"A Woman Like Me" is a moderate R&B song which samples the horn arrangement from Simon Haseley's orchestral library music "Hammerhead", and strings and drums from his "Great Day".
[4][5] The song was initially written by the people involved in the film; however Beyoncé partially rewrote some of the lyrics and its melodies and sent "A Woman Like Me" to her team who had to redo it.
[11] According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by Hal Leonard Corporation, "A Woman Like Me" is a moderate R&B song pacing in common time of 80 BPM.
[13][14] American hip hop recording artist Ab-Soul sampled "A Woman Like Me" on his song "Still a Regular Nigga", taken from his mixtape Longterm 2: Lifestyles of the Broke and Almost Famous (2010).
[16] Writing for the American Jet magazine, Andrew Schwartz felt that the character Beyoncé portrayed sang an "iconic song", referring to "A Woman Like Me".
[7] He further noted the track was a "unique collaboration" between Beyoncé and the director of the movie, Shawn Levy, saying that it reflects the singer's "style and taste".
[18] Phil Bacharach of the website DVD Talk wrote that "The lovely Beyoncé takes center stage in two bonus features" in the film, referring to the music video of "Check on It" and the performance of "A Woman Like Me".