topic of thought and talk. So even if [the word] “woman” could somehow be coaxed to change [its meaning], a new word for the category (a snappier version of “natal woman” or “bio woman”, already in occasional use) would very likely fill the lexical vacuum.

Section 3.3

In other words, if these feminist philosophers should get their way – which on the face of it is unlikely – so that “woman” no longer means “adult human female,” then most likely, given our species’ many interests in adult human females, we would immediately coin and commonly use another word that means “adult human female,” thus spoiling the feminists’ pipe-dream of a world in which such “exclusionary” words are not commonly used.