define a woman

so as i ponder ideas for my line of all things fabulous i come across the idea that i want it to represent women, hence i looked for synonyms for the word woman. along with the synonyms came a definition which made me wonder if the definition of a woman has really changed. they defined a woman as an adult female person who plays a significant role (wife, misstress or girlfriend) to a particular man. and one of the synonyms was a charwoman and the definition of her is a human female employed to do housework.
crazy stuff. so whats a woman?