Technically, all "cows" are female; there actually isn't a word for an individual bovine animal in the English language.
"Cow" is a female that has given birth; a heifer is a female that hasn't, but is old enough to have. Bulls are uncastrated males, and steers are castrated; calf is gender neutral but only refers to young cattle, which is the plural form, and is how a group of these animals should be referred to to unless you are aware that all of them are one sex/age/testicular situation.
Of course, that's only technically; unless gender is important to the discussion, nobody really cares if you call a steer a cow; especially not the steer.
Technically, all "cows" are female; there actually isn't a word for an individual bovine animal in the English language.
"Cow" is a female that has given birth; a heifer is a female that hasn't, but is old enough to have. Bulls are uncastrated males, and steers are castrated; calf is gender neutral but only refers to young cattle, which is the plural form, and is how a group of these animals should be referred to to unless you are aware that all of them are one sex/age/testicular situation.
Of course, that's only technically; unless gender is important to the discussion, nobody really cares if you call a steer a cow; especially not the steer.
Also: dat headline.