'female-exclusive' originates from modern English as a compound of 'female' and 'exclusive'; 'female' comes from Old French 'femelle' and ultimately Latin 'femina' meaning 'woman', and 'exclusive' comes from Latin 'excludere' via French 'exclusif' meaning 'shut out' or 'excluding'.

'female' developed from Old French 'femelle' (from Latin 'femella' and 'femina'), and 'exclusive' developed from Latin 'excludere' > past participle 'exclusus' then through Old French/Medieval Latin into Middle English as 'exclusive' or 'exclusif'; the modern compound 'female-exclusive' formed in recent English by combining the two words.

Individually, 'female' originally meant 'woman' and 'exclusive' meant 'shutting out or excluding'; together as a compound the meaning became 'restricted to women' or 'excluding males', a straightforward combination of the original senses.