History Main / TheSmurfettePrinciple

* ''Literature/TheFireNeverDies'': Exactly one of the Red Army's senior generals is a woman: General Mary G. Harris Jones, better known as Mother Jones, commander of the Army of Knoxville.

* ''Fanfic/TheBridge'': Each of the core kaiju groups sent to Equestria only has one female. Mothra Lea for the Terra Defenders, Destroyah for the Mutations, and the albino Hyper Gyaos later called Irys for the Dark Hunters.

* Betty Marsden was the only female performer to appear on ''Radio/RoundTheHorne'' and its predecessor, ''Beyond Our Ken''.

* ''ComicStrip/BloomCounty'': {{Discussed|Trope}} twice.

* In ''FanFic/MyLittleHetaStuckMSTs'', Twilight Sparkle is not only the only girl in the [[{{MST}} riffing group]], she's also the leader.
* Lampshaded by Hinata in chapter 34 of ''Fanfic/IAmNotGoingThroughPubertyAgain'' when she refers to [[Anime/NarutoTheMovieNinjaClashInTheLandOfSnow Fubuki Kakuyoku]] as the "obligatory kunoichi".

* In some versions of the myth, Atalanta was the only woman on board the Argo in ''Jason and the Argonaunts''. Some myths also state that Jason refused to allow a woman on the ship, which meant that Medea would be the only woman on the voyage back.

* ''Fanfic/PokemonCrossingFlyMeToTheMoon'': Benedict's Pokemon team consists of five guys (Blaziken, Gyarados, Manectric, Lairon, Swablu) and one girl (a Gyarados).

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* ''Letsplay/LifeSMP'': Cleo was the only female member of the server during Season 1.
** Later averted in Season 2 with the addition of Pearl and Lizzie.

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'': As the name implies, "Ms. Sweetie" is the only female included in the "Little Misters" lineup of Dr. Wundertainment-brand anomalies.

* ''VideoGame/BlackMesa'', the FanRemake of ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'', very deliberately added a lot of female scientists to address the imbalance of women in Black Mesa. The company claims to be an "equal-opportunity employer", but all of its employees seen in the original are men, except for the holographic assistant in the tutorial.

* ''Fanfic/TheBridge'': Each of the core kaiju groups sent to Equestria only has one female. Mothra Lea for the Terra Defenders, Destroyah for the Mutations, and the albino Hyper Gyaos later called Irys for the Dark Hunters.
* ''Fanfic/TheBoltChronicles'': Applies to Mittens in "The Survivor," a female cat who is friends with Petey and his circle of four male canine pals.

The Smurfette Principle is in action when the cast is made up of a group of males and ''exactly one'' female. This can occur even in works with LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters, so long as each sub-{{Ensemble|s}} (of five or more) contains ''only one'' female character. Adding a second female to the ensemble [[TwoGirlsToATeam creates a related trope.]] With the [[GirlShowGhetto relatively few female-aimed works,]] contrasting the sheer volume of works that are aimed at males, it stands out that the demographics of fiction shows a ratio of female to male characters much lower than RealLife.[[note]]which, according to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sex_ratio_total_population.PNG statistics]], is roughly equal, with even slightly more females in developed countries[[/note]]

* In ''Animation/PleasantGoatAndBigBigWolf'', there are [[TwoGirlsToATeam two girls in the main group of goats]], those being Tibbie and Jodie. In the spin-off series ''Pleasant Goat Fun Class'', however, Tibbie is usually the only girl in the main group of goats.

* When it comes to Franchise/TheMuppets, whenever a show wants to feature only the core Muppet characters, chances are Miss Piggy will be the only featured female Muppet among them. Otherwise, Janice of The Electric Mayhem is the second-best thing to a prominent female Muppet.

[[ThisIndexIsNotAnExample Interestingly, this trope does not actually apply to]] Franchise/TheSmurfs, [[ThisIndexIsNotAnExample as a second female smurf was added to the cast in 1985 and more have been added since.]]

* In Creator/{{Bally}}'s ''Pinball/DungeonsAndDragons,'' the only female adventurer is the Valkyrie.

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[[ThisIndexIsNotAnExample Interestingly, this trope does not actually apply to]] Franchise/TheSmurfs,[[ThisIndexIsNotAnExample as a second female smurf was added in 1985 and more have been added since.]]

[[ThisIndexIsNotAnExample Interestingly, this trope does not actually apply to]] TheSmurfs,[[ThisIndexIsNotAnExample as a second female smurf was added in 1985 and more have been added since.]]

[[ThisIndexIsNotAnExample Interestingly, this trope does not actually apply to TheSmurfs, as a second female smurf was added in 1985 and more have been added since.]]

Compare UsefulNotes/TheBechdelTest, TwoGirlsToATeam, and TwoGuysAndAGirl for similar critiques of female:male proportions in fiction. AffirmativeActionGirl is a common way of averting the trope, sometime preemptively, sometimes as a reaction to the aforementioned criticism. See ChromosomeCasting when there's zero members of the opposite sex present not only amongst the main characters but in the work itself (maybe except for in the background). This is also DistaffCounterpart to TheOneGuy. Subtropes include NeverASelfMadeWoman (women cannot achieve anything without a male mentor or counterpart), SmurfetteBreakout (the Smurfette character becomes popular on her own), StarringSmurfette (Smurfette is the protagonist), and TerritorialSmurfette (another female is added to the show and the original Smurfette reacts negatively). [[GratuitousPrincess Often, the one girl is a princess]] for economy's sake. Contrast GenderEqualEnsemble and ImprobablyFemaleCast. For the {{Music}} equivalent, you would have MaleBandFemaleSinger.