Sure, but the title of this is "Girl figures out how to program giant computer". "The boy down in ballistics got in a shootout" is not something our hypothetic

Sure, but the title of this is "Girl figures out how to program giant computer". "The boy down in ballistics got in a shootout" is not something our hypothetical police chief would say. The title also implies some level of surprise that 'girl' 'figured out' this 'giant computer'. It might seem like a nitpick, but stuff like this adds up. I used to call women 'girls' occasionally, but I stopped when I realized that I'd rarely use 'boy' if the gender was flipped.