I can sympathize with the letter writer on using the word female in front of rabbis. However, for generations, when one referred to "rabbis," it could only mean men. When we talk about Jewish tradition and what "our rabbis" said, we're still talking about bodies of text that were written by men. It's going to take another few generations until we can use "rabbis" to include women in common parlance. Until then, I think using the word female calls attention to the revolution we're experiencing in our generation, fortunate to have women as rabbis.
I can sympathize with the letter writer on using the word female in front of rabbis. However, for generations, when one referred to "rabbis," it could only mean men. When we talk about Jewish tradition and what "our rabbis" said, we're still talking about bodies of text that were written by men. It's going to take another few generations until we can use "rabbis" to include women in common parlance. Until then, I think using the word female calls attention to the revolution we're experiencing in our generation, fortunate to have women as rabbis.