: Re: How to write female characters as a male writer? Yesterday I asked a question about writing a female character who has agency. Much to my surprise, it was well-received and generated a lot

@Sent2472441

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Women, like men, are quite diverse. Some are more introspective, some are less. Some think about their feelings, and why they feel a certain way, others are more concerned with their career and how to solve that problem in the lab. Don't think of writing a woman - think of writing a person. Find out who that person is, how they think, what concerns them, then write that.

Some elements are going to be different between men and women, in part because of cultural pressure, in part because of biology. Let's talk biology first.

If I want children, theoretically, ever, as a woman I know I have this ticking clock, because as I grow older, the chance of chromosome disorders increases. I also have to plan, financially and otherwise, for nine months of pregnancy, which hopefully will go with no complications, followed by maternity leave, breastfeeding and whatnot. It's a concern that's different from the concern of a man who wants children, theoretically, ever. (I might also not want children - that's my prerogative. Nothing about being a woman says I've absolutely got to have babies.)

Culturally, I might have been conditioned to think myself "unworthy" of certain positions, "unable to attain" something, "incapable of understanding", "undeserving", etc. But that's a state of mind you also encounter in lower-class communities. It has nothing to do with gender, and everything to do with the opportunities society gives or denies a particular group. @Amadeus recently mentioned that women are interrupted more - that's one way society teaches women that their opinion matters less. (Of course, while some women might absorb this idea, others might rebel. Both options are however different from not being faced with the notion in the first place.)

In your setting, you talk of complete equality, so the second concern no longer exists, and your excerpt shows the first concern doesn't exist either. With that in mind, all the more reason for you to go to my first point - people are people, regardless of anatomy. (Those concerns would, however, be relevant to secondary characters you write - those who live in a more gendered society.)

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