written specifically to Perry's daughter, Daisy Dove Bloom, and it's one of only two songs with vulgar slurs on the album. The song's production was called "countryish" by some publications. "What Makes a Woman" was written in D minor key and it's backed-up by electric guitars, while Perry's vocals spans from E3 to B4. Release and promotion "What Makes a Woman" was released on August 20, 2020 as the first promotional single of Perry's sixth studio album Smile. It was supported by the release of acoustic video on singer's YouTube channel. It was directed by Tim Sekiguchi and it features pregnant singer in flowy, purple dotted dress performing song live. On September 1 animated video for the track was also released as a part of The Smile Video Series, and it highlights "all kinds of strong, beautiful women" according to Billboards Rania Aniftos. It was serviced to Australian radio on August 21. Critical reception Entertainment Weeklys Leah Greenblatt described "What Makes a Woman" as "strummy" and "winsome", adding that it "could be a B side from peak-era Shania Twain." Alexa Camp of Slant Magazine was positive about the track, however according to her "it comes too late [in the album] and ends too soon." Mike Wass from Idolator called the song a "gem", while Jason Brow of Hollywood Life called it "heartfelt ode". Writing for Insider Courtney Larocca praised Perry's vocals, saying that they have "warmth" and "deapth, which are perfectly paired with an absolutely gorgeous guitar riff." Emily Mackay of The Guardian called the song "the weakest" on the album, describing it as a "cliched, countryish musing on the supposed mystery of femininity." Lindsay Zoladz from The New York Times described the song as "sweet" and "twangy". Pitchforks Dani Blum found the track's songwriting to be similar to Perry's previous album, Witness (2017), and One Direction's "What Makes You Beautiful" (2011), without improving on them. Writing for Stereogum, Chris Deville said that the track "brings nothing new or interesting to its subset of inspirational ballads." Helen Brown of The Independednt called the song "one of the low points of album", because of how "uncertain" Perry "toys with gender cliches." Callie Ahlgrim and Courtney Larocca from Insider questioned song's lyrics, with Ahlgrim conclusion being "I understand that Perry's goal is to capture the contradiction and duality of womanhood, but that gets muddied by her spaghetti-against-the-wall execution," while Larocca calles them