The word 妇女 (fùnǚ) is formed by combining two characters, each contributing a layer of meaning to create a composite concept. The first character, 妇 (fù), specifically denotes a married woman or a wife, carrying connotations of adulthood and often domestic social role. The second character, 女 (nǚ), is the fundamental and broad term for "female" or "woman". When joined, they semantically merge to form a single term that generally means "women" as a collective group, but with a traditional nuance of adult womanhood, often used in formal, official, or collective contexts. It’s a conceptual fusion where 妇 narrows the focus and 女 generalizes it, resulting in a term for women in a societal sense.