Definition
A person or animal belonging to the sex which conceives and gives birth to young. As a legal term, "female" operates primarily as a biological or sex-classificatory descriptor applied to persons, animals, and, in older property and succession law, to enslaved persons and livestock.
In law, the term is generic rather than specific — it encompasses the broader class defined by reproductive biology — but courts have held that context may narrow its meaning to "woman" specifically, excluding minor girls from the scope of a statute or provision if the legislative intent points that way.
The term also appears in property law in the context of the rule *partus sequitur ventrem* (the offspring follows the womb), by which the young of a female animal (or, in the era of American slavery, of an enslaved woman) followed the legal condition of the mother.
---
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Belonging to the sex which typically produces eggs (ova), or to the gender typically associated with it; also used in grammar and biology.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): An individual of the sex which conceives and brings forth young; in botany, a plant which produces only the reproductive organs capable of developing into fruit.
Editorial note: The gap between common and legal meaning is contextual rather than definitional. Common usage increasingly distinguishes biological sex from gender identity, and the word has become contested in public discourse. Legal usage across historical sources treats "female" as a biological-reproductive descriptor without engaging this distinction, while contemporary statutory and constitutional law in many jurisdictions is actively litigating the boundary between "female," "woman," and "gender identity" as legal categories. Researchers working across time periods should not assume definitional stability.
---
Common Confusion
FEMALE vs. WOMAN vs. FEME: These terms appear interchangeably in some sources but carry distinct registers. "Female" is the broadest and most biological, covering persons of any age and, historically, animals. "Woman" implies adulthood and personhood. "Feme" (or "femme") is the Anglo-French legal term used specifically in the context of marital status — *feme sole* (unmarried woman) and *feme covert* (married woman) — and carries no direct equivalent in modern legal terminology. Anderson's Dictionary of Law deliberately cross-references all three, signaling that the distinction matters in older sources.
FEMALE vs. GENDER: Modern anti-discrimination statutes frequently use "sex" or "gender" rather than "female," and courts have debated whether these terms are coextensive. Researchers moving between 19th-century sources (which use "female" freely) and 20th- or 21st-century statutes (which tend to use "sex" or "gender") should not assume the terms are interchangeable across all legal contexts.
---
Why It Matters in Research
**The definitional question is deceptively active.** "Female" looks like a settled term in historical legal dictionaries, but it is one of the most contested classificatory words in current statutory and constitutional law. Researchers reading a 19th-century statute or case using "female" should apply the historical biological-reproductive meaning; researchers reading a contemporary statute must determine whether the legislature intended "female" to map onto biological sex, gender identity, or both.
**The generic/specific trap.** Black's 2nd Ed. flags the critical interpretive point: "female" is generic (covering females of all ages) but may be read specifically as "woman" (adult female) if context supports it. This matters for criminal statutes, age-of-consent provisions, and statutes creating rights or protections for "females" — courts have had to decide whether minor girls are included or excluded depending on legislative intent.
**The *partus sequitur ventrem* rule.** Bouvier's entry connects "female" directly to one of the most consequential legal doctrines in American history: that the legal status of the offspring of an enslaved woman followed the mother's condition. Researchers working in pre-Civil War property, probate, or slavery law will encounter "female" used in the context of valuing, transferring, or litigating claims over enslaved persons as property, with the reproductive capacity of "female" enslaved persons treated as an asset. This usage appears in legal instruments, inventories, and court records and requires careful historical grounding.
**Corpus navigation.** In Law Mind sources, "female" will appear in at least three distinct legal neighborhoods: (1) criminal law statutes protecting or targeting females (rape, seduction, abortion statutes); (2) property and succession law (animals, enslaved persons, *venter*-related inheritance rules); and (3) modern constitutional and statutory anti-discrimination law. These bodies of doctrine are largely separate and researchers should not carry assumptions from one into another.
---
Historical Dictionary Support
The historical dictionaries converge on a single core definition — the sex which conceives and gives birth to young — with no meaningful disagreement. The variation is in what each source chooses to do with it.
Black's (both editions) treats the term concisely and practically, with the 2nd edition adding the useful judicial gloss that "female" may mean "woman" specifically when context demands it. This is the most research-useful formulation in the historical shelf.
Bouvier's is the most substantive, embedding the definition within the *partus sequitur ventrem* doctrine and connecting it to both animal property law and the law of enslaved persons. Bouvier's inclusion of the rule that a child born to an enslaved woman in a free state was free — even without the master's consent — is a rare acknowledgment in standard legal dictionaries of the legal complexity that the doctrine generated. Researchers should not treat Bouvier's as a neutral description; it reflects antebellum American legal reality.
Rapalje & Lawrence appears to contain a printing or transcription error in the available text, with the definition of "female" running into the entry for "felony." The definition itself tracks Black's and Bouvier's.
Anderson's Dictionary of Law declines to define the term independently and instead redirects entirely to FEME, GENDER, and VENTER — a structurally telling choice that signals Anderson viewed "female" as legally meaningful only in relation to those more specific doctrinal categories.
What the historical dictionaries collectively miss: they do not anticipate, and could not have anticipated, the sex/gender distinction that would become central to 20th- and 21st-century anti-discrimination law. A researcher who relies solely on these sources for a contemporary legal question about the meaning of "female" in a statute will find the historical shelf insufficient.
---
Jurisdictional Note
Jurisdictional variation in the legal meaning of "female" has become significant since the early 21st century. Some U.S. states have enacted statutes explicitly defining "female" by biological sex characteristics; others apply the term in ways that incorporate gender identity. Federal courts have split on whether statutory references to "sex" or "female" encompass gender identity. Researchers should identify the governing jurisdiction and applicable time period before assuming any particular definition controls.
---
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: GENDER; FEME SOLE AND FEME COVERT; VENTER; PARTUS SEQUITUR VENTREM; SEX DISCRIMINATION
---