The Female Sign ♀: Meaning, History, and Unicode Facts

The female sign ♀ represents the female sex or gender, women, and femininity. Originally used in astronomy and astrology to denote the planet Venus, this iconic symbol features a circle with a small cross attached underneath. Today, it appears widely across biology, sociology, and digital communication as a universal marker for female identity and women's empowerment.

Tracing back to antiquity, the ♀ symbol is derived from the astrological symbol for the planet Venus. Some historians suggest the shape represents the hand mirror of the Roman goddess Venus, while others believe it evolved from the Greek planetary symbol for Phosphoros. Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus first repurposed it in 1751 to denote female plants in biological classification, forever linking the Venus symbol to the scientific concept of the female sex.

In the Unicode standard, the female sign is designated as U+2640 and belongs to the Miscellaneous Symbols block. Its official Unicode name is "FEMALE SIGN." Beyond standing alone, U+2640 plays a crucial role under the hood of your smartphone keyboard. When combined with various emoji characters—like the runner or doctor emojis—using a zero-width joiner (ZWJ), this symbol tells the operating system to display the female version of that emoji.

You will spot the ♀ symbol across many different fields. In biology and medicine, it designates a female organism or patient. In sociology and politics, it serves as a powerful emblem of feminism and the women's liberation movement. On social media platforms like X, Instagram, and TikTok, users often place it in their bios to express gender identity, celebrate International Women's Day, or signal solidarity with women's rights. Programmers and UI designers frequently implement the symbol to indicate gender selection toggles or demographic data points.

Typing the ♀ symbol is straightforward across modern devices. On Windows, ensure Num Lock is on, hold the Alt key, and type 12 on the numeric keypad. On a Mac, use the Character Viewer (Control + Command + Space) and search for "female" or "Venus." On iOS and Android smartphones, you can usually find it in the symbols section of your emoji keyboard, or by simply typing "female" into the emoji search bar.

The ♀ symbol is closely related to the male sign ♂ (U+2642), which represents the planet Mars and the male sex. You will also see combinations that build upon this classical icon, such as the double female sign ⚢ (U+26A2) which represents lesbianism, or the transgender symbol ⚧ (U+26A7). Each variation expands upon the classic Venus circle to express the rich spectrum of human gender identity.