"Woman" MP/leader instead of "Female" MP/leader

[pearlkent]

I have recently noticed this being used on the radio/TV and it's really grating as it is surely grammatically incorrect? Is it one of those sinister shifts in language?

For example when discussing the Labour leadership contest, people have started saying "should we have a woman leader?" rather than "should we have a female leader?". Or they talk about a "woman MP" instead of a "female MP". Or "there are too few women MPs" instead of "female MPs".

No one would ever say a "man MP" or a "man leader" would they?

Am I being paranoid, and if not, why have people started doing this?

Just to be clear, I'm not talking about using woman/female in situations to distinguish between sexes in professions (eg. female/male nurse or doctor, which is fine) but the use of the word "woman" instead of the correct adjective of "female".
So, policeman or policewoman is grammatically correct, but woman MP or man nurse are incorrect, and yet woman MP is commonly used.

I think it's deliberate, because after all anyone can be a woman these days, but female is a bit harder to argue scientifically (well, at the moment, but probably not in future).

No one would say "man MP"!
I would!
If I'm in a conversation with someone and they mention a woman doctor/bus driver etc, I always try to insert man doctor / man bus driver etc into the conversation. It sounds so wrong that it makes them think. It's fun!