The concept of womanhood has once again been wrestled with, particularly in the “commentaries” of cis men, in a nature vs. nurture discourse. Cis men who have long been complicit in and perpetrators of transphobia, misogyny, and bioessentialism in our patriarchal culture are now suddenly “fighting” for women’s rights and struggles while frantically clutching to baseline biological knowledge to justify prejudice against trans women, with remarks such as “Dili mana sila babae, bayot raman na sila!”

Defining gender solely by genetic predisposition is a Western construct and a surprisingly recent matter that started in the 17th century. The lack of a uterus and vagina is one common tactic that cis people latch onto to deny trans womanhood and trans women’s personhood. Contrariwise, sex and gender are two distinct variables: the “female” category denotes the ascribed sex to bodies categorically deemed as such on varying degrees of hormonal profiles, existing organs, and present chromosomal configurations. The capacity for parturition, or giving birth, is primarily aligned with the female sex, though not exclusively so, as select intersex individuals can also bear. With this, hegemonic notions of womanhood remain constrained by patriarchal stereotypes, such as those portraying women exclusively for nurturance and maternity.

The term “woman,” however, extends far beyond bioessentialism anchored in reproductive functionality—it is characterized by the social, economic, political, and anthropological paradigms that confer its essence and meaning. In the case of trans women, womanhood is affirmed through the social and anthropological roles they inhabit—as exemplified by Uka Lawan of the Teduray, a mentefuwaley libun. Similarly, the Hijra of Indian societies subverts the man-woman dichotomy, wherein those who identify as women are venerated as embodiments of the benevolent goddess Bahuchara Mata. In fact, Muslim rulers of the Mughal Empire in the 15th to 19th centuries were generous patrons of the Hijra. 

Feminists such as Simone de Beauvoir and Judith Butler have already laid the groundwork in framing womanhood as a social construction completely unrelated to an individual’s sex. Consequently, the notion of a “real woman” doesn’t exist. In The Second Sex (1949), de Beauvoir asserts that “[o]ne is not born but becomes a woman.” The attributes defining womanhood are hence social constructions—varying across societies and bearing no necessary correspondence to biology.

Refraining from tethering womanhood to rigid anatomical essentials is not merely a matter of avoiding transphobia but also because it is inherently anti-feminist. Linguistically, “trans” functions as an adjective that distinguishes trans women as one variation among women—just as there are peasant women, working-class women, cis women—honouring the very fact that women come in all shapes, forms, and definitions. Suppose that womanhood was defined by the ability to give birth—does that mean women experiencing menopause, those with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), those undergoing hysterectomy, or those who have simply not borne children, are no longer women? 

Rather than deconstructing and abolishing rigid conceptions of womanhood, why are we suddenly defining it the way the patriarchy has defined it for centuries? Are we going to ignore that trans women have been systemically oppressed as well for diverging from the status quo? 

That being so, exclusionary tendencies not only imperil trans women but also threaten other women who deviate from cisheteropatriarchal normative molds. Ultimately, one’s self-conception of womanhood and the right to define it constitute a fundamental exercise of self-determination and personal agency.

On another note, cis men who demand that trans women “must respect” women’s spaces must critically reevaluate their stance, given the historical realities that they have repeatedly violated those spaces, appropriated women’s achievements, and perpetrated systemic oppression against women. The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) condemned a disturbing pattern of killings targeting trans women in the Philippines, terming it transfemicide. Driven by hatred of trans women’s gender identity, these murders not only instill pervasive fear within the trans community but also underscore the alarming ease of committing such acts with impunity. From the 2014 murder case of Jennifer Laude by US Marine Joseph Scott Pemberton—whose defense hinged on claiming Laude was “not a woman,” followed by an absolute pardon for this crime—to the successive cases of Ali Macalintal, Ren Tampus, Kierra Apostol, and Shalani Dolina.

Should we ultimately seek to abolish gender as a social construct? Yes. Is this the immediate priority of the masses now? No. Because misogyny, homophobia, and transphobia remain entrenched in our society. At present, we must first articulate and assert the strength of womanhood. The complete transformation of our consciousness on gender will not happen in a vacuum. In fact, we don’t envision its abolition in ten or even fifty years, but with the total upturn of our dominant social system—the class society that forms the historical root of gender-based oppression itself. 

In other words, the urgent task is not calling to “abolish” gender in the face of queer people asserting their place and their identity. It is to organize women and queer peoples towards a militant, trans-inclusive feminism—uniting them with the broader masses struggling for liberation. Trans-inclusive feminism must recognize women from different sectors, backgrounds, and experiences—ensuring no limitations are imposed. It acknowledges gender binary as an imperialist, capitalist, and white supremacist imposition; that the subordination of women stems from the modern/colonial, constructed within the globally re-centred capitalist world order.

The experiences of women are neither monolithic nor homogenous, and they certainly shouldn’t be contingent on ridiculous biological checkboxes. You cannot essentialize womanhood in an attempt to exclude trans women without endorsing outdated, anti-feminist values of what supposedly makes a woman’s worth.