A trans woman or a transgender woman is a

woman A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...

who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female

gender identity Gender identity is the personal sense of one's own gender. Gender identity can correlate with a person's assigned sex or can differ from it. In most individuals, the various biological determinants of sex are congruent, and consistent with the i ...

, may experience

gender dysphoria Gender dysphoria (GD) is the distress a person experiences due to a mismatch between their gender identitytheir personal sense of their own genderand their sex assigned at birth. The diagnostic label gender identity disorder (GID) was used until ...

, and may transition; this process commonly includes

hormone replacement therapy Hormone replacement therapy (HRT), also known as menopausal hormone therapy or postmenopausal hormone therapy, is a form of hormone therapy used to treat symptoms associated with female menopause. These symptoms can include hot flashes, vaginal ...

and sometimes

sex reassignment surgery Gender-affirming surgery (GAS) is a surgical procedure, or series of procedures, that alters a transgender or transsexual person's physical appearance and sexual characteristics to resemble those associated with their identified gender, and alle ...

, which can bring relief and resolve feelings of gender dysphoria. Like

cisgender Cisgender (often shortened to cis; sometimes cissexual) is a term used to describe a person whose gender identity corresponds to their sex assigned at birth. The word ''cisgender'' is the antonym of ''transgender''. The prefix ''wiktionary:cis ...

women, trans women may have any

sexual orientation Sexual orientation is an enduring pattern of romantic or sexual attraction (or a combination of these) to persons of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or to both sexes or more than one gender. These attractions are generall ...

. The term ''

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...

woman'' is not always interchangeable with ''

transsexual Transsexual people experience a gender identity that is inconsistent with their assigned sex, and desire to permanently transition to the sex or gender with which they identify, usually seeking medical assistance (including sex reassignment ...

woman'', although the terms are often used interchangeably. ''Transgender'' is an

umbrella term In linguistics, semantics, general semantics, and ontologies, hyponymy () is a semantic relation between a hyponym denoting a subtype and a hypernym or hyperonym (sometimes called umbrella term or blanket term) denoting a supertype. In other wor ...

that includes different types of

gender variant Gender variance or gender nonconformity is behavior or gender expression by an individual that does not match masculine or feminine gender norms. A gender-nonconforming person may be variant in their gender identity, being transgender or non-bina ...

people (including transsexual people). Trans women face significant discrimination in many areas of life, including in employment and access to housing, and face physical and sexual violence and hate crimes, including from partners; in the United States, discrimination is particularly severe towards trans women who are members of a

racial minority The term 'minority group' has different usages depending on the context. According to its common usage, a minority group can simply be understood in terms of demographic sizes within a population: i.e. a group in society with the least number o ...

, who often face the

intersection In mathematics, the intersection of two or more objects is another object consisting of everything that is contained in all of the objects simultaneously. For example, in Euclidean geometry, when two lines in a plane are not parallel, their i ...

transphobia Transphobia is a collection of ideas and phenomena that encompass a range of negative attitudes, feelings, or actions towards transgender people or transness in general. Transphobia can include fear, aversion, hatred, violence or anger tow ...

and

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...

Overview

Trans women may experience

, distress brought upon by the discrepancy between their gender identity and the sex that was assigned to them at birth (and the associated gender role or primary and secondary sex characteristics). Trans women may transition. A major component of medical transition for trans women is

feminizing hormone therapy Feminizing hormone therapy, also known as transfeminine hormone therapy, is hormone therapy and sex reassignment therapy to change the secondary sex characteristics of transgender people from masculine or androgynous to feminine. It is a comm ...

, which causes the development of female

secondary sex characteristic Secondary sex characteristics are features that appear during puberty in humans, and at sexual maturity in other animals. These characteristics are particularly evident in the sexually dimorphic phenotypic traits that distinguish the sexes of a sp ...

s (

breast The breast is one of two prominences located on the upper ventral region of a primate's torso. Both females and males develop breasts from the same embryological tissues. In females, it serves as the mammary gland, which produces and secret ...

s, redistribution of body fat, lower

waist–hip ratio The waist–hip ratio or waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) is the dimensionless ratio of the circumference of the waist to that of the hips. This is calculated as waist measurement divided by hip measurement (). For example, a person with a 30″ () ...

, etc.). This, along with

can relieve the person of gender dysphoria.

Terminology

Transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...

'' (commonly abbreviated as ''trans'') is an

for people whose

and/or

gender expression Gender expression, or gender presentation, is a person's behavior, mannerisms, interests, and appearance that are associated with gender, specifically with the categories of femininity or masculinity. This also includes gender roles. These cat ...

are different from those typically associated with members of the

sex Sex is the trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing animal or plant produces male or female gametes. Male plants and animals produce smaller mobile gametes (spermatozoa, sperm, pollen), while females produce larger ones ( ova, of ...

they were assigned at birth. Transgender women, sometimes called male-to-female (MtF), are those who were assigned the

male Male (symbol: ♂) is the sex of an organism that produces the gamete (sex cell) known as sperm, which fuses with the larger female gamete, or ovum, in the process of fertilization. A male organism cannot reproduce sexually without access to ...

sex at birth (AMAB), but who identify and live as women. ''Trans woman'' may also be short for ''

woman.

Transsexual Transsexual people experience a gender identity that is inconsistent with their assigned sex, and desire to permanently transition to the sex or gender with which they identify, usually seeking medical assistance (including sex reassignment ...

'' is a subset of ''transgender,'' referring to people who desire to medically transition to the

with which they identify, usually through

sex reassignment therapies Transgender health care, also known as gender-affirming care, includes the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of physical and mental health conditions, as well as sex reassignment therapies, for transgender individuals.Gorton N, Grubb HM (2014) ...

, such as

and

, to align their body with their identified sex or gender. The term is rejected by some as outdated, though others within the trans community still identify as transsexual. ''

Transfeminine A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through ...

'' (or ) is a broader umbrella term for assigned-male trans individuals with a predominantly

feminine Femininity (also called womanliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles generally associated with women and girls. Femininity can be understood as socially constructed, and there is also some evidence that some behaviors considered fe ...

identity and/or

. This includes trans women, but is used especially for AMAB

non-binary Non-binary and genderqueer are umbrella terms for gender identities that are not solely male or femaleidentities that are outside the gender binary. Non-binary identities fall under the transgender umbrella, since non-binary people typically ...

people, who may have a identity that is partially feminine, but not wholly female. The spelling (written as a single word) is occasionally used interchangeably with ''trans woman'' (where ''trans'' is an

adjective In linguistics, an adjective (list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word that generally grammatical modifier, modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Tra ...

describing a kind of woman). However, this variant is often associated with views (notably

gender-critical feminism Feminist views on transgender topics vary widely. Third-wave feminists and fourth-wave feminists tend to view the struggle for trans rights as an integral part of intersectional feminism. Former president of the American National Organization f ...

) that exclude trans women from ''woman'', and thus require a separate word to describe them. For this reason, many transgender people find the spelling offensive.German Lopez,
Why you should always use "transgender" instead of "transgendered"
', ''Vox'', February 18, 2015 Some prefer to omit ''trans'', and be called simply ''women.'' In several

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

n countries, the word ''travesti'' is sometimes used to designate people who have been assigned male sex at birth, but develop a female gender identity. The use of ''travesti'' precedes ''transgender'' in the region; its distinction from ''trans woman'' is controversial and can vary depending on the context, ranging from considering it a regional equivalent to a

third gender Third gender is a concept in which individuals are categorized, either by themselves or by society, as neither man nor woman. It is also a social category present in societies that recognize three or more genders. The term ''third'' is usually ...

Sexual orientation

Trans women vary greatly in terms of sexual orientation. A survey of roughly 3000 American trans women showed 31% of them identifying as

bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whi ...

, 29% as "

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...

/ same-gender", 23% as

heterosexual Heterosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction or sexual behavior between people of the opposite sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, heterosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to ...

, 7% as asexual, as well as 7% identifying as "

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against those with same-sex desires or relationships in the late 19th century. Beginning in the lat ...

" and 2% as "other".

Libido

In a 2008 study, no

statistically significant In statistical hypothesis testing, a result has statistical significance when it is very unlikely to have occurred given the null hypothesis (simply by chance alone). More precisely, a study's defined significance level, denoted by \alpha, is the p ...

difference in

libido Libido (; colloquial: sex drive) is a person's overall sexual drive or desire for sexual activity. Libido is influenced by biological, psychological, and social factors. Biologically, the sex hormones and associated neurotransmitters that act up ...

was detected between trans women and

women. As in males, female libido is thought to correlate with serum

testosterone Testosterone is the primary sex hormone and anabolic steroid in males. In humans, testosterone plays a key role in the development of Male reproductive system, male reproductive tissues such as testes and prostate, as well as promoting secondar ...

levels (with some controversy) but the 2008 study found no such correlation in trans women. Another study, published in 2014, found that 62.4% of trans women reported their sexual desire had decreased after sexual reassignment therapy.

Violence towards trans women

Trans women face a form of violence known as

trans bashing Trans bashing is the act of victimizing a person emotionally, physically, sexually, or verbally because they are transgender. The term has also been applied to hate speech directed at transgender people and at depictions of transgender people in ...

. The ''

Washington Blade The ''Washington Blade'' is a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) newspaper in the Washington metropolitan area. The ''Blade'' is the oldest LGBT newspaper in the United States and third largest by circulation, behind the ''Philadelphi ...

'' reported that

Global Rights Global Rights is an international human rights capacity-building non-governmental organization (NGO). Founded in Washington, D.C., in 1978 with the name International Human Rights Law Group, the organization changed its name to Global Rights: P ...

, an international NGO, tracked the mistreatment of trans women in Brazil, including at the hands of the police. To commemorate those who have been murdered in

hate crimes A hate crime (also known as a bias-motivated crime or bias crime) is a prejudice-motivated crime which occurs when a perpetrator targets a victim because of their membership (or perceived membership) of a certain social group or racial demograph ...

, an annual

Transgender Day of Remembrance The Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDoR), also known as the International Transgender Day of Remembrance, has been observed annually (from its inception) on November 20 as a day to memorialize those who have been murdered as a result of transp ...

is held in various locations across the United States, Canada, Western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, with details and sources for each murder provided at their website.

United States

According to a 2009 report by the

National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, or NCAVP, is a national organization dedicated to reducing violence and its impacts on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals in the United States. It was founded in 1995 by Glo ...

, quoted by the

Office for Victims of Crime The Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) is a part of the Office of Justice Programs, within the U.S. Department of Justice. The OVC's mission is to provide aid and promote justice for crime victims. The office was created in 1988 in an amendment t ...

, 11% of all hate crimes towards members of the LGBTQ community were directed towards trans women. In 2015, a false statistic was widely reported in the United States media stating that the life expectancy of a trans woman of color is only 35 years. This appears to be based on a comment specifically about Latin America in a report by the

Inter-American Commission on Human Rights The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (the IACHR or, in the three other official languages Spanish, French, and Portuguese CIDH, ''Comisión Interamericana de los Derechos Humanos'', ''Commission Interaméricaine des Droits de l'Homme'', ...

, which compiled data on the age at death of murdered trans women for all of the Americas (North, South, and Central), and does not disaggregate by race. In 2016, 23 transgender people suffered fatal attacks in the United States. The

Human Rights Campaign The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) is an American LGBTQ advocacy group. It is the largest LGBTQ political lobbying organization within the United States. Based in Washington, D.C., the organization focuses on protecting and expanding rights for LGB ...

report found some of these deaths to be direct results of an anti-transgender

bias Bias is a disproportionate weight ''in favor of'' or ''against'' an idea or thing, usually in a way that is closed-minded, prejudicial, or unfair. Biases can be innate or learned. People may develop biases for or against an individual, a group, ...

, and some due to related factors such as homelessness. One type of violence towards trans women is committed by perpetrators who learn that their sexual partner is transgender, and feel deceived ( "trans panic"). Almost 95% of these crimes were committed by cisgender men towards trans women. According to a 2005 paper looking at HIV needs analysis in Houston, Texas, "50% of transgender people surveyed had been hit by a primary partner after coming out as transgender".

Discrimination

Like all gender variant people, trans women often face

discrimination Discrimination is the act of making unjustified distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong. People may be discriminated on the basis of race, gender, age, relig ...

and transphobia, particularly those who are not perceived as cisgender.McKinnon, Rachel. "Gender, Identity, and Society." ''Philosophy: Sex and Love'', edited by James Petrik and Arthur Zucker, Macmillan Reference USA, 2016, pp. 175-198. Macmillan Interdisciplinary Handbooks. ''Gale Virtual Reference Library''. Web. 23 Apr. 2017. A 2015 survey from The Williams Institute found that, of 27,715 transgender respondents, 52% whose families had rejected them attempted suicide, as did 64.9% of those who were physically attacked in the past year. A survey of roughly 3000 trans women living in the United States, as summarized in the report "Injustice at Every Turn: A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey", found that trans women reported that: * 36% have lost their job due to their gender. * 55% have been discriminated against in hiring. * 29% have been denied a promotion. * 25% have been refused medical care. * 60% of the trans women who have visited a

homeless shelter Homeless shelters are a type of homeless service agency which provide temporary residence for homeless individuals and families. Shelters exist to provide residents with safety and protection from exposure to the weather while simultaneously r ...

reported incidents of harassment there. * When displaying identity documents incongruent with their gender identity/expression, 33% have been harassed and 3% have been physically assaulted. * 20% reported harassment by police, with 6% reporting physical assault and 3% reporting sexual assault by an officer. 25% have been treated generally with disrespect by police officers. * Among jailed trans women, 40% have been harassed by inmates, 38% have been harassed by staff, 21% have been physically assaulted, and 20% have been sexually assaulted. The American National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs' report of 2010 anti-LGBTQ violence found that of the 27 people who were murdered because of their LGBTQ identity, 44% were trans women. Discrimination is particularly severe towards non-white trans women, who experience the intersection of

and transphobia. For example, a potential result of such discrimination is that multiracial, Latina, Black and Indigenous American trans women are twice to more than three times as likely as white trans women to be sexually assaulted in prison. In her book ''

Whipping Girl ''Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity'' is a 2007 book by the gender theorist, biologist, and writer Julia Serano. The book is a transfeminist manifesto that makes the case that transphobia is rooted ...

'', trans woman

Julia Serano Julia Michelle Serano (; born 1967) is an American writer, musician, spoken-word performer, trans– bi activist, and biologist. She is known for her transfeminist books ''Whipping Girl'' (2007), ''Excluded'' (2013), and ''Outspoken'' (2016). Sh ...

refers to the unique discrimination trans women experience as "

transmisogyny Transmisogyny, otherwise known as trans-misogyny and transphobic misogyny, is the intersection of transphobia and misogyny as experienced by trans women and transfeminine people. The term was coined by Julia Serano in her 2007 book ''Whipping ...

". Discrimination against trans women has occurred at the

Michigan Womyn's Music Festival The Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, often referred to as MWMF or Michfest, was a feminist women's music festival held annually from 1976 to 2015 in Oceana County, Michigan, on privately owned woodland near Hart Township referred to as "The La ...

after the Festival set out a rule that it would only be a space for cisgender females. This led to protests by trans women and their allies, and a boycott of the Festival by Equality Michigan in 2014. The boycott was joined by the Human Rights Campaign,

GLAAD GLAAD (), an acronym of Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, is an American non-governmental media monitoring organization originally founded as a protest against defamatory coverage of gay and lesbian demographics and their portrayals ...

, the

National Center for Lesbian Rights The National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) is a non-profit, public interest law firm in the United States that advocates for equitable public policies affecting the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community, provides free legal ...

, and the

National LGBTQ Task Force The National LGBTQ Task Force is an American social justice advocacy non-profit organizing the grassroots power of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community. Also known as The Task Force, the organization supports act ...

. The "womyn-born-womyn" intention first came to attention in 1991 after a

festival-goer, Nancy Burkholder, was asked to leave the festival when several women recognized her as a trans woman and expressed discomfort with her presence in the space.

Trans women in the media

Trans representation in television, film, news, and other forms of media was slim before the 21st century. Early mainstream accounts and fictional depictions of trans women almost always relied on common tropes and

stereotypes In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can be, for example ...

. However, portrayals have steadily grown and improved in tandem with

activism Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in Social change, social, Political campaign, political, economic or Natural environment, environmental reform with the desire to make Social change, changes i ...

. In the movie Discloure: Trans Lives on Screen, director Sam Feder explores Hollywood's history of trans representation and the cultural effects of such depictions. Many notable 21st century trans actresses and celebrities shared their stories in the film, including

Laverne Cox Laverne Cox (born May 29, 1972) is an American actress and LGBT advocate. She rose to prominence with her role as Sophia Burset on the Netflix series ''Orange Is the New Black'', becoming the first transgender person to be nominated for a Pri ...

Alexandra Billings Alexandra Scott Billings (born March 28, 1962) is an American actress, teacher, and singer. Billings is the second openly transgender woman to have played a transgender character on television, which she did in the 2005 made-for-TV movie '' Romy ...

Jamie Clayton Jamie Clayton (born on January 15, 1978) is an American actress and model. Clayton is best known for starring as Nomi Marks in the Netflix original series ''Sense8'', Sasha Booker in the third season of '' Designated Survivor'' and Tess Van De B ...

, and more.

References

{{Authority control Terms for women Transgender identities