I came across 婦 from [this English-language Wikipedia
article](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comfort_women).

Jisho.org says that 婦 (which contains 女 in it) can mean married woman, but it
can mean woman or lady, and it then lists words such as 婦警 for policewoman and
婦長 for head nurse, ie roles where I assume her marital status isn't relevant.

What differences, if any, exist between 婦 and 女, outside of the context of
someone being married?
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kanji word-choice
What differences, if any, are there between 婦 and 女?
I think that it does imply married woman, and when it is used for women
regardless of the martial status, I guess it is assumed (politically)
incorrectly that women at a certain age are indeed married.
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2012-04-26T00:55:13.993
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I honestly don't think any assumption about policewomen being married lies
behind e.g. the word 婦警.

As [Goo](http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/leaf/jn2/189407/m0u/) says, one meaning
of 婦 is "married woman", another is "working woman" (although those two might
be negatively correlated).
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2012-04-26T09:03:14.933
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I would back off from over analyzing kanji.

Despite the fact that they do carry meaning, the words they make up might not
contain that meaning.

In some case words may have multiple "spellings" containing different kanji. A
good example of this would be 貴方{あなた} 貴男{あなた} and 貴女{あなた}

However in most cases there is only one common "spelling" and the meaning of
the kanji that make it up is most irreverent.
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