The way the halacha is phrased in the S"A is that it is prohibited to eat anything before Shemona Esrai. The Be'ur Halacha says that even someone who is permitted to eat (like a sick person) should say Kriat Shema before eating so as not to violate the putting one's own importance before G-d's aspect of the prohibition. Meaning, even the sick person should say Shema so that he is מקבל עול מלכות שמים before eating.
Since, however, according to the Rambam, women fulfill their chiyuv in tefilla by just saying any praise, request and thank you to G-d, some poskim allow women to eat after they have recited birchot ha-shachar, since reciting birchot ha-shachar can, (for a woman,) be considered having fulfilled one's obligation to daven according to the Rambam (See Minchat Yitzchak 4:28-3.) It seems, however, that many of these poskim only allow women to rely on this leniency under specific circumstances. For example, R' Shlomo Zalman Auerbach (Halichot Bat Yisrael 2:10) allowed girls who davened in school to eat breakfast at home before going to school because davening in school was part of their chinuch and therefore they would be missing out on something if they had to daven at home before they ate. He says that in addition to saying birchot ha-shachar, these girls should say kriat shema for the reason described above.
(The reason this would only apply to women is because the Rambam believes that the aforementioned in the d'orayta commandment, and the formal structure we use is the d'rabanan. Since the formal structure is a mitzvat aseh she'hazman grama, women aren't obligated in that part of it and only are obligated to do the minimal d'orayta requirement. Ashkenazi women do not pasken like this Rambam, למעשה.)
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