Jul 3, 2019
French has no single word for “womanhood”. It has “féminité” for femininity, and “womanhood” is often translated with “féminité”, which is a mistake because “féminité” has connotations that “womanhood” doesn’t have. “Womanhood” refers to the state/condition of being a woman; “féminité” contains all the stereotypes of being a woman, most of which are tied to beauty and personal grooming. I guess the best translation of “womanhood” in French would be “être une femme” (literally “to be a woman”). But this lacks the consistence, the unity of a single word. How can we talk about that which we have no word for?