For context, there are ugly groups on the internet that refer to women as "females" in a way that's intended to be derogatory. (The noun form, not the adjective.) Think of how impersonal it is to say "I sat next to a male/female" vs "I sat next to a man/woman" to understand why they do this. Now people are avoiding the word "female" to distance themselves from these groups even though it's just fine as an adjective and there isn't a good alternative.

I don't think "women programmers" is the best way to phrase it, but writers haven't just randomly decided to be offended by the word "female" for no reason.