Grammatically, it's an apposition [1] and "woman" is still a noun. This particular construct is uncommon in English, but not all that rare, either. E.g.: Science museum, prime time television, district court judge.

[1] http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/apposition

Thank you for the info, I hadn't come across that term before. There's still a difference in how we talk about men and women, which I find odd to engage in when trying to combat sexism, but I was unaware it was grammatically correct (and 'men [pastime]' just sounds wrong).

It is because woman are considered to be the adjunct, not the norm, not the average, not the expected or assumed. Its even obvious in the word itself - a prefix on the word "man", which can and is often used in place of "person" or "human", and will describe a person who is more than likely assumed to be of the masculine persuasion.

A+ on not putting "Woman" in the headline for the article, though!

Appearances to the contrary, the word "woman" is not actually based off "man", or indeed very related.

Yes, it is. It's wif-man, so a "person who is a wife" as opposed to an unmarried girl. That's why women is pronounced [wimen], because that's the original etymology.

Of course it is.

    wifman = female human
    werman = male human
    man = human

"wifman" became "woman" but the "man" is literally from "man" (meaning human). I'm not sure how much more related you can get.

Me too. I've always thought male/female is a better fit (English not being my first language).

Women sometimes find 'female' offensive. I'm not sure I can fully explain the reason, but it has to do with its use as a biological term.