My comment was more about the use of "female" as a noun, but your comment about which to use as an adjective raises an interesting point, especially because, as you mention, the generation to regularly say things like "woman doctor" in a not-so-great way has mostly died out. I'm not sure where things stand currently on which adjective is preferred; I think it's mostly contextual at the moment? (Like "I would feel more comfortable being examined by a woman doctor" sounds grammatically a touch clunky but connotatively fine to me, whereas "I can't believe what that idiot female doctor diagnosed me with" sounds grammatically correct but otherwise awful)