Step 1 :The class consists of 85 women and 42 men, making a total of 127 students.
Step 2 :The probability of an event is calculated by dividing the number of ways the event can occur by the total number of outcomes.
Step 3 :In this case, the event is selecting a woman and the total number of outcomes is the total number of students in the class.
Step 4 :So, we need to divide the number of women by the total number of students.
Step 5 :This gives us a probability of \(\frac{85}{127}\) or approximately 0.67.
Step 6 :Final Answer: The probability that the student is a woman is \(\boxed{\frac{85}{127}}\).