History Main / SlidingScaleofGenderInEquality

* The stories of Creator/HPLovecraft: there are virtually no female characters across such a vast body of work. Only one of his seventy-plus stories has a female protagonist, and even then there's a whole complex issue wherein [[spoiler: it turns out to be a man in a woman's body]]. At best, a character's wife briefly appears and maybe gets a line or two.

* Creator/Iron117Prime's work falls into this. Almost all female characters in said stories are usually [[ActionGirl Action Girls]] with consistent power levels and relevancy, and the ones that aren't relegated to frontline action are important to either protagonists or antagonists, or heavily plot-relevant. Sometimes, certain characters who had little to do in their canonical stories but do have some prowess are given [[AdaptationalBadass story-based buffs]] that pretty much put them on par with their male co-stars. A common archetype in these fics is a character who wants to do more for the protagonists and they're almost always female with the stories more than willing to give them said moments.

* Creator/Iron117Prime's work falls into this. Almost all female characters in said stories are usually [[ActionGirl Action Girls]] with consistent power levels and relevancy, and the ones that aren't relegated to frontline action are important to either protagonists or antagonists, or heavily plot-relevant. A common archetype in these fics is a character who wants to do more for the protagonists and they're almost always female with the stories more than willing to give them said moments.

* UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 RPG ''Nuga-Cel'' informs you outright at the start that absolutely no men will be appearing in the game, not even as [=NPCs=]. The (male) narrator who informs you of this is fired on the spot, never to be seen again. Although the player character is male, he is never seen or heard, unless [[spoiler:you get a particular ending where he becomes the final boss]].

See also: UsefulNotes/TheBechdelTest and ChromosomeCasting.

* ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'' is commonly considered to belong here, since all of the male characters seem to be either evil or fairly ineffectual compared to Utena (or both). Then again, nobody in the show is without serious stains, and the gender dynamic is one of the points discussed.

* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''. While it shows more women in leadership positions than ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' (including female captains, admirals, and a female Chief Medical Officer), the majority of them are guest stars or minor recurring characters. Of the three women in the main cast at the start of the series, the only one in a combat role was quickly written out when her actress decided to leave the show, unhappy with the way her character was being written. The other two, while influential and highly respected crew members, are both medical professionals who rarely see action, and Counselor Troi is widely considered to be one of the more useless officers. Note that the combat woman was not written as sexist, but more as a one-note character.

%%* ''Anime/{{Patlabor}}''%%

* Most of ''Literature/TolkiensLegendarium'' fits around here. The gender balance of named characters is ''heavily'' skewed in favor of men (in ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', you barely need both hands to count all the onscreen named female characters), female leaders are rather uncommon, and female warriors are even fewer. Even in terms of worldbuilding, it is far more common for a character to have a named father and an unnamed mother than it is to have both parents named, to say nothing of the reverse. The world of Middle-Earth is explicitly patriarchal, which is rarely called into question. That said, there are still a number of rather strong and active female personalities, such as Galadriel, Eowyn, and Luthien, as well as a number of female Valar, and women are universally treated with respect by any good-aligned character. Adaptations have often tried to deal with this by either bigging up the handful of women who do exist, or inventing new ones wholecloth.

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'' tends to come close to this. Kate Beckett does tend to have the edge over Richard Castle as both a detective and an action hero, although this can be explained both by her being more driven and focused personality-wise than his more flippant and irreverent nature and by her being a trained professional detective as opposed to him being an untrained mystery writer. He's also no slouch at either solving crimes or [[LetsGetDangerous getting dangerous when necessary.]]

*** ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' brings us a close-up on one of those female Avatars, series lead Korra. Her main crew are two male benders, and her Airbender master is male as well. However, joining the female members are Pema, Ikki, Jinora, and especially Chief Bei Fong—a kickass earth bender who doesn't take crap from anybody, and Asami Sato, a rich girl who is perfectly capable of kicking asses without a bending ability. The bad guys, on the other hand, skew pretty heavily male, with the only female Equalists being background extras with no lines.

* ''WebAnimation/AlphabetLore'': Only about three female characters exist in the series: P, who [[spoiler:was killed accidentally in the middle of the story]], and also W and Y, who didn't do much.

* ''Anime/{{ICE}} – The Last Generation'' takes place in a setting where all men died and the remaining women fight over ideological differences (if they should or shouldn't bring men back) and an ICE (which is the only thing that can help them reproduce).

* ''VideoGame/{{MOTHER}}'' (also known as ''VideoGame/{{Earthbound}}'') is a series that focuses on a male protagonist throughout all three games but does tend to feature females as being fairly integral to the story throughout the series. Gameplay-wise, the female playables all suffer from being cast as relatively frail physically, though ''VideoGame/EarthboundBeginnings'' has a Pippi-Longstocking shout-out who joins early and is the strongest character in the game growthwise (same stat growth as Teddy, the game's physical powerhouse), and though Ana is technically optional, she gets a myriad of insanely strong offensive, defensive, and support PSI, and is arguably the most potent PSI user in the entire series; she can do nearly anything with her PSI. ''VideoGame/{{Earthbound}}'' is perhaps the worst offender of the series, with Paula being kidnapped repeatedly, despite her being the first playable character with some extremely potent offensive PSI at her disposal, and the one who is integral in bringing together all the other characters as well as the one character needed during the final battle thanks to her special ability. ''VideoGame/Mother3'' is by far the best in terms of gender equality portrayal, including dealing with androgyny and transgenderism in a positive light.

* ''Franchise/DeadSpace'' features several women in the supporting cast. Unfortunately, they almost universally serve as damsels in distress (Nicole in the first game, Lexine in ''Extraction'', Ellie in the third), or as MissionControl (Kendra in the first game, [[spoiler: who turns out to be TheMole and is ultimately killed by the [[FinalBoss Hive Mind]]]]). ''VideoGame/DeadSpaceExtraction'', ''VideoGame/DeadSpace2'', and the iOS version make noble efforts to include genuine {{Action Girl}}s like Karen Howell, Ellie Langford, and [[spoiler: Vandal, AKA Karrie Norton]], who is actually [[spoiler: the playable protagonist]] of the iOS edition. However, she's a rather blatant case of [[spoiler: SamusIsAGirl]], and Ellie Langford--despite establishing herself as a total badass in the second game--undergoes a massive case of BadassDecay in between games, turning her into a FauxActionGirl. ''VideoGame/DeadSpace3'' features a (long dead) female admiral as well as a female EDF pilot aboard the ''Eudora'' who gets minimal screen time before [[spoiler: being killed off]]. ''Film/DeadSpaceAftermath'' is probably the best the series gets when it comes to female characters since it stars an absolutely badass ActionGirl and features multiple other minor female characters who prove themselves to be just as capable as the men.

* Website/ThatGuyWithTheGlasses. While still a bit of a sausagefest, everyone loves [[{{Slapstick}} fighting]], everyone has varying levels of intelligence, and everyone's a lunatic.

* ''Anime/{{Vandread}}'' presents two gender-separated colonies, Tarak and Mejale which is locked in a constant state of SpaceColdWar. Tarak is the Orwellian, industrial, militarized planet of men. [[FoodPills All food is synthetic, flavorless pills.]] All public gatherings are related to sports, marching, and being manly. Everyone wears a uniform. [[CloningBlues Babies are made by merging your genes with those of your buddies in a factory]], and they are raised by dedicated orphanages-schools. Mejale is the AwesomeButImpractical planet of women. All things are polished and shiny. All military uniforms are [[{{Stripperiffic}} excessively flattering]]. Appearances are all important. The citizenry form couples, of the lesbian [[{{Seme}} top]]/[[{{Uke}} bottom]] variety, called the "Oma" and "Fama" in the native vernacular (probably derived from ''homme'' and ''femme''), and make babies by merging two eggs and implanting them in the Fama. They eat real food and celebrate real holidays, like Christmas.

* ''Manga/{{Shiki}}'' is a rather complex case. On the one hand, the characters clearly live in a patriarchal society, given that it's a traditionalist rural village in Japan. On the other, individual examples of powerful women abound, both among the humans and vampires (and on the flip side, there's a fair amount of ineffectual men), although it is true that the ''most'' powerful female character is also probably the closest thing the show has to a central antagonist. Furthermore, both males and females participate in the climactic battle at the end, seemingly with no real discrepancies in gender roles.

* ''Manga/HollowFields'', being written for all demographics, takes special care in regarding both genders with equal capability and importance. There are more women than men in the setting, with the protagonist being a female, but this doesn't stop the male characters from playing crucial roles in the story. Almost everyone is capable of [[MadScientist mad science]], and the sole exception is an artificial creation designed solely for watchkeeping (and has an ambiguous gender). The female Engineers, despite being portrayed as {{Hot Teacher}}s, are not played for {{fanservice}}, and are capable of being just as [[SadisticTeacher sadistic]] and [[EvilTeacher evil]] as their male counterparts. There are [[DistressedDude characters of both]] [[DamselInDistress genders in distress]], and either have a [[JustifiedTrope valid reason]] for being distressed, are still capable of helping their rescuer, or are an [[AcceptableTargets Acceptable Target]]. [[DefangedHorrors Considering what kind of a story this is]], both genders are also susceptible to a FateWorseThanDeath if they don't do what it takes to survive.

* The original ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' games bar ''[[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehogCD Sonic CD]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehogSpinball Sonic Spinball]]''.

* Post-Adventure ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' games rank here, as the women and men are pretty much equal, with minimal stereotyping sans designs. Unleashed onwards, however, slide the scale back to There Are No Women, as Amy and Cream are DemotedToExtra and Blaze and Rouge are PutOnABus.

* In the world of Phyllis Ann Karr's ''Literature/{{Frostflower and Thorn}}'', the ruling priestly class is basically patriarchal, but a counterbalance is provided by the fact that all warriors are women (though most women aren't warriors). The leads are female, and so are most of the sympathetic characters.

%%* ''Literature/{{Tehanu}}'' by Creator/UrsulaKLeGuin

* ''Anime/{{Vandread}}'' presents two gender-separated colonies, Tarak and Mejale which is locked in a constant state of SpaceColdWar. Tarak is the Orwellian, industrial, militarized planet of men. [[FoodPills All food is synthetic, flavorless pills.]] [[RatedMForManly All public gatherings are related to sports, marching, and being manly]]. Everyone wears a uniform. [[CloningBlues Babies are made by merging your genes with those of your buddies in a factory]], and they are raised by dedicated orphanages-schools. Mejale is the AwesomeButImpractical planet of women. All things are polished and shiny. All military uniforms are [[{{Stripperiffic}} excessively flattering]]. Appearances are all important. The citizenry form couples, of the lesbian [[{{Seme}} top]]/[[{{Uke}} bottom]] variety, called the "Oma" and "Fama" in the native vernacular (probably derived from ''homme'' and ''femme''), and make babies by merging two eggs and implanting them in the Fama. They eat real food and celebrate real holidays, like Christmas.

* Unusually for a film series spanning between the late 2000s to mid-2010s, the ''Film/{{Taken}}'' films fall flat on this level. The vast majority of male characters are the only ones involved in the fighting and drive most of the plot, with the very few relevant females[[note]]Mainly in the first movie, as Kim and Lenore are actually the two remaining females from ''Taken 2'' onwards.[[/note]] taking the role of either DamselInDistress, DisposableWoman or both. By ''Taken 2'', Kim is the only female who outgrows this position, and even then she just provides non-offensive support to Bryan, while merely trying to dodge the bad guys rather than at least fighting them back briefly with the means she has in hand (to say nothing of the fact that she returns to damsel status in ''Taken 3''). Of particular mention is the fact that plenty of Albanian women are seen mourning for their relatives at the opening funeral scene in ''Taken 2'', yet none of them appear in the Albanian families' mission to get revenge on Bryan afterwards.

* In ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'', on average, the males have much more destructive and powerful quirks suited for combat, while the females have more utility based powers. Expect the males to be the ones fighting the actual threat, while the females are relegated to rescuing civilians. That said, the series did later introduce some {{Action Girl}}s with genuine combat abilities.

* In ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'', on average, the males have much more destructive and powerful quirks suited for combat, while the females have more utility based powers. Expect the males to be the ones fighting the actual threat, while the females are relegated to rescuing civilians. That said, the series does start introducing some genuine {{Action Girl}}s later on with genuine combat abilities

* Unusually for a film series spanning between the late 2000s to early 2010s, the ''Film/{{Taken}}'' films fall flat on this level. The vast majority of male characters are the only ones involved in the fighting and drive most of the plot, with the very few relevant females[[note]]Mainly in the first movie, as Kim and Lenore are actually the two remaining females from ''Taken 2'' onwards.[[/note]] taking the role of either DamselInDistress, DisposableWoman or both. By ''Taken 2'', Kim is the only female who outgrows this position, and even then she just provides non-offensive support to Bryan, while merely trying to dodge the bad guys rather than at least fighting them back briefly with the means she has in hand (to say nothing of the fact that she returns to damsel status in ''Taken 3''). Of particular mention is the fact that plenty of Albanian women are seen mourning for their relatives at the opening funeral scene in ''Taken 2'', yet none of them appear in the Albanian families' mission to get revenge on Bryan afterwards.

* Unusually for a film series spanning between the late 2000s to early 2010s, the ''Film/{{Taken}}'' films fall flat on this level. The vast majority of male characters are the only ones involved in the fighting and drive most of the plot, with the very few relevant females[[note]]Mainly in the first movie, as Kim and Lenore are actually the two remaining females from ''Taken 2'' onwards.[[/note]] taking the role of either DamselInDistress, DisposableWoman, or both. By ''Taken 2'', Kim is the only female who outgrows this position, and even then she just provides non-offensive support to Bryan, while merely trying to dodge the bad guys rather than at least fighting them back briefly with the means she has in hand (to say nothing of the fact that she returns to damsel status in ''Taken 3''). Of particular mention is the fact that plenty of Albanian women are seen mourning for their relatives at the opening funeral scene in ''Taken 2'', yet none of them appear in the Albanian families' mission to get revenge on Bryan afterwards.

** ''Series/KamenRiderRevice'' is the first series to approach Almost Perfect Equality and fully have a female Rider as a main character. It features a SiblingTeam and the sister of the group can fight as well as her brothers (or better; she's a karate student), and she has her own storylines as she develops her strength and independence apart from them and as she has a FriendlyEnemy rivalry with the DarkChick -- which pays off when [[spoiler:said DarkChick has a HeelFaceTurn and becomes a Kamen Rider herself, adding a second woman to the roster]].