Starbuck isn't a very politically correct characters. She's self-destructive, self-absorbed, promiscuous and a drunk.
The Boomer in this show needed to be female to make her storyline work.
The new BSG added significant female characters for legitimate story-telling reasons, not political correctness. It's one of the least polically correct shows on television (witness the abortion episode, for example).
“...(witness the abortion episode, for example)”
Guys don’t watch shows about abortion.