[thehogrammer]

Ok so your beef is with the grammar, cool. "two programmers who identify as female" there ya go

[zapzupnz]

It goes from grammatically awkward to semantically awkward. I think OP/GP's point is that it's very odd that we go through hoops to avoid the clearest articulation of the point: "two female programmers".

[oh_sigh]

Perhaps we could just say 'two female programmers'