A structure or coop designed to house and protect chickens; sometimes used to describe a chaotic or disorganized place.
Simple compound of 'hen' (female chicken, from Old English) and 'house.' The basic term dates back centuries as a standard farm building.
Before industrial farming, every cottage had a henhouse—they were so common that 'henhouse' became slang for a chaotic space, because apparently even Victorian people found their chicken coops to be disorganized, noisy messes.
Gendered metaphor: 'henhouse' metaphor for spaces containing women (often with predatory undertones, e.g., 'fox in the henhouse'). Reduces women to animals in a coop and implies vulnerability to male predation.
Avoid the metaphor when discussing groups of women or female-dominated spaces; use direct description instead.
["workplace","office","community space"]
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