# Adult human female

The phrase "adult human female" is a slogan adopted by anti-gender and gender-critical (also known as TERF) movements, with the aim of excluding trans women from the definition of "woman". The phrase is a dictionary definition of woman, but its usage in social and political discourse has also been interpreted as a trans-exclusionary and gender essentialist statement which defines "women" as being strictly assigned female at birth and cisgender. Scholars have described it as a dog whistle for transphobic beliefs and a form of coded hate speech. The phrase is often accompanied by other anti-trans rhetoric, sometimes as an answer to the rhetorical question "What is a woman?".

## Usage

Criminology researchers Brightman, Lenning & DeJong identify the term as a common catchphrase in anti-trans discourse, alongside "gender ideology" and "groomer". Sociologists Amery & Mondon say the phrase frames anti-trans movements as guarding scientific "truths" (e.g. that sex is immutable) against an emotional "trans ideology", which they compare to the red pill metaphor used by the alt-right and manosphere.
The phrase is often accompanied by the rhetorical question "What is a woman?" that has become a widespread rhetorical strategy in anti-trans discourse, popularized by the film What Is a Woman? by Matt Walsh.

## History
### Adoption by anti-trans movements

British anti-trans activist Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull is credited with coining the phrase. In 2018, Keen-Minshull purchased billboards in Liverpool which read "woman / wʊmən / noun / adult human female", Keen-Minshull said were in response to the mayor of Liverpool expressing support for trans rights. The ad company which installed the billboards removed them following social media complaints, saying they had been "misled" by the campaign. On 19 September, the Liverpool city council unanimously passed a motion declaring that "trans women are women” and that “there is no place in our city for hatred and bigotry".
In 2023 screening of the film Adult Human Female, which asserts that women are defined solely by biological sex, was cancelled at Edinburgh University after the film had faced protests.

### Use by second Trump administration

Leading up to the 2024 presidential election, Donald Trump campaigned heavily on opposing transgender rights, especially trans women in sports and gender pronouns.
On 20 January 2025, the first day of his second term as president, Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14168, which rolled back federal recognition of transgender people and ended gender self-identification on identity documents such as passports and visas. The order declares that women and girls refer to "adult and juvenile human females, respectively". The Trump transition team had presented the planned executive order as part of a wider agenda of "restoring sanity".

## In dictionaries

English dictionaries commonly define woman as "an adult female human" or "an adult female human being".
In 2020, Merriam-Webster expanded its definitions of female and girl to add trans-inclusive senses ("having a gender identity that is the opposite of male"; "a person whose gender identity is female"). In 2022, a man from California was arrested for threatening to bomb Merriam-Webster's offices and kill its employees. In September 2022 he pleaded guilty to communication of threatening communications to commit violence, and in April 2023 he was sentenced to one year and one day in prison and three years of supervised release.
In October 2022, the Cambridge Dictionary added supplemental definitions of man and woman: "an adult who lives and identifies as [male/female] though they may have been said to have a different sex at birth."