A woman hath nine lives like a cat.

The line is attributed to John Heywood in the milieu of mid-16th-century English proverb-collecting and epigrammatic writing, where familiar folk sayings were gathered, versified, and circulated in print. Heywood’s works often trade in domestic and gendered commonplaces—witty, sometimes barbed observations meant for recitation and recognition rather than for a single dramatic “occasion.” In that setting, comparing women to cats draws on a long-standing association of cats with toughness and uncanny survivability, and it also reflects the period’s taste for proverbial generalizations about women’s behavior and resilience.

On its surface, the proverb claims that women, like cats, are hard to kill—remarkably resilient in the face of misfortune. Depending on tone and context, it can be read admiringly (women endure repeated hardships and “come back” again and again) or disparagingly (implying slyness, stubbornness, or an almost preternatural capacity to outlast conflict). The comparison also shows how early modern proverbial culture compressed complex social attitudes into memorable, repeatable images. The “nine lives” motif emphasizes persistence: whatever defeats others is survived, and survival itself becomes a defining trait.