[[folder:Web Comics]]
* This is lampshaded early on in the ''Webcomic/{{Insecticomics}}'' where Kickback claims that viewers had complained that the comic didn't have any female characters and uses this as a justification to vote to change Laserbeak's gender to female. Somehow.
* A LampshadeHanging occurred in [[http://exterminatusnow.comicgenesis.com/d/20060113.html this]] ''Webcomic/ExterminatusNow'' strip, along with heavy mocking and a fourth wall breakage.
* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'''s eponymous group consists of four males (all of whom are better in melee than ranged), one female (ranged), and an elf (whose androgyny is a RunningGag, and who is not very good at physical combat at all), though other female characters have since become prominent ''supporting'' cast members, notably Celia.
* ''Webcomic/HannaIsNotABoysName'' has an almost all-male cast, with only one of the main characters a girl and another woman being a recurring villain.
* Erin is pretty much the only female character in the ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' webcomic ''Webcomic/UGMadness''. Then again, it IS a webcomic about a game with a predominantly male player base. Erin herself is very much aware of this, and thus has a very strong drive to prove herself.
* Inverted in ''[[http://amazoness.co.uk/ Amazoness!]]'', which is set in the mythical Amazon city of Themiskyra in which men are not allowed to step foot. The only men who have shown up so far are nameless mooks who exist only to be killed by the Amazons in battle. There is the matter of [[spoiler:Eutropia who is biologically male but psychologically female.]]
* The entire cast of ''WebComic/EightBitTheater'' contains a grand total of four female characters (White Mage, Kary, Bahamut's witch girlfriend, and princess Sara), only one of which is a major one. She is also the WhiteMagicianGirl, not quite a main character and by a wide margin the least powerful character. However, this is almost undoubtedly a result of the source material or a deliberate parody thereof.
** [[spoiler:However, in the end she kills the BigBad without the help of the men, who were too incompetent to do it themselves. This does not change the fact that every other important character is male, save one villain.]]
* Inverted in ''Webcomic/QuestionableContent'', where Marten was for a long time the only male character in the main cast, with five female characters all making frequent appearances. The cartoonist tends to {{lampshade| hanging}} this in TheRant whenever a new female character shows up: "Because all I need is another female character".
* In ''Webcomic/CtrlAltDel'', of the 4 people (and one penguin) living in the main characters' house, Lilah is the only female.
* The first two arcs of ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'' are basically just Elliot and Tedd doing stuff with Sarah appearing once or twice. However, this ends up massively subverted in the end as the next three major arcs introduce five more characters, only one of which is male.
* Inverted heavily in ''Webcomic/{{Drowtales}}'', where the female characters heavily outweigh the male ones both in numbers and importance. This is a deliberate attempt to correct the male-heavy presentation of the Drow in the ''Forgotten Realms'' setting, despite their matriarchal society. It also easily demonstrates just how flexible female characterization can be at its best, and how unnecessary this trope tends to be.
* Linda Concarne is the only female regular in ''Webcomic/TriangleAndRobert.'' Of course, no one can accuse her of being MsFanservice, since the characters are all shapes. She's a rectangle.
* Terra the earthworm in ''Webcomic/OneOverZero.'' This is lampshaded by the fact that the [[InteractiveNarrator Interactive Author]] initially didn't want any female characters because he wanted his male characters to remain romantically frustrated. When it became clear HoYay would be the inevitable result, he relented and added her â€” and made her a lesbian, so the guys would ''still'' be frustrated.
* Six Pack of Otters is something of an interesting case. We have not yet been introduced to all six of the Otters that the title implies...but of the five that we have met, four are male. And the fifth, female Otter's presence is felt mostly by the other four (male) cast-member's reaction to her: she's not unseen, but she hasn't had a whole ton of screen-time either. Made unusual because the author of the comic is female, and the setting is a college campus (i.e. there's no particular reason that the setting should include few females).
* Early on in ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'', Zoë was the only female character in the cast, and played the role of OnlySaneMan compared to the zany Riff & Torg and the SociopathicHero Bun-bun. Later on, however, Zoë's friend Gwynn joined the cast, as did female alien Aylee and female [[TalkingAnimal talking ferret]] Kiki. Combined with plenty of women being among the LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters, this trope hasn't been in effect for some time.
* To the extent that ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'' has regular characters at all, Megan is the only female one. (And since it's a StickFigureComic, if she weren't called by name now and then [[TertiarySexualCharacteristics the only way to tell would be by her hair]].) Though by the same [[{{Pun}} token]], there's no way of knowing the stick figures with no indicated gender are male either.
* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' does an excellent job of averting this. The core groups of characters, such as the kids and the trolls are perfectly gender balanced. This tends to hold true for minor character groups (such as the Exiles, and, to a lesser extent, the guardians) as well. The only places where it's in effect are the Midnight Crew (0:4) and the Felt (1:14). Additionally, ascensions to God Tiers have been keeping the balance too, even with a degree of leaning to females.
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[[folder:Music]]
* Unlike other genres, it is still rare for a hip-hop label to have more than one female rapper at the same time, especially for solo acts. These women generally wind up falling into two roles: hyper-sexualized [[MsFanservice Ms. Fanservices]] (TropeCodifier Music/LilKim, Music/NickiMinaj, Trina, Shawnna, and Olivia for Bad Boy Entertainment, YMCMB, Slip-n-Slide, Disturbing tha Peace, and G-Unit, respectively) or projecting a less sexual OneOfTheBoys image (TropeCodifier MC Lyte, Lady of Rage, Yo-Yo and Da Brat for First Priority, Death Row, Lench Mob and So So Def, respectively). Post-Lil Kim, the former category has become more prominent, though, since the late 90s, more female emcees have found a happy medium between emphasizing their vocal prowess ''and'' sexual expression (former Flipmode artist Rah Digga and Eve, from Ruff Ryders). The one-girl-to-a-team rule has notably been averted by Murder Inc. (who featured Charli Baltimore, Lil' Mo and Vita), and Def Jam which, for a short period during the 2000s hosted Foxy Brown, Lady Sovereign, Unladylike, Shareefa, and Shawnna, simultaneously.
* In Music/TheProtomen's ''VideoGame/MegaMan'' RockOpera (also known as ''The Protomen''), Dr. Light's girlfriend Emily is the only female character to have lines.
* Rock bands are mostly all men, or have just one female member, who is usually the lead singer. Or the bass player.
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[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* While the ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' fluff contains a good number of female characters, there are very few of those that can be used in-game.
** Also, although a number of armies (in particular the Imperial Guard and the Eldar/Dark Eldar) are said to contain large numbers of women, up until recently unless a unit was [[AmazonBrigade overwhelmingly female]] the models wouldn't reflect it. More recent miniatures have started to correct this pattern, with female torsos being available in the Eldar Guardian box sets for example.
** Space Marines cannot be female. This is handwaved, badly.
* The fantasy origin of ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'', ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' is, if anything, worse. While it ''is'' set in a medieval society, the only women who show up in the setting are sex demons (literally), {{Lesbian Vampire}}s, [[TheFairFolk capricious forest spirits]], evil witch elves (who abduct young males so they can [[BloodBath bathe in their blood]] to become beautiful), and some nuns(?!) in a spin-off game.
** Brettonian Damsels are insulted. Yeah it doesn't help TOO much, but it's there. And then there's the female Ogre Maneater, but let's [[BrainBleach not think too hard about that.]]
* ''TabletopGame/{{Infinity}}'' seems to be going out of its way to avert this - most troop types have male and female miniatures available.
* In TabletopGame/{{AT 43}}, most armies appear to be equal-opportunity employers going by the background story, but there are basically no models of female regular troops. However, about half the special characters (who are all officers) ''are'' female, as are two out of the three released models of medics and one of the three scientist models.
** Justify with the Cogs being a OneGenderRace (and all clones)
* Played entirely straight with the 2014 co-op minis game {{Myth}} from MERCS Miniatures. The core heroes are four men and a woman. (They do offer a set of gender-swapped heroes for separate purchase, which lampshades the problem with its relentless pinkness.)
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[[folder:Video Games]]
* In ''VideoGame/OnePieceMansion'', Raspberry is described as being the only female in Syndicate 5.
* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVIII'' has Jessica, the only female playable character in a group of 4. She may be the SquishyWizard but she has some of the more powerful weapon attacks. Though she does have some [[MsFanservice interesting]] costume changes. She's also the third character you get and the only one who can throw the big blaster spells. And there's also Princess Medea, but...
* The ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' series has played with this trope throughout its entries:
** Of the six character classes in ''Final Fantasy I'', only the WhiteMage looks female (and the original White Wizard [[http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110109223549/finalfantasy/images/b/bc/White_Wizard_%28Final_Fantasy%29.png graphic]] confirms White mage as a male {{Bishonen}}). It's possible to see all of the characters as androgynous to be female and the remakes give most classes both male and female names.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyII'' only has two female playable characters out of ten, Maria and Leila, with the latter being one of the seven {{Guest Star Party Member}}s. The core group is TwoGuysAndAGirl.
** The original version of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII'' stars the all-male Onion Knights; the remake for the DS makes one of them a girl.
** Notably, every game since ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'' has had exactly three female characters in the playable cast, regardless of the total cast size. This is explicitly referred to as the [[RuleOfThree Three Females Rule]] in Squaresoft fan circles. This even extends to entries that don't follow The Smurfette Principle, like ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'' (three women, two men) and '' VideoGame/FinalFantasyX-2'' (an all-female party of three). Note that later games have gravitated toward a total playable cast size of 6, thus equalizing the gender balance while still following the rule.
** This is obvious in the crossover ''Dissidia''. [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI Terra]] is the only female on the protagonist side in the main storyline, besides the goddess Cosmos herself, entirely because the roster is composed of only the main characters of each game, and ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' is the only one to have a female lead. Secret fighter [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI Shantotto]] does get a storyline all to herself. The side of evil is slightly fairer with [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII Ultimecia]] and [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII The Cloud of Darkness]] in their ranks, but the latter is questionable since "she" is technically female in physical form only and tends to [[GenderAndJapaneseLanguage talk like an old man]]. It has the same problem that most of the main villains in the series are male. The Dissidia Duodecim additions of [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Tifa Lockhart]], [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX Yuna]] (who was the original pick to represent her game before settling on Tidus), [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI Prishe]] and [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII Lightning]] alleviate this somewhat on the heroes' side, but the cast is still overwhelmingly male.
* In the first ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'', all of the Seraphim (Michael, Uriel, Raphael, and Gabriel) were presumably male, but the second game reveals Gabriel is a girl, and all subsequent SMT and ''VideoGame/{{Persona}}'' games featuring Gabriel retain this.
* ''VideoGame/{{Wild ARMs 1}}'' and ''[[VideoGame/WildARMs3 3]]'' both follow this trope. Each of the two games has one playable female character (teamed up with two or three males), though Cecilia and Virginia are each portrayed as the one calling the shots.
** Heck, Virginia is considered [[TheHero The Main Character]] of Wild Arms 3.
** ''Wild [=ARMs=]: Alter Code F'', a remake of the first game, alleviated the gender issue by adding Calamity Jane and Ema to balance the cast (Zet, a guy, is also recruitable)
** ''VideoGame/WildArms2'' and ''VideoGame/WildArms4'' have an even spread of male to female, though both started with TwoGuysAndAGirl.
* Overall, the major ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' characters tend to lean in favor of males; only in ''Diamond'' and ''Pearl'' was a female Champion introduced, and it took until ''[[VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite Black]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite White]]'' to introduce a female Pokémon Professor. In spite of this, the Gym Leaders and the Elite Four are normally reasonably balanced and the player has been able to play as a boy or a girl since ''[[VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver Crystal]]'', with the developers having planned to implement female player characters since the beginning. ''[[VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire Ruby/Sapphire]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite Black/White]]'' also have female rivals.
* Most ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' games avert this; there are only two cases: while ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil'' has two major female characters, they are the sole female members of their respective STARS teams (Jill for Alpha team, Rebecca for Bravo team). Meanwhile, ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2'' subverts this; among the four major player characters, Leon's the only guy, joined by Claire, Ada, and Sherry. 
** Weirdly, in early games, there are almost never any female zombies (the first game only had male zombies, while the second and third games had only one female zombie ''model'' among a slew of male models); this is averted by the time ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil0'' rolls around.
* Inverted in the original ''ValkyrieProfile'': Gandar is the only male recruitable sorcerer in the game (and the most powerful one to boot in terms of base stats), notwithstanding Lezard being usable in the BonusDungeon only available on [[HardModePerks Hard Mode]]. Also, Lenneth can fight two ways, both as a light swordswoman (along with swordswoman Jayle) or as an archer (making her the only female archer). There's also Aelia the lancer, but there are only two of them in that game anyway (along with the male Lawfer)
* In Scribblenauts Unlimited, Maxwell has many, many siblings you can unlock and play as. All but one of them are brothers, and the one sister is the distressed damsel. 
* In the ''VideoGame/ApeEscape'' series, Pink Monkey is one of the Freaky Monkey Five.
* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' was never character-heavy in its early games, but no female character was even ''seen'' until Amy Rose, who looked like a little pink Sonic in a dress. More characters have been introduced as the cast has expanded, but the majority have been male.
** At one point, Sega tried to produce a series with "Sonic's Sister", but the effort proved unsuccessful. Perhaps because they tried to [[DolledUpInstallment edit her into]] ''VideoGame/PopfulMail'' for localization of that game.
* In the first installment of the Nintendo MassiveMultiplayerCrossover, ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'', the only playable female was Samus Aran ([[SamusIsAGirl and her gender is pretty much hidden by her armor]]). In the next, out of 13 new characters, ''Super Smash Bros. Melee'' introduced three new females, one of whom teamed with a male character as the Ice Climbers. ''Super Smash Bros. Brawl'' didn't add any females to the cast, though it did make the gender of Samus and Sheik more visible.
** In general, [[{{Crossover}} crossover series]] featuring established characters tend to have a larger male ratio. 3 crossovers which come to mind that have larger amounts of females are ''Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo'', ''Pocket Fighter/Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix'', and ''VideoGame/CrossEdge''.
* On a related note, many other {{fighting game}}s fall victim to the same problem, but not because they're drawing from other canons. It is rare to find more than a few female characters available to play out of an otherwise large collection. Generally, the female characters are also [[FragileSpeedster notably weaker]] than the male characters. This is parodied in ''Webcomic/VGCats'' -- [[http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=130 here]].
** A pretty notable exception in ''VideoGame/MeltyBlood'', which has 14 unique characters (and a bunch of other [[RyuAndKen alternate forms for those characters]]). Of this large cast, there are ''four'' unique males, three of them are antagonists. This may be because ''Melty Blood'' is based off of a VisualNovel.
** Eventually averted by both of Namco's major fighting-game franchises, ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}'' and ''[[VideoGame/SoulSeries SoulCalibur]],'' which gradually developed more gender-balanced casts as they progressed. Albeit mostly for fanservice purposes...
* The ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' games' only recurring female character was Princess Peach, who was usually a DamselInDistress. This changed as Princess Daisy and Birdo became full-fledged main characters and with the introductions of Toadette, a feminized Toad, and Rosalina, both of which were somewhat less stereotypical than Peach. The ratio still heavily favors males.
** And Birdo? Actually, fandom and the story bits from various games are conflicted over whether Birdo is a man, woman, or transsexual. In the games it was initially a male cross-dresser, but was retconned into being female.
** Also, some of the [=RPGs=] feature individual female characters from enemy species (e.g. Goombella the Goomba from ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'', Bow the Boo from ''VideoGame/PaperMario'', and Kylie Koopa from ''[[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiPartnersInTime Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time]]'').
** The first two ''MarioParty'' games had Peach as the sole playable female character. This was changed in ''Mario Party 3'' when Daisy was added to the cast.
** On the villain side, the first evil female was the single girl of the Koopalings, Wendy O. Koopa. Captain Syrup showed up later as Wario's nemesis, and some stage bosses were female (Naval Piranha). Lately the villainous ladies have become more numerous with Cackletta, the Shadow Queen, Princess Shroob and Elder Princess Shroob, Mimi, the Shadow Sirens, and Robirdo.
* ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry'' has only a few female Kongs: Candy Kong was the first, a vaguely {{fanservice}}y monkey who helps the player. Dixie Kong was introduced as Diddy's girlfriend, simultaneously with the grandmotherly Wrinkly Kong, and Tiny Kong was the only female member of ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong64'''s FiveManBand.
** Similarly, the Kremlings were always male in the games, and it wasn't until ''Barrel Blast'' that females were finally featured (specifically, Kass and Kalypso).
** ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountryReturns'' has no [[AmbiguousGender apparent]] females at all.
* Many games with a four- or FiveManBand have exactly one female. [[TheChick Guess which role she usually fills]]. Examples:
** ''Billy Hatcher'': four main characters, one female.
*** Billy Hatcher also only had one female chicken elder. The rest were male. In fact, her being the only female elder is [[LampshadeHanging noted by an NPC]].
** ''VideoGame/CrazyTaxi'' has four playable drivers, one woman.
** Capcom's ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' arcade series (Tower of Doom, Shadow over Mystara) has the female elf as a GlassCannon and LadyOfWar, along with the male fighter, cleric, and dwarf. The latter game includes a FragileSpeedster female thief (and a male magic-user).
** ''[[VideoGame/FinalFight Final Fight 2]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/FinalFight 3]]'' has Maki and Lucia respectively. Both are {{Fragile Speedster}}s naturally, but Lucia is actually a bit stronger than Guy (the token speedster in that game).
** ''VideoGame/{{Gauntlet}}'' has three male (Warrior, Wizard, Elf), one female (Valkyrie). Sequel ''Gauntlet Legends'' averts this by changing the androgynous-looking elf to a female elven Archer. ''Dark Legacy'' falls back in when adding four more characters to the existing four: three male (Dwarf, Knight, Jester) and one female (Sorceress). As well, the breasts on all the women became about [[GagBoobs twice the size of their heads]]. ''Seven Sorrows'' then goes back to the original four characters.
*** ''VideoGame/GetMedieval'', a SpiritualSuccessor by Monolith Productions, kept a 2:2 ration by turning the Wizard into a naughty sorceress whose every line was a DoubleEntendre. (Okay, some were even single ones...)
** Both ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'' games have one female in a group of three males. In [[VideoGame/Left4Dead2 the sequel]], the two groups meet so it's two girls with six guys. All the [=NPCs=] in the game are male, including the zombies until the female version of the Boomer was introduced in the sequel.
* ''VideoGame/HeavyRain'': Four playable characters, one female--complete with [[spoiler: relationship conflicts with another main]] and sexualized role (which you can undermine later, but still).
* In the ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' games, while there are a small handful of important female [=NPCs=], when it comes to the playable characters, the three main characters are all male, and there's only one female GuestStarPartyMember in each game; Ariel of ''Disney/TheLittleMermaid'' in the first one, and Disney/{{Mulan}} in the sequel.
** This is partially due to the constraints of the setting. How many female Disney characters could believably be adapted to combat? Even Ariel was a big stretch...though given that this is a game who managed to make [[spoiler:Mickey Mouse]] a {{badass}}, it's not impossible.
** Well, let us not forget [[CastFullOfPrettyBoys Organization XIII]]. Out of thirteen members, there is only ''one'' female (maybe Xion, the new character introduced in ''[[OddlyNamedSequel 358/2 Days]]'', raises the number a little. But since she is nowhere to be seen in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'', she was probably killed off for real).
*** Xion's a confusing example, [[spoiler: She's a replica, which doesn't even make gender matter, but she also takes the view of the memories of who's viewing her, this makes her female (A memory of Kairi) to Roxas, but Xigbar sees her as male (Ventus).]]
** The main characters of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'', Terra, Ven(tus), and Aqua fall victim to this. 2 males, one female. [[spoiler:Then it turns out that due to their fates and how the endgame plays out, Terra and Ven become {{decoy protagonist}}s to Aqua somewhat...]]
* Most ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'' games allow the player to choose between an equal number of male or female original characters. While this doesn't quite help the ratio among the licensed games, it makes for a more or less even mix among characters in the ''Original Generation'' series.
* The ''VideoGame/MegaMan'' series, as a whole, does this constantly. There is a grand total of two female characters in the entire original series - Roll, who took until ''10'' to get a single plot-significant action to her name (and is never playable except as a joke -- she's a [[{{Meido}} housekeeping robot]]), and ''VideoGame/MegaMan4's'' Kalinka, who exists entirely to be kidnapped. As for the villains, they had to be male because of the naming scheme -- every Robot Master is called <word> ''Man''. This has changed with the introduction of Splash Woman in ''9''...then ''10'' went back to the status quo.
** The CapcomVsWhatever games have their own different UnfortunateImplications concerning Roll. In ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom2'', she was such an awful JokeCharacter that she got her own [[CharacterTiers tier]]. In ''VideoGame/TatsunokoVsCapcom'', thanks to the release of ''VideoGame/MegaManPoweredUp'', her moverset has a StayInTheKitchen theme.
** In [[WesternAnimation/MegaMan the Ruby-Spears cartoon]], Roll was more of a FauxActionGirl than a generic housekeeper. There was still the "vacuum-for-an-arm" complex she seemed to have developed, though...
** The ''[[VideoGame/MegaManX X]]'' series has only a couple, mostly in noncombat roles as well -- Iris was Zero's love interest and apparently not a combatant (though she did fight at the end -- against him, [[spoiler:and she dies by his sword]]), Alia plays mission control in later games, and a few of the bosses are feminine.
*** ''X8'' changes this slightly, as the three female operators are unlockable as bonus characters, each one emulating one of the main (male) characters to varying degrees of success. Alia isn't all that useful as she lacks X's ability to use different armor parts, but Layer is every bit as powerful (and badass) as Zero, and Palette lacks only Axl's ability to copy enemies (which is mostly used for the purpose of finding items rather than combat).
** The ''[[VideoGame/MegaManZero Zero]]'' series began to turn the tables. The series had Ciel (the most important non-player character), Leviathan (one of the four Guardians, a QuirkyMinibossSquad that evolved), Neige, and many of the bosses and Resistance [[NonPlayerCharacter NPCs]] are female.
** Finally, each of the ''[[VideoGame/MegaManZX ZX]]'' games has one male and one female protagonist -- a decision that [[SchrodingersPlayerCharacter has its own problems]], but at least lets girls save the ''Mega Man'' world for once.
** The ''[[VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork Battle Network]]'' series inherited the same problem as the original, since most of the Navis are based on original-series Robot Masters. However, there are ''lots'' of female human characters to make up for it.
*** Actually, one of the no-name [=NPCs=] you can talk to in the second game casually mentions "A cute girl like me wouldn't-", despite having a generic Navi NPC sprite ("commercial model", they're called in-game), albeit a red-hued version.
** The upcoming ''Rockman Online'' has four announced characters: X, Zero, Duo, and Cinnamon. Guess which one's the token chick.
* ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft}}'' had exactly one named female character: Sarah Kerrigan, who is [[LeftForDead betrayed]] but rapidly becomes the [[BigBad queen bitch of the universe]] as the Queen of the Zerg. The expansion set added the Protoss matriarch Raszagal (the only female Protoss for the next ten years). ''VideoGame/StarcraftII'' expands the universe a bit, including adding supporting female human characters, but with Raszagal dead, the role of "only female Protoss" is inherited by Executor Selendis, who will be the protagonist of the second expansion set.
** Starcraft: Ghost's main character was to be a female Ghost, not unlike Kerrigan. In its cinematic, she sits in the shadows of a Dropship on the way to the battle area. A macho Marine makes a sexist comment, and is silently stared down as she leans out of the shadows and is revealed to [[SamusIsAGirl be a woman]].
* Many early computer games would let the players choose their gender (as well as, often, other attributes like name, race and age) at the start of the game (unless you were a FeaturelessProtagonist, of course). As the amount of assets (graphics, voice acting, and sometimes even onscreen actors) needed to portray player characters increased, many studios discreetly dumped this feature. Modern games that let you choose a gender offer varying amounts of plot and gameplay branching as a result of the choice.
* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' allowed you to choose your character's gender, but of the four recruitable [=NPCs=] only one was female. In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}'' it got worse, with eight recruitable males, four dogs, a robot...and one female human, who was literally worse than useless (useless in a fight, can't gain levels, takes up a party slot and ''won't leave unless you kill her or sell her to slavers''. The being said, [[FemmeFatale some quests in the game were more easily completed if you were a woman]]. It is debatable whether this helps, but it certainly won't pass UsefulNotes/TheBechdelTest.
** ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' is somewhat better in this regard, having two female recruitable [=NPCs=] who are relatively useful. However, they are still in the minority (there are three male companions, as well as a genderless (formerly male) super mutant, a male dog and a robot with a male voice).
** ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' has two recruitable female characters of comparable use with a formerly female nightkin supermutant (which used to be a sweet old granny.) Four of the remaining five are males, among them a ghoul and a cybernetic mutt.
** The [[AllThereInTheManual Fallout Bible]] mentions Vault 68, populated with 999 men and only one woman, and Vault 69, with 999 women and only one man. It is never mentioned what happened in these vaults, but considering the [[CrapsackWorld tone of the games]] and the other vaults, they probably didn't end well.
* ''Franchise/MassEffect'' applies the trope quite strongly -- to ''entire species'', not individuals. You never see a female turian or batarian, although female turians are shown in the ''Mass Effect: Evolution'' comic. It's difficult to determine the gender of volus and hanar, but all the ones we've met have masculine voices and none have been suggested to be female. One female elcor can be heard, but not seen, in the Blasto 6 commercial. The asari are a mono-gendered species, but they all look and sound very much like human women. Creator/BioWare has said this was so they wouldn't have to design separate character models for each race.
** The lack of Female Turians is finally averted in the ''Omega DLC'' for the third game, features a female Turian biotic named Nyreen. The multiplayer mode now has female turians as well.
** It should also be mentioned that the playable cast completely averts this. ''VideoGame/MassEffect'' has three women (if you count Liara, from the mono-gendered asari race) and three men. ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' has five men and four women, [[spoiler: and it probably would have been five and five, except the last playable character is a geth]], and there's one female and one male in DLC. ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' can change drastically based on who survived Virmire and the Collector Base, but there are two mandatory female party members, and only one mandatory male. If Ashley survives Virmire, it's possible to have the women doubly outstrip the men - EDI, Liara, Ashley and Tali compared to Garrus and James. (It should be noted that EDI is an AI, but she's very distinctively female). And of course, Sheperd herself/himself can also tip the balance.
* ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpires'' later added in female villagers to the series (villagers may be either gender) in response to a lack of females in the first game. {{Justified|Trope}} otherwise since virtually all other units were combatants, and everyone knows that very few past cultures allowed women to fight.
** The original version of spinoff ''VideoGame/AgeOfMythology'' does this with the playable deities. There are eight male gods [[note]][[GreekMythology Zeus, Hades, Poseidon,]] [[EgyptianMythology Ra, Set,]] [[NorseMythology Odin, Thor and Loki]][[/note]] and only one goddess ([[EgyptianMythology Isis]]). The ''Titans'' expansion adds another, [[GreekMythology Gaia]].
* Rather smurfy is the ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'' series, especially ''Warcraft III'': Out of ''twelve'' heroes, only one, the Priestess of the Moon, is female, and the consensus is that she is [[CharacterTiers the worst]] of them all. You mean they couldn't ''at least'' squeeze a Jaina Proudmoore lookalike in there, given that she's already a custom model representing the hero type? At least there are actually female units, so that ''could'' be a step in the right direction.
** Looking at the races themselves, only the Night Elves have a significant amount of female units. The humans have the sorceress, orcs have nothing at all and the undeads have the banshees. And there are no female neutrals either, unless you count the High Elven archers. Oh, and in the game, the Priestess's icon is a portrait of her ''tiger'', not the Priestess herself, unlike all the other male heroes who have portraits of their faces.
** A few bones are thrown to the gender-equality crowd in the expansion ''The Frozen Throne''. Three female heroes -- the Warden, the Dark Ranger, and the Naga Sorceress -- were added, and were at least decent.
** The earlier games in the series had ''no'' female characters in the game. At all. Until ''Beyond The Dark Portal'', and then you got only one: Alleria Windrunner, a unique unit and Sylvanas's elder sister.
*** ''Warcraft 1'' had a half-orc, half-human (who was later retconned into half-Dranei) girl. Garona Halforcen was present in one mission of ''Warcraft 1''. The Smurfette Principle in full force.
** The Orc gender balance was also acknowledged in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' in that the orcs actually ''were'' sexist. Despite being every bit as aggressive and strong as the men, women were denied combat roles. Thrall changed that between ''[=WC3=]'' and ''[=WoW=]''.
** And that is before getting into their [[http://www.wowpedia.org/images/thumb/7/7e/Sylvanasstatuee.jpg/180px-Sylvanasstatuee.jpg outfits.]]
* Contrast ''VideoGame/EverQuest'', where female characters seem to outnumber male ones. Both ''Everquest'' and ''Everquest 2'''s main characters, Firiona Vie and Antonia Bayle respectively, were female. Firiona's nemesis, Lanys Ty'Val, was female as well.
* The ''VideoGame/StarFox'' games follow the principle. [[VideoGame/StarFox1 The original game]], and its remake, ''VideoGame/StarFox64'', featured an all male membership in the title team (bad jokes about Slippy's AmbiguousGender notwithstanding) and only one female character period--sometime ally Katt, who assisted you in Zoness and Sector Z. It wasn't until ''VideoGame/StarFoxAssault'' that the team gained a permanent female member: Krystal from ''VideoGame/StarFoxAdventures''.
** The [[VaporWare unreleased]] ''Star Fox 2'', however, would have added two female characters to the roster - GenkiGirl Fay and ActionGirl Miyu.
** And in ''Command'', there are a solid 4 females: Krystal, Kat, and newcomers Lucy (Peppy's daughter) and [[TheScrappy Amanda]], Slippy's ''female'' love interest. There is even an all-girl mission.
** Then we have the 1993 Magazine/NintendoPower comics with [[BadassDamsel Fara Phoenix]], Fox [=McCloud=]'s future {{Love Interest|s}}.
* All three entries of the ''[[VideoGame/EarthBound Mother]]'' series has had three guys and one girl in the main party (or in ''VideoGame/{{Mother 3}}'''s case, two guys, a girl and a dog), the girl being the psychic powerhouse.
* Four main playable characters in ''VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou'', and you can count how many of them are female on the single hand of a blind butcher.
* ''VideoGame/SengokuBasara'' spinoff fighting only had Oichi as the only "true" playable female character of the sausage fighting fest. The rest of the girls are delegated to backup.
* The first iteration of ''VideoGame/StreetFighterII'' had only one female warrior out of twelve fighters, Chun-Li. This gradually changed through the course of the series with the introduction of Cammy in ''Super Street Fighter II''; Rose, Sakura, R. Mika, Karin, Juni and Juli in the ''VideoGame/StreetFighterAlpha'' series; Ibuki, Elena, and Makoto in the ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIII'' series; and Crimson Viper and Juri in the ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIV'' series.
** One of Chun-Li's win quotes in ''VideoGame/TatsunokoVsCapcom'' (which has a roughly even male/female mix) makes fun of this: "I remember when I was the only girl on the roster."
** The cast of crossover characters from ''VideoGame/FinalFight'' initially featured four characters, all male, but this changed with the addition of Maki (from ''Final Fight 2'') in the portable versions of ''Alpha 3''.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFight Revenge'' features an all-male cast, excluding ([[ShesAManInJapan or including]]) Poison. As made fun in one fansite, "Ohh, and there's only one girl...Ohh wait, Poison is a transsexual. Yep, there's no girls in this fighting game."
*** The western release of the Super NES port of ''Final Fight'', [[WouldntHitAGirl replaced Roxy and Poison with two (non-crossdressing) dudes named Sid and Billy]], making Jessica (an NPC) into the only girl in Metro City.
* The ''VideoGame/FatalFury'' series introduced its first female fighter with the ninja girl Mai Shiranui in ''Fatal Fury 2''. Blue Mary was introduced in ''Fatal Fury 3'' to balance things out, followed by Li Xiangfei in ''Real Bout 2'' and Tsugumi Sendo in ''Wild Ambition''. ''Mark of the Wolves'' only had two female fighters (B. Jenet and Hotaru) out of a roster of 14 characters.
* The ''VideoGame/ArtOfFighting'' trilogy has a total of only five female fighters in the entire series. In the first installment, King, the sole female fighter in that game, [[{{Bifauxnen}} is disguised as a male bouncer]] [[ClothingDamage until her shirt is torn in battle]]. [[FanService Wonder why her gender was revealed that way?]]
* Despite being the flagship ActionGirl of the video game world, Samus Aran of ''VideoGame/{{Metroid}}'' fame managed to become the Smurfette in ''her own series'' in ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime: Hunters.'' Six new bounty hunters were introduced, all of them male or [[PronounTrouble ambiguously so]]. She's also the only Hunter without a unique weapon, unless you count the fact that her missiles home--but this may be due to the tendency of game heroes [[JackOfAllStats not to specialize]] than any smurfiness. ''Metroid Prime 3: Corruption'' was more fair, as one of the three new hunters was another woman.
** If we've learned anything from the series, it's [[SamusIsAGirl don't assume the guy in the all-encompassing armor...is.]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'' managed to avert this issue pretty well by both Chell and [=GLADoS=] being female.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Bully}}'', each social clique has only a single female member versus about half a dozen male members.
* While ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' has a diverse cast of genders in most games, some of them have this problem with the villains. General Petrine of Daien is the only woman among the Four Riders, and the only other female villain in the game is Ena, [[spoiler:who pulls a HeelFaceTurn after the heroes [[DefeatMeansFriendship defeat her at the capital]]]]. ''Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones'' had only Selena on the villains roster [[spoiler:and even then Selena remains loyal to her homeland, not being one of the 3 truly evil generals]]. ''Fire Emblem'' (aka ''Rekka no Ken'') was a little more balanced, though it still had more male villains than females and two of the "females" (along with one of the "males") are explicitly genderless.
* At one time to some people, ''VideoGame/SpyroTheDragon'' was classified as a ''sexist'' game because there were no important female characters at first. But then along came Bianca and Elora, with the first being a sort of villain and the other just a love interest. And then there was [[EnsembleDarkhorse Sheila]], a female kangaroo. Even in the ''Legend of Spyro'' series, Cynder is the only important female, with no other females present, which leads to this trope heading for some very UnfortunateImplications, although false allegations of Cynder being a MarySue are overpowering what bizarre ideas could be drawn from a universe of mostly male dragons.
* Both ''VideoGame/StarWarsBattlefront I'' and II feature at least four factions and have as much as three female characters, the generic Rebel Sniper class (which is excluded in a few maps), Princess Leia, and Aayla Secura, the latter two both hero class characters limited to appear in as much as four maps (if you count Hero Assault).
** If you own the Xbox version there is Asajj Ventress hero character from the DLC.
* ''VideoGame/Wolfenstein3D'' has one single female in both series, who is a boss that looks almost exactly like her brother and has a low voice.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}} I'', only one of the three (the Rogue) classes was female. ''Diablo II'' evened the gender balance a bit with three female classes and four male ones. ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'' removes the problem entirely by allowing the player to be either gender for all classes.
** ''Diablo I'' was either more or less balanced with the inclusion of the Hellfire expansion depending on how you approach it. It added the male monk class by default, plus mildly altered remakes of the Warrior and Rogue that could only be unlocked by futzing with a system file.
* ''VideoGame/{{Torchlight}}'' has the same gender ratio as ''Diablo I'' (not surprising, considering the similarity between the two games and many of the same developers). Also like ''Diablo'', the lone female happens to be the physical ranged damage dealer.
* Every ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}: VideoGame/DawnOfWar'' game has one female character (the Eldar Farseer) and one female unit (the Howling Banshees, also Eldar), with ''Dark Crusade'' adding the [[DanceBattler Harlequin]] and ''Soulstorm'' introducing another female unit and the [[AmazonBrigade Sisters of Battle]]. This is justified for the explicitly all-male Space Marines and the genderless aliens, though for the other factions...not so much.
** Somewhat misleading also, as female Farseers in lore are actually a minority, and howling banshees are 50% male (though they still wear female armor and refer to themselves as the daughters of...some elder crone chick from their mythology. Reverse is true for the other aspect warriors, it's just not obvious.)
* ''NezumiMan'' has Wave Nezumi, the only female boss of the eight. Kind of a coincidence then that her powers are the same element as Splash Woman's.
* ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'' both plays this straight and subverts it. The main cast of NPC heroes, the Freedom Phalanx, has only two females, Numina and [[HeroesWantRedHeads Sister Psyche]], who ended up marrying one of the others, Manticore. The game's ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'' {{Expy}}, the Vindicators, is all female ''except'' two.
** The villain groups in [[CityOfAdventure Paragon City]] are almost all male, with two exceptions (there seems to be a pattern here...), the [[CircusOfFear Carnival of Shadows]] and the Knives of Artemis.
* The only females in the entirety of ''VideoGame/{{Half-Life|1}}'' are the black-clad assassins who never speak and only appear in two areas. However, ''VideoGame/{{Half-Life 2}}'' has an equal distribution of genders amongst the random civilians and LaResistance members as well as the inclusion of Alyx, who with ''Episode One'' and ''Episode Two'' has been elevated to Main Character status alongside Gordon.
* The playable characters in both ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'' and its sequel consist of three men and one woman - neither is TheChick, however, and they are both distinctly different from each other. This is explained as [[spoiler: the gene to be resistant to TheVirus is recessive and carried on the x-chromosome. Women need two copies of the gene, while men only need one, explaining the genetically sound 3:1 ratio.]]
* Let's see, Franchise/MortalKombat... For [[VideoGame/MortalKombat the first game]], the creators realized they didn't have any female fighters in their roster, so they changed the character of male Kurtis Stryker into female Sonya Blade (Stryker would become a fighter after all in the third game). This made her the only female out of 7 playable characters and 10 fighters overall. Later games have made sure to include female playable characters from the start, with the ratio male:female about 5:1. As for the various factions and species, most of the time there are more (known) male characters than females, the exceptions being the saurians (1:1 or 1:2), the demons (2:5), and the vampires (0:1 or 1:1). Interestingly in case of the vampires, initially there were supposed to be a female and male vampire introduced in ''[[VideoGame/MortalKombatDeadlyAlliance Deadly Alliance]]'', but the male was dropped because of time constraints.
* ''VideoGame/{{Drakengard}}'': Aside from professionally DamselInDistress Furiae, the only female character of note is Arioch. Who is a deranged, barren elf who [[EatsBabies eats children]]. She isn't even the worst person in the party, which includes a sociopathic mass murderer who routinely kicks his own allies in the head, a senile, racist old man, a pedophile, and a six-year-old boy [[spoiler:who dooms the world out of petty spite]].
* Several of the ''Franchise/{{Ultima}}'' games have a less-than-favorable ratio. While the eight "Companions of the Avatar" had a 4:4 ratio, the females generally had worse stats. (By design in Katrina's case, as Shepherds by design aren't supposed to excel.) The trio of Iolo, Dupre and Shamino (all male) also kept gaining prominence over other characters as the game went on. The [[VideoGame/UltimaVIII eighth]] and [[VideoGame/UltimaIX ninth]] games even disallowed playing as a female main character!
* The ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' series fits this trope well. In the first game, Sniper Wolf is the only female foxhound member. In the 2nd game, Fortune is the only female Dead Cell member. In the 3rd game, The Boss is the only female Cobra unit. In [=MGS4=], Meryl is the only female member in Rat Patrol 01. Finally, in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker'', Paz, Amanda and doctor Strangelove are the only female members in the MSF in terms of storyline, although you can recruit more female soldiers into your unit to even the balance.
* Rachel Parker in the ''VideoGame/{{Resistance}}'' series is the only female recurring survivor.
** Somewhat subverted with ''Resistance: Retribution'' where the major issue is fighting an army of Female Chimera along with the typical Chimera mooks.
* Chizuru, Shermie, and Shion are the only female boss characters you will face in ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters'' series, in 96/2003, 97, and Xi respectively.
* The ''AceCombat'' series is a pretty bad offender (but then again, they are gaming equivalents of ''Film/TopGun''):
** ''VideoGame/AceCombat2'' had a single significant female character, namely the optional wingwoman Kei Nagase. The other potential wingman was a ScaryBlackMan and the PlayerCharacter FeaturelessProtagonist is referred to as male.
** The un-{{macekre}}d Japanese version of ''VideoGame/AceCombat3Electrosphere'' is, thus far, the biggest aversion of this trope in the series. In addition to the {{Ill|Girl}} MacGuffinGirl Rena Hirose, it gave us the [[TheGloriousWarOfSisterlyRivalry Fitzgerald sisters, Cynthia and Fiona,]] who pretty much determine the late-game missions in the Neucom path. With Erich Jager, Keith Bryan, and [[EvilMentor Abyssal Dision]] on the male side, ''Electrosphere'' comes as close to gender parity, as an ''AC'' game can.
** ''AceCombat04ShatteredSkies'' gave us Yellow 4, the [[CartwrightCurse Doomed Love Interest]] of the hero's rival, and the only female in her squadron.
** ''AceCombat5TheUnsungWar'' featured the ''other'' Kei Nagase, the only female in the entire game until the brief late-mission appearance of Bartlett's old flame.
** ''AceCombatZeroTheBelkanWar'' goes for a Token Enemy Female again and gives us Marcela Vasquez, the only female boss-level ace and the only woman to get her own interview. Also, out of 169 [[NominalImportance named aces]] in the game, only 9 are female. That's about 19 to 1 male-to-female ratio.
** ''AceCombat6FiresOfLiberation'' tried to address this issue by showing a part of the story through the eyes of Melissa and Ludmila, two female refugees wandering the war-torn Emmeria, looking for their daughter and fiance, respectively. Also, it had a Token Enemy Female, Irena Dvornik, as well as allied pilot Lanner.
** ''AceCombatAssaultHorizon'' follows the suit with only one female character of NominalImportance and speaking role, Janice Rehl. A Nagase lookalike is present in some cutscenes but that's sadly just a non-speaking cameo.
*** On a more meta level, Janice is so far the ''only'' playable female character in a twenty years-old series. And only for half a mission.
* Noble Team in ''VideoGame/HaloReach'' has only one female Spartan, unless you make Noble Six female.
* The only female in ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare'' is your fellow Cobra pilot "Deadly" in the first game. Obviously justified by the fact that it's a military game.
* Anya Stroud is the only female who fought alongside Marcus in Delta Squad in ''VideoGame/GearsOfWar 3''.
* Depending on the game, [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Zelda]] may be the only important female character in the series. However, it ''is'' named after her.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Rage}}'', Elizabeth is the only known female Resistance member.
* Of the gang of playable characters in ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'', three are male, with a fourth man driving the truck, and one is female - introduced as "The Siren," which is barely a gnat's whisker away from simply calling her "the token girl." The vast majority of enemies are male, too. Or arguably, in the case of the skags, not sexually dimorphic.
** Borderlands 2 continues the trend, three male characters and 'the siren'. Both games include a VoiceWithAnInternetConnection named Angel who guides you through the game, as well as [[MsFanservice Mad Moxxi]]. The second includes Ellie, a mission-giver, [[spoiler:and has all four of the original characters]], and another female character class available as a [[PreOrderBonus preorder]] bonus or {{D|ownloadableContent}}LC, the Mechromancer. 
* In ''VideoGame/LiveALive'', most of the characters you control are male, except two: Prehistoric Chapter's Bel, who won't be coming for the Final Chapter, or Kung-Fu Chapter's Li Kuugo, who'll only appear in the Final Chapter if picked as the star pupil (otherwise she got KilledOffForReal).
* ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert'' has two female characters -- but since they are split by side, one of them isn't really part of the ensemble for the other side's campaign (especially on the Allied side -- Tanya ''does'' make a few appearances in the Soviet campaign).
* There are around two or three females in Visual Novel ''VisualNovel/{{Morenatsu}}'', none of which have in-game sprites.
* One of the 4 Horsemen in the ''VideoGame/{{Darksiders}}'' series named Fury is the only female horsemen and she has yet to make her debut in the game, only in the comics. Uriel and Lilith are also the only known female characters on the heaven and hell side respectively.
* VideoGame/TeamFortress2: The only obvious female in the game is "The Administrator", aka the angry voice that screams at you during rounds. Admittedly, the Pyro ''may'' be female (or genderless, for all we know), and the comics also have the character Ms. Pauling, but if you look just at the game, it follows this trope.

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[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}'' has a single Brainbot with a pink frill and lipstick. The DVD commentary states that she was an InvokedTrope, and considered "the Smurfette of the Brainbots". There is also Roxanne Ritchie.
* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' suffered this trope in its first season, where the only female character of any importance was Katara, while the other heroes, villains, and vast majority of minor characters were male. This was fixed in the second season, with the [[AffirmativeActionGirl introduction of more female characters]], including another girl joining the core group, making an even ratio of two males to two females...not counting the (male) {{team pet}}s, Momo and Appa. Early production notes for the series indicate that they just barely dodged this trope - Toph, Azula, and pretty much everyone besides Katara was male in the original draft. Remember that large male earthbender in the opening who never appeared in the show? That was supposed to be Toph.
** They later made an effort to keep it that way because after [[spoiler:Zuko completed his HeelFaceTurn and joined the Gaang]]; just ''three episodes later'' [[spoiler:Suki joined them too.]]
*** On a smaller scale, [[CuteBruiser Toph Beifong]] appears to be the only female competitor in the Earth Rumble VI. Of course, that was a sendup of ProfessionalWrestling, with all the overblown testosterone that implies, so it could probably be excused.
*** In the spinoff series ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra''. Even if most of the cast is male, the lead is female, something that is pretty rare for an action-oriented children's series aimed at a general audience. Other female characters in ''Korra'' are Tenzin's two daughters Jinora and Ikki, his non-bender wife Pema, BadassNormal Asami, DaChief of Republic City Police, [[spoiler:who is Toph's daughter, and at least one appearance of old!Katara]]. Even Korra's polar bear-dog Naga is a female.
* Examples from Creator/{{Hanna-Barbera}}:
** All of H-B's FunnyAnimal characters were male until Cindy Bear was introduced.
** Penelope Pitstop was the only woman not only in ''WesternAnimation/WackyRaces'', but also in [[WesternAnimation/ThePerilsOfPenelopePitstop her own series]].
** The animated series of ''TheLittleRascals'' consisted of four boys and Darla Hood, although this is probably a legacy from the original shorts, where the boys were firmly in their "GirlsHaveCooties" stage.
** For the first season of ''WesternAnimation/ShirtTales'', Pammy Panda was the only female in the group. When the show began its second season, a female kangaroo was added to the cast.
** ''WesternAnimation/JonnyQuest''
*** In the original series, Jezebel Jade was the only female character to appear in at least two episodes. Several episodes had all-male casts.
*** The 1980s version introduced Jessie Bradshaw to the all-male cast of the original series. She was meant to be a recurring character, but only appeared in the last episode before the series' cancellation. She would return in the two follow-up made-for-TV animated movies, which {{retcon}}ned/[[TheReveal revealed her]] to be Race Bannon's daughter. In the 1990s update, she was made a main character.
**** Unfortunately, it also reinforced the stereotypes about women as motherly and men as inept parents when it turned Dr. Quest from a loving, nurturing father into an odiously stereotypical "clueless male" dad who could not possibly be nurturing specifically because he was not a female.
* In most series in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Superfriends}}'' franchise, Franchise/WonderWoman was the only female hero. This was particularly egregious during the ''Challenge of the Super Friends'' season, when the ranks of the Super Friends swelled to 11 and she was ''still'' the only female.[[note]]Even the Legion of Doom had 2 female members -- twice as many as were in the Super Friends.[[/note]] The creators of ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' tried to rectify this by adding Hawkgirl rather than Hawkman in the opening season. When ''Justice League Unlimited'' rolled around, the writers made sure the new, obscure characters included were both male and female.
** The ''Superfriends'' in Season 1 attempted to mitigate this a little by adding Wendy. But she was the Smurfette of her heroes-in-training subgroup. Marvin and Wonder Dog, so named as an honorific to Wonder Woman, are both male. It's notable, however, that Wendy was usually the more competent detective of the trio, being very much the Velma to Marvin & Wonderdog's Shaggy & Scooby.
** In the subsequent seasons, Jayna of the WonderTwins was added, but she was still the Smurfette of her own subgroup, as co-Wonder Twin Zan and Team Pet Gleek were also both male.
* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' tried repeatedly to add female characters to the cast, with little success, for reasons noted above.
** That's not to say that there were no female characters originally. Tweety's owner is always referred to as Granny. In fact, she had a classic WB cartoon named for her, "Tugboat Granny". So, she is a named character and is an important part of the Warners mythos. Most notably, in modern adaptations, she's the caretaker of the WesternAnimation/BabyLooneyTunes.
** Poor Penelope Pussycat. No one ever remembers her name... That's because she didn't have a name in the original WesternAnimation/PepeLePew cartoons -- or rather, she did, but it changed every cartoon. She was "Fabrette" on "Really Scent," Fifi in "Two Scents Worth," and other times, she was just a nameless cat who got painted and is left to be chased and harassed by this horny skunk.
*** The only time she was named Penelope during {{the Golden Age of|Animation}} ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' was in 1954's "The Cat's Bah" (which is where they got the name of Penelope for her when she was brought back in "Carrotblanca.")
** Don't forget Witch Hazel!
** Petunia Pig is Porky's girlfriend, but she had a ''much'' more prominent role in the ''Looney Tunes'' comic books and merchandise than she ever did on screen, having only ever appeared in a handful of animated shorts.
** Then there's Mama Bear in Creator/ChuckJones' "Three Bears" series (there pretty much had to be.) She's passive and deadpan (compared to her violent husband and idiot son), but that's what makes her hilarious.
** More success was found with its successor shows, ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'', and ''WesternAnimation/{{Histeria}}'': The first has Babs Bunny, who was Buster's equal in every way, as well as Shirley The Loon, Fifi [=LaFume=], Mary Melody, Elmyra Duff, Rhubella Rat, and so on. The second had Dot Warner (who was, of course, the only female Warner sibling, but she went to some effort to make sure she was not forgotten by adding "...and the Warner sister, Dot!" whenever an opportunity came up), Rita, Marita, Minerva Mink, and Slappy Squirrel. (Interestingly enough, the Warner Brothers were originally supposed to be a trio of ''brothers'' (Smakky, Wakky, and Yakky), with a mischievous little brother character instead of Dot, who was only supposed to be a minor recurring character of "the Warner Cousin". A woman on the production team finally asked that the characters be two male and one female and Wakky and Smakky were merged into Wakko.) And the third had Miss Information, Charity Bazaar, Aka Pella, Pepper Mills, Cho-Cho, Susanna Susquahanna, Lydia Karaoke, and the World's Oldest Woman in their regular cast.
*** A first season episode of ''Tiny Toons'', "Fields of Honey", actually revolved around Babs trying to find a female Looney Toon who could serve as her mentor. It turned out to be a black-and-white era character, Honey, whose comic schtick was not unlike hers; she had simply been forgotten. But note that in RealLife, Honey existed -- and she was merely [[SatelliteLoveInterest Bosko's girlfriend]] and was ''nothing'' like the one portrayed here.
** Still around, though not really successful: Lola Bunny, introduced in ''Film/SpaceJam''. Most classic ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' fans have a lot of not-so-nice things to say about her, mostly because her addition into the otherwise all-male Looney Tunes roster feels so forced. ''WesternAnimation/TheLooneyTunesShow'' [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap has improved this]].
*** Her predecessor, Honey Bunny (no relation to Bosko's girlfriend Honey), was a staple of the old Gold Key and Whitman Looney Toons comic books for years and years. Sadly, Honey seems to have been largely forgotten since Lola was introduced.
* Most of the older Creator/{{Disney}} cartoon canon are male, and the females are often just [[DistaffCounterpart stereotypical female versions]] of existing male characters, such as MinnieMouse and Daisy Duck. Minnie's TheChick alright, but Daisy is pretty cool for her time, kinda {{Tsundere}}-like.
** In the 1980s, Disney briefly tried to revive the classic Disney characters through such madness as [[WeAreStillRelevantDammit making Donald a skateboarder and Goofy a fighter pilot a la]] ''Film/TopGun''. However, there was a considerable upshot to this: Minnie Mouse became a far more interesting character than she'd ever been after fifty years of being "Mickey's girlfriend". As a matter of fact, she mimicked the young Madonna (in a kid-friendly way, of course). She had her own "Totally Minnie" album, her own television special, and...very quickly and sadly devolved back into TheChick once this was all scrapped and Disney fired up the cutesy-poo "Minnie and Me" merchandise line, where she once again donned her polka-dot dress and giggled over Mickey. ''Sigh...''
** Minnie got revamped again for the ''WesternAnimation/HouseOfMouse'' series, and while Mickey was still the "boss", as the club's owner and emcee, more often than not Minnie was the one giving ''him'' orders, being the show producer and club accountant, and very competent at the job. Sadly, again, this didn't last, and once the next series came around, she was ''again'' TheChick. ''WesternAnimation/HouseOfMouse'' also resurrected Clarabelle Cow as a recurring character, and commonly featured female musical guests, though the ratio was still heavily in favor of the guys.
** MinnieMouse finally has her own show, ''MinniesBowToons''. Her friends, Daisy Duck and Clarabelle Cow and her nieces Millie and Melody Mouse show up, as do quite a few other female characters though this has somewhat moved her into the GirlShowGhetto as a result.
* In ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'', you can count the female Transformers who appeared more than once in a series on both hands. [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/List_of_female_Transformers A list of all female Transformers can be found here]].
** This isn't helped by long-time ''Transformers'' comic writer Simon Furman, who writes Transformers as having ''no'' gender and has publically stated that he hates the idea of female Transformers. This, combined with the fact that Jhiaxus' experiments in giving Transformers gender made Arcee both a female and AxCrazy brings up some UnfortunateImplications.
** Admittedly, it is a show about alien robots who technically wouldn't have genders. This is however not a good excuse for cutting out the characters designed to look female, or cancelling their toys. Also, Furman seems to think "no gender" means male by default. Literally, it would mean that there's no reason Optimus Prime can't be female!
** On a smaller scale, ''[[WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated Animated]]'' Starscream's female clone (named Slipstream, according to WordOfGod) is the only female in a flock of five.
** The [[AllThereInTheManual Allspark Almanacs]] have added a few more girls, but they also include the Omega Sentinel roster - out of twelve "Greek-letter-Supremes", only one confirmed female, and she was assigned to a rearguard action for most of her lifespan.
** The [[Franchise/TransformersAlignedUniverse Aligned Continuity]] explicitly states that one thirteenth of all Cybertronians are female. This is because they are descended from Solus Prime, the only female among the original Thirteen Primes.
** While the original cast of ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'' was entirely male, female characters Blackarachnia and Airazor were introduced in the first season. However with Airazor [[spoiler:getting beamed into space by some freaky alien plants midway through the second season]], Blackarachnia remains the only female in half of the second and the entire third season. Interestingly enough, Airazor does return as Tigerhawk, a fusion of both hers and Tigatron's bodies, but the character is presented as male.
* Despite the fact that market research indicated that the female characters were among the most popular characters in ''Franchise/GIJoe'', a project to add a black woman to the team was dropped when Hasbro decided that [[http://www.yojoe.com/archive/unproduced/prototype10.shtml "female action figures would be poor business"]]. In the end, the character ''didn't even get a name''.
** However, the ''GI Joe Reloaded'' comic series did have a black woman -- which they achieved by taking one of the few black characters, Doc, and [[GenderFlip making him into a her]], bringing the total of the female characters in the series to four. Nice [[TwoferTokenMinority conservation of minority slots]], Devil's Due.
** Devil's Due's ''G.I. Joe: Declassified'' series also (sort of) added a black female member to the Joe team. One of the early Marvel G.I. Joe comics showed someone looking at a list of team members on a computer, including the never-seen "Shooter" (an in joke based on the name of Marvel's then editor-in-chief, Jim Shooter). Over 20 years later, the ''Declassified'' series {{re|tcon}}vealed that Shooter was actually a black woman, who was the original G.I. Joe team's sniper. Her presence on the team was so top secret that even the other Joes didn't know about her...and consequently didn't realize they were leaving her behind as they fled an about-to-explode Cobra base at the end of their first mission. (She got shot moments before the base exploded, so the Joes weren't directly responsible for her death.)
* The only female in ''Franchise/WinnieThePooh'' is Kanga, a mother, who isn't seen nearly as much as her own son. [[EnforcedTrope Although this makes perfect sense, given the fact that it's based on a little boy's stuffed animal collection.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987'' has the character of April O'Neil, their female friend who sometimes helps out the four superheroes but generally just gets [[DamselInDistress kidnapped]]. [[Series/NinjaTurtlesTheNextMutation Later, there was an attempt to add a female turtle named Venus to the franchise]], but [[TheScrappy she wasn't received well]] and [[FanonDiscontinuity has been soundly ignored ever since]]. [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003 The 2003 series]] gives April a much more [[ActionGirl action-oriented role]] (as well as that of CoolBigSis to the Turtles) as the series progressed, with her wisely taking lessons from Splinter; and [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012 the 2012 series]] integrated her even more by making her about the turtles' age in addition to Splinter giving her kunoichi training.
** In the original ''Comicbook/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesAdventures'' published by Archie and loosely inspired by the old cartoon, April was far less damsel-y, even to start, and eventually received lessons from Splinter as well. In later issues she was more than once depicted as competent fighter. Another major female character, Ninjara, is also worth a mention as an exception to this trope.
** April's ActionGirl role was fully realized in [[Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles the CG movie.]] While not nearly as in the spotlight as the turtles, she was now considered a fully trained ninja, fighting alongside the turtles and Casey Jones with a katana.
** In addition the character of Karai was given a significant role in this movie and the 2003 series, adding another female warrior to the cast.
** The ''Fast Forward'' series also features only one girl, Starlee.
* The [[TheFilmOfTheBook animated film]] of ''Literature/WatershipDown'' cut three bucks from the starting main cast and included a doe named Violet. Nonetheless, the only purpose of her existence is to show that [[StuffedIntoTheFridge things are, indeed, serious]] by being caught by a hawk. The television series "addresses" the gender imbalance by making the clever one, Blackberry, a doe.
** In the original book, the gender issue was dealt with as just the way rabbits ''think''. They're not human. They can't wrap their minds around a board that floats on the water. They pass countless dangers and finally locate the perfect new home, settle down to start a colony, and realize, "Oh, damn, we forget to bring any women." Which is the impetus for the second half of the story ("Shoot, we better find someone to bear our kits").
** It's also worth noting that in the sequel, ''Tales from Watership Down'', some females do get larger roles. A story about a doe-led warren is told, and the doe Hyzenthlay [[spoiler:becomes co-leader of the ''Watership Down'' rabbits]]. This was author Richard Adams' specific response to complaints that the first book was too testosterone-centric.
* For all their [[EmotionalTorque perfection]], one major complaint about Creator/{{Pixar}} is the lack of films that have passed the [[UsefulNotes/TheBechdelTest test]]:
** ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory'''s main cast includes a young boy's toy collection, with predictably male-oriented rather than girls' toys. Bo Peep was the only female in the cast, a domestic woman and SatelliteLoveInterest with no part in the main action. ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory2'' and ''[[WesternAnimation/ToyStory3 3]]'' even out the gender inequality, though not by much. Even though Toy Story 3 had many more female characters than the other two, it should be worth mentioning that [[spoiler:Andy got rid of Bo Peep]].
** ''WesternAnimation/ABugsLife'', despite having a few female royalties, is guilty of the InsectGenderBender; biology dictates its protagonist should have been female. The Seven Samurai-esque troupe has a 3:1 (6:2) male-to-female ratio.
** The only major female characters in ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'' are a little girl with limited dialogue, the forgettable love interest Celia, and [[spoiler:Roz the undercover CDA agent]], who has little screen time. The ratio is 4:2.
** ''WesternAnimation/FindingNemo'' has 9:3. The writer explains on the DVD commentary that in fact ''Dory was originally male'' until he saw Creator/EllenDeGeneres on television and realised that was the sweet-but-scatty tone he was looking for.
** ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'' averts this by being demographically balanced (main cast: two female, two male; supporting cast: one each; villains: one each). Also, each of the adult females are shown to be independently competent, and the main villain finds out that treating his female ally like an expendable resource [[MistreatmentInducedBetrayal will have consequences]].
** ''WesternAnimation/{{Cars}}'': the ratio is 9:3. In the first film, [[ViewerGenderConfusion the racecar sponsoring RevNGo]] is actually the only female competing in the Piston Cup, and in the sequel, Carla Veloso, the Brazilian racecar is the only female competing in the World Grand Prix.
** There is only one female rat in ''WesternAnimation/{{Ratatouille}}'', who speaks to Remy at the end of the film. She only gets one line, though. Remy's family consists of a father and a brother. The major human female character, Colette, is very much aware that she is the only female chef in the restaurant and in a definite minority in the profession in general. She was forced to claw her way up and as a result, feels that she has to be tough and defensive to succeed in a career she worked so hard for. However, when her protégé, Linguini (and secretly Remy the Rat as well), make it clear that they deeply respect her expertise, she [[DefrostingIceQueen softens]] to become a good friend and more later on.
*** The ''Ratatouille'' video game and ''KinectRushADisneyPixarAdventure'' features a female rat with a speaking role named Celine.
** ''WesternAnimation/{{WALL-E}}'' has 4:3, plus a male-sounding text-to-speech program for the autopilot. D-Fib has been confirmed as female in obscure media.
** ''WesternAnimation/{{Up}}'' has 4:2 (4:1 living).
** ''WesternAnimation/{{Brave}}'' has 1:3. However, this is Pixar's first movie with a female protagonist.
* The 80s cartoon series ''WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse'' followed this trope, having only two females (Teela and the Sorceress) in the main cast of heroes (the villains had one, too: Evil-Lynn). They were also the only inhabitants of the planet immune to the steroids in the water supply.
** Heck, in the original comics that came with the toys, before the cartoon series, Teela WAS the Sorceress.
** Its spinoff series ''WesternAnimation/SheRaPrincessOfPower'' was basically the same show [[DistaffCounterpart with the gender ratio reversed]] to appeal to female viewers. Oddly enough, the one male (Bow) was dramatically less muscular than the weakest character in ''He-Man.'' Apparently an all-female planet had no need for steroids.
* On ''WesternAnimation/DragonBooster'', the main cast is made up of three males (Artha, Parm, and Lance), and one female (Kitt). Though initially a rival to Artha (and with potential to grow as a character), Kitt eventually devolved into a cheerleader for Artha who was consistently beaten in any kind of race (despite the fact that she had more experience at racing than Artha, who ''didn't want to race at all'' at the start of the series) and only ever did anything plot-wise by getting mind-controlled or kidnapped. There were other female characters, including a few crew leaders, but, like Kitt, they took a back seat to the males.
** The "Kitt can never win" issue might have some strange connection to the advertising trope where you can't show a girl winning a board game, for fear that it'll be less appealing to boys.
* Inverted in the Italian cartoon ''WesternAnimation/WinxClub'': even if there are some important male characters among the Bad Guys (Darkar and Valtor above all), good male characters that attend the Specialist school usually serve as {{Love Interest}}s for one of the extra powerful fairies for the most part, even if they are given much more space and development than your usual Smurfette in male shows. There's even a magical race (the Pixies) composed ''[[OneGenderRace entirely of females]]'' (they are generated by a Magical Tree). Specialists are totally forgotten by toy manufacturers.
** MagicalGirl show - European version.
* ''Literature/TheRailwaySeries'', the series of books on which ''WesternAnimation/ThomasTheTankEngine'' was originally based, featured just two female engines, Daisy and Mavis, neither of whom were exactly strong characters. The TV series added more female engines in later series, such as Emily, Molly and Rosie, but they are still by far the minority.
** However, coaches such as Annie and Clarabel were always female. Which, given that the coaches couldn't even move without an engine's help, [[UnfortunateImplications made things worse]].
* ''WesternAnimation/SuperRobotMonkeyTeamHyperforceGo'' began with Nova as the sole female, adding Jinmay later. But this may have been intentional as the show was a partial {{Homage}} to super robot anime's FiveManBand style, and [[{{Squick}} Chiro's love interest couldn't very well be a monkey]].
** This led the fangirls of the four monkey males (especially Antauri) to pair themselves up with them by creating robot monkey {{Author Avatar}}s. Which leads, on the other hand, to loads of DieForOurShip (or pairing her up with the other male monkeys) towards Nova (if the fangirl pair herself up with Sparx), and a few {{Crossover Ship}}s.
* ''WesternAnimation/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers'' had up to five female main characters: Gaia the Spirit of the Earth, Eastern European Planeteer Linka, Asian Planeteer Gi, MadScientist Dr. Blight, and EvilPoacher Mame Slaughter.
* ''WesternAnimation/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' started the show with female Legionnaires Saturn Girl, Phantom Girl, and Triplicate Girl. And then, in Season 2, [[ExecutiveMeddling the powers that be]] decided that male viewership would be put off by so many girls, so the girls were incapacitated and/or inexplicably sidelined for many episodes. Particularly irritating, as the Legion has LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters with a fairly even gender --and species-- balance, and the comics have always averted this trope even all the way back to {{the Silver Age|OfComicBooks}}! The addition of Shrinking Violet in the same season was a [[{{Pun}} very small]] counterbalance.
* The final season of ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'' featured the {{Justice League|OfAmerica}}, so every other episode was a crossover with a League member. Unfortunately, the League was a boy's club; no Franchise/WonderWoman, BlackCanary, Comicbook/{{Vixen}}, {{Huntress}}, or any other DC heroine. Worse, Batman always brought Robin along on these adventures; never Batgirl, despite her being his first sidekick (in this show anyway), and older to boot. Granted, they at least ''wanted'' to have Wonder Woman, but the rights to the character were not available.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Visionaries}}'', which had Galadria on the heroic Spectral Knights, and Virulina on the evil Darkling Lords.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime'', the ratio of male to female was originally going to be 4:1. The character Cera was originally going to be male, thus being a basic rival for Littlefoot, while Ducky would have been the only female and a fairly stereotypical one at that. However Creator/GeorgeLucas realised that Cera's gender had no real bearing on the plot and asked if Cera could be a female -- but keeping the character's personality exactly the same. The result was a memorably less clichéd female character and an unusual (for the time) male/female rivalry.
** In ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime [[{{Sequelitis}} IV]]'', a guest character called Ali is introduced who is the same species as Littlefoot -- but she's a girl. To get the effect, the animators made her look ''exactly'' like Littlefoot, only she has blue eyes instead of red, [[TertiarySexualCharacteristics slightly longer eyelashes and her skin is a little redder]] (which [[PinkGirlBlueBoy turns pink in the dark for some bizarre reason]]).
** In the TV series, an old male character returned as a permanent member, but then a new female character was added, making the ratio 4:3.
* ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'' had no major female characters outside the wife of the CrankyNeighbor, Bev Bighead, until AffirmativeActionGirl hook-for-a-hand-pirate-style Dr. Hutchinson was created as a love interest for Filburt. They wanted a female with a hook, you see.
* Cheetara of the 1980s ''WesternAnimation/{{Thundercats}}''. There was also Wily-Kit, but she was a pre-teen Wondertwin, one of a pair of {{Tagalong Kid}}s.
** Another female, Pumyra, was added in Season 2...along with ''two more'' male characters.
** 2011 ''Thundercats'' had modern versions of the original TC group, and then added Pumyra... [[http://thundercats.wikia.com/wiki/What_Lies_Above,_Part_2 who left at the end of season two.]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/SpiralZone'', the heroic Zone Riders and evil Black Widows have one female member each.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' had [[ActionGirl Elisa Maza]] (a human) as the only main female character for a long time, and [[BigBad Demona]] its sole female antagonist. Both are pointedly not TheChick however, and more female characters were added throughout the show's run ([[AffirmativeActionGirl Angela]], [[DarkActionGirl Fox]], [[TheFairFolk Titania]], etc.)
* In ''WesternAnimation/BackAtTheBarnyard'', there are only two cow characters that are biologically deserving of the udders they all retain. Naturally, they're left out of most of the action, instead mainly offering [[PositiveDiscrimination level-headed]] advice that no one takes to.
** As well as Ella, Maddie, and a number of female extras.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents''-Wanda is the only female in the ComicTrio. She either nags or offers advice. Cosmo and Timmy don't treat her very well (marriage jokes, gets called a nag etc).
** Sometimes it [[DependingOnTheWriter depends on the writer]], since some episodes show Timmy as TheHero but Wanda as the one who gets to say "I told you so!" Besides, with the many girl characters for Timmy to be paired with (Tootie, Trixie, Veronica, Vicky for some people), Timmy's mom, the principal Ms. Waxoplax, the ratio is probably about even (if anyone was willing to count it!)
* ''WesternAnimation/ObanStarRacers'': Odd example played straight. The only prominent female character is Eva/Molly, the main character. This is somewhat justified among the humans because of Race Manager Don Wei's belief that [[StayInTheKitchen women shouldn't be racers]]. However, Eva is strong willed and independent, and the few flashbacks we see of her mother show us that Eva's mom, [[spoiler:a star racer killed in a crash]], was also strong willed.
* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'' suffered from this heavily. The only female characters seen by the end of the first season were Fire, who barely had a full minute of screen time, and Katana, who appeared in one episode and didn't speak until the end.
** The series' director addressed this in an interview on Toonzone; since the series would have an accompanying toy line (see trope description ''way'' back up at the top) they consciously focused on the male heroes for the first 13 episodes. The second season includes not only Huntress, but Black Canary as well.
** By the time the show ended, a number of other female heroes such as Comicbook/{{Vixen}} and Franchise/WonderWoman had appeared. However, the final season's version of the Comicbook/{{Justice League|International}} had nine men and only two women.
* Shao Lin is the only female monkey on ''WesternAnimation/CaptainSimianAndTheSpaceMonkeys'', with the exception of [[MeaningfulName Lilith]], who was in fact [[spoiler:an android]] so she doesn't count. The number of female cast is very low, so that when a female character appears she is very noticeable. Interestingly enough Shao Lin is a bona fide ActionGirl, the most skilled in martial arts and TheCaptain's second-in-command.
* Susan/Ginormica is the only woman in the main cast of ''WesternAnimation/MonstersVsAliens'' ("We are in the presence of the rare female monster."). However, she is the main character and has the most CharacterDevelopment of anyone else, going from TheChick to ActionGirl. The rest of the female characters are in small, stereotypical roles, with the exception of the girl [[AutoErotica making out in a car]], which reverses the usual role by being more assertive than her milquetoast boyfriend.
** The jury is still out on whether [[spoiler:Insectosaurus is female or not, since he/she has eyelashes in his/her final form as a butterfly]]. Even so, the ratio of female monsters to male would still be 2:5.
* ''WesternAnimation/StormHawks'' has one girl (of the CloserToEarth variety) on the FiveManBand. However, it mitigates the trope with a female recurring character who has been invited to join the team several times (she's something of a SixthRanger), and a ''female BigBad'' as well as one major female minion (but the male Dragon gets the most villain screentime).
* ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' is actually pretty good about balancing the main and/or important characters between genders. We get the males Danny, Tucker, and Jack. The female range are Sam, Valerie, Jazz, and Maddie--none of whom fits in the stereotypical TheChick role and are strong female characters in their own rights. If you want, you can also add in males Lancer and Dash, but slightly balanced with Paulina. Though this only counts for the good guys. The villains have more males then females.
* ''WesternAnimation/StreetSharks'' had Lena, who acted as a spy and collected information for the guys (and sprung them from traps whenever they got kidnapped). She mostly vanished towards the end though.
* ''WesternAnimation/ElTigre'' is ''really'' bad about this. The only regular female character is the considered highly annoying [[GenkiGirl Frida Suarez]], and all the male characters frequently display cliche Latino machismo in all its glory. (For example, "Rivera men never back down", [[BerserkButton '''COWARDS?!'']], and of course, the "Rivera...Super...Macho...'''BLITZ'''!") Maria is either a timid, hyperventilating DamselInDistress or a crazy KnightTemplar, [[DarkActionGirl the Flock]] all pine over the Rivera man of their particular age group, and no one honors the female Riveras in Dia de los Muertos. It still rocks, though. And I guess it gets points for [[BigBad the most powerful villain]] being a (long dead) woman.
* ''WesternAnimation/XiaolinShowdown'' - Kimiko is the only female on the Xiaolin side, while Kannappe, Wuya, Clay's sister, and the evil mermaid make up the Heylin (evil) side. This almost seems to imply that Kimiko is the only female member because she is the exception to the rule of females automatically calling for the side of evil.
* The male cast of ''WesternAnimation/KaBlam!'' (that was included in over three episodes) consisted of Henry, Mr. Foot, and Mr. Stockdale (starting Season 4). "Over three appearances" girl? June. However, she wasn't the stereotypical [[TheChick chick]], as she was just originally a dumber, over-excited, female version of Henry.
** ''WesternAnimation/ActionLeagueNow'''s only main female was Thundergirl, and Justice (the dog) since it switched from male to female in some episodes.
* The cartoon adaptation of ''[[Literature/{{Redwall}} Martin the Warrior]]'' averted this by changing the normally 3:1 ratio to 2:2, by making Pallum the Hedgehog a girl.
* On ''WesternAnimation/JimmyTwoShoes'', Heloise is the only regular female character. This is notable in the title sequence, where she's the ''only'' female in the final group shot at 5:1. Recurring characters [[CrazyAwesome Saffi]] and [[RichBitch Jez]] ease this a bit, but they still tend not to have much of a role.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheBotsMaster'' has this too. The good guys have two girls in their ranks: Blitzy, ZZ's kid sister, and Swang, the only (confirmed) female [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin boyzz]] out of twenty. There was once another female introduced, Momzz, but she semi-died by the end of the episode. The bad guys are a bit better in that respect. With only three individuals in the core group, the one female among them has a relatively bigger input.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Hero 108}}'''s Mystique Sonia is the only confirmed female member of First Squad.
* Played straight on ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfTheGalaxyRangers'', as Niko was the ActionGirl, and had the stereotypical PsychicPowers. Series creator Robert Mandell attempted to compensate by keeping the DistressBall evenly passed and by throwing in some awesome guest characters, such as Daisy O'Mega and Audra Miles. The BigBad of the series was a case of GodSaveUsFromTheQueen, and a truly dangerous threat.
** However, Mandell ''inverted'' the trope with ''WesternAnimation/PrincessGwenevereAndTheJewelRiders''. Barely a Y chromosome to be seen.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{WITCH}}'' inverted this heavily, though the animated version of the series was not as bad as the comic version. By the time the cartoon ended, there was a 1:1 ration for guys/girls (Will, Irma, Cornelia, Taranee, Hay Lin/Caleb, Blunk, Matt, Mr. Huggles, Napoleon). The comic is a 5:1 ratio (The girls to Matt) - it was 5:2, but then the Oracle was PutOnABus. The rest? [[spoiler:Caleb's also PutOnABus, Blunk doesn't exist here and Mr. Huggles died early on.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' is pretty bad about this. All of the four[[note]]five if you count [[AndZoidberg Butters]][[/note]] main characters are boys, with only one girl (Wendy) having any significance, and even then only in a select few episodes (not to mention she [[TheScrappy isn't that well liked in the first place]]).
** Played with in the "You Got F'ed in the A" episode of ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', when Stan is putting together his dance team.
---> "We can't be a dance troupe with just guys. [[HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday People will think we're fags]]"
* Two recent Disney films, ''Disney/ThePrincessAndTheFrog'' and ''Disney/{{Tangled}}'', are ostensibly aimed at girls, and have female lead characters, but otherwise they both have 1:3 female-to-male ratio -- female lead, male {{love interest|s}} and co-lead, two male (animal) supporting characters. Then one woman in a supporting role (a mentor in ''Princess,'' a villain in ''Tangled''). ''Princess'' does slightly better, featuring Tiana's mother and her supportive friend, Charlotte.
* Until the very end of the premiere of ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' there are no females, and for several episodes thereafter there's only Miss Martian. Even when Artemis joined up, there was still a pretty noticeable disparity for the bulk of the first season.
** Averted as of "Usual Suspects". As of the first season finale, the team had an even split of four boys and four girls.
** And then in season two, the new line-up consists of five boys and four girls.
** Its notable that every group other than the Team and the JusticeLeague seem to follow this trope: [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Queen Bee]] for [[OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness the Light]], [[GreenThumb Poison Ivy]] for the [[DiscOneFinalBoss Injustice League]], [[BilingualBonus Asami]] for [[RagtagBunchOfMisfits the Runaways]], [[MasterOfIllusion Dreamer]] for the [[PhysicalGod Forever People]], etc.
* Pretty noticeable in ''WesternAnimation/AvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes'', with Wasp serving as the sole female Avenger in season 1. This was slightly mitigated in season 2 by adding Comicbook/MsMarvel to the cast, but this was also in addition to the Vision joining the team. By the time the final episode rolled around, the team consisted of eight men and only two women.
** While they never officially joined the team, Black Widow and Mockingbird did appear as {{Guest Star Party Member}}s in a small number of episodes. Maria Hill was also a prominent supporting character throughout the series' run. A few other heroines like Quake and Abigail Brand appeared in small roles as well.
** At least going by the promo poster, ''WesternAnimation/AvengersAssemble'', looks to suffer from this as well. Comicbook/BlackWidow is the only female hero on a team with seven members (being [[Film/TheAvengers the movie lineup]] plus the Falcon).
* ''WesternAnimation/MenInBlack: The Series'' had Agent L. Few other female agents were seen, fewer still had any dialogue.
* For the entire first season of ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'', there was only one female in the cast: Margaret the cardinal. She only appeared in three episodes, one of which was only via dream sequence. However, Season 2 has introduced another female character, and both of them are getting considerably more screen time.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' (being based on retro action/adventure series like ''Jonny Quest'') is generally a boys' club--the only female character to appear semi-regularly is the villainess Dr. Girlfriend (whose gender is sometimes debated [[VocalDissonance for some reason]]), DarkMistress[=/=]TheDragon to The Monarch . The series also has Molotov Cocktease as a [[DatingCatwoman villainess/Brock's love interest]] who appears at least once a season, but[[spoiler: has possibly been KilledOffForReal at the end of Season 4.]] Triana Orpheus is popular with the fanbase but rarely appears and as of Season 4, no longer lives in the Venture compound.
* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuyPresentsLaughItUpFuzzball'' spoofed how few major original trilogy ''Franchise/StarWars'' characters were women.
-->'''Chris/Luke:''' A sister! Who is it?
--> '''Herbert/Obi-Wan:''' Who do you think it is? Who's the only goddamn woman in the galaxy?
** Also parodied with Meg's roles in each spoof which also ties in with her ButtMonkey status. Because of the lack of female roles in ''Star Wars'' and the fact that Lois plays Leia, Meg is forced to always play the role of some minor genderless alien creature.
* {{Kaeloo}} is the only female in the main cast or her own series. Even so, [[ViewerGenderConfusion most viewers find it hard to tell]].
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' {{invert|edTrope}}s the Smurfette Principle with Spike, who is the only male in the regular cast.
* Sliced Ice for the ''WesternAnimation/SkysurferStrikeForce''.
* ''WesternAnimation/DoubleDragon'' starts out with Oldest Dragon[[note]][[spoiler:died in the first ep]][[/note]], two Dragon Warriors, and one female police officer. As the series progressed they add more warriors and acquired more allies. The end result was 7:1 male/female actual Dragon Warriors, four junior Dragons (all teen/preteen males), 1:3 male/female ally ratio (all three girls are tough, smart support and fighting help), one older-and-wiser female adviser. The Twins' mother only had a one-shot appearance that [[spoiler:ends with her devoting her life to permanently weakening the Black Flame.]] The Dragons did do better then the Shadow Warriors; not a single female among the bad guys!
* ''WesternAnimation/BuzzLightyearOfStarCommand'' has Princess Mira Nova, one of only a few female space rangers (although the ship turned out to have a female programming) and Gravatina, the only recurring female villain. Played with a bit with Dr. Ozma Furbanna, who's the only human on the planet Karn, a world filled with deadly creatures. Also, the Galactic President is a woman. 
* [[WesternAnimation/ChipNDaleRescueRangers Gadget]], oh so much.
* ''{{WesternAnimation/Motorcity}}'': Julie is the only female member of the Burners. She's not the only female in the show's cast, as there's also Tennie, Foxy and Kaia, but Claire isn't so much an ActionGirl.
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This list shows the last 10 events of 11. Show all.

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