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4[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/TheAvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Avengers_wNew_Girl_5431.jpg]]]]
5[-[[caption-width-right:350:"[[Characters/TheWasp I'm]] just glad there's finally [[Characters/MarvelComicsCarolDanvers another girl]] on the team!"[[note]]The top picture illustrates how the roster (and EvolvingCredits) looked in episodes 27-30, while the bottom comes from episodes 31-33.[[/note]]]]-]
6
7->''"I never really liked to talk about it, but it wasn't always easy being the only female Avenger. Wanda helped some, but it was still lonely at times."''
8-->-- '''Natasha''', ''Fanfic/ReturningTheStones''
9
10A female character added to a new season, spinoff, or sequel to balance out the sexes.
11
12If she's the first woman in a previously all-male cast, this is just TheSmurfettePrinciple at work and she's probably TheHeart. But if she's added when there's already a (single) woman in the cast, to counter the Smurfette Principle by adding more gender balance, then she's an Affirmative Action Girl. When this trope was in its formative stages (when Affirmative Action was still working its way into action-oriented fiction), such characters were usually {{Straw Feminist}}s to boot. For bonus points, she might be a [[TwoferTokenMinority racial minority]] as well.
13
14Note that despite the PunnyName, she need not be an ActionGirl, but usually is at least a {{Tomboy}} to [[TomboyAndGirlyGirl distinguish her]] from a pre-existing feminine character.
15
16If [[CharacterDevelopment used well]], she can genuinely enrich the story. But if she's just ''there'' and has no characterization or CharacterDevelopment, [[TheScrappy expect the fandom to hate her]] for being shallow, badly written, [[RealWomenDontWearDresses too feminine]], or not feminine enough, or a CreatorsPet.
17
18Compare AffirmativeActionLegacy, SixthRanger, and TwoGirlsToATeam. See also MoreDiverseSequel, which she can contribute to.
19
20----
21!!Examples:
22
23[[foldercontrol]]
24
25[[folder:Advertising]]
26* In 2012, during one of the famous UsefulNotes/SuperBowl commercials, Advertising/MAndMs maker Mars introduced Ms. Brown, an icy businesswoman voiced by Music/VanessaWilliams, to go with the other M&M "spokescandies". Brown was the last regular color to be characterized, and since Green was the only other woman out of the set, it seems Mars wanted to kill two birds with one stone. In late 2022 another new purple female M&M was added to the cast.
27[[/folder]]
28
29[[folder:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]
30* In ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'', [[ShortTank Sora]] and [[TheDitz Mimi]] were the only two girls on a seven-person team, until the introduction of Hikari, cute little sister of the male lead. ''Anime/DigimonAdventureTri'' added yet another one, Meiko. ''Anime/DigimonTamers'' had a slew of {{Sixth Ranger}}s, going from a cast of three with one girl to a cast of ''ten'' with near-equality.
31* Allenby Beardsley from ''Anime/MobileFighterGGundam''. A fan-favorite SixthRanger GenkiGirl and {{Bokukko}} who promptly managed to fall into a LoveTriangle involving the only other major female character on the show, the local TeamMom. Also, a relief to the male fans that were [[StupidSexyFlanders getting uncomfortable]] with the all-male pilots wearing {{Latex Space Suit}}s.
32** Rain herself becomes a secondary example later, when [[spoiler:Allenby is BrainwashedAndCrazy and she takes up the task of DefusingTheTykebomb]]. She already had hints of it in the beginning, though, being able to withstand the "painful" suiting up process and handling the Shining Gundam in Shinjuku despite lack of specific training.
33* Hilde Schbeiker from ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing''. Though she's a rather decent pilot ''and'' had military background prior to befriending Duo, she was mostly there to balance the ratio for a while and become the local WrenchWench.
34* In the original ''Manga/YuGiOh'' manga, Miho was a minor character with sporadic appearances. [[AscendedExtra She was made part of the main cast]] in the first ''[[Anime/YuGiOhFirstAnimeSeries Yu-Gi-Oh]]'' TV series to prevent Anzu from being the only girl. She was completely absent in the second series due to the introduction of other female characters such as Mai Valentine, Rebecca Hawkins, and Ishizu Ishtar.
35* Textbook example in ''Toys/BBSenshiSangokuden'': the second named female character Sonshoukou Gerbera is the resident tomboy, and the first, Chousen Qubeley, has a healthy relationship to Ryofu Tallgeese, [[spoiler:and gets killed off for it]].
36%%* Prime Minister Kayabuki in ''Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex''. Probably counts as The Chick to the Major's ActionGirl, although to be fair, she does get to be quite awesome in her own non-violent, office-based way.
37* In ''Manga/PokemonAdventures'', Yellow is added to the roster of Kanto Dex Holders during the second arc of the series, except that [[SamusIsAGirl nobody knew she was a girl at first]].
38* ''Franchise/DragonBall'': While [[Manga/DragonBall the first series]] always had a few female characters scattered throughout the supporting cast, the anime-only ''Anime/DragonBallGT'' was the only time a girl regularly joined in on the world-saving: Pan, Goku's granddaughter.
39* Hailey Anne from ''Anime/YoKaiWatch'' was added to balance out the cast and so that there could be a girl that could use the titular watch in the anime, as [[SchrodingersPlayerCharacter Katie]] was made a supporting character. She replaces Katie as the female protagonist in the third game. This didn't really work as intended, however, since it just resulted in Katie getting even less focus in favor of Hailey.
40* When the classic story of ''Anime/SpaceBattleshipYamato'' was redone as ''Anime/SpaceBattleshipYamato2199'', one of the first things that the producers did was expand the female cast by a ''significant'' degree (to the point where some previously male characters were turned into women too). This is made obvious by the crew of the Yamato itself -- whereas in the classic series Yuki was the only woman on board, 2199 gives her a whole lot of company, with a third of the ship's crew made up of women.
41* ''Franchise/LupinIII'':
42** The very first episode of the 2015 ''Anime/{{Lupin III|Blue Jacket}}'' series introduces a brand new character; an Italian thief named Rebecca, who serves as an additional foil for Lupin. For pretty much the first time in the franchise's history, Fujiko is no longer the sole woman among the main characters.
43** ''Anime/LupinIIIPart5'' does the same thing, adding a young PlayfulHacker named Ami to the core cast for much of the season.
44** ''Anime/LupinIIIPart6'' has Lily, the KidSidekick of Literature/SherlockHolmes and Arianna, Zenigata's new partner.
45* ''Anime/SailorMoon'': In the [=DIC=] version, Zoicite had his gender [[ShesAManInJapan changed to female]], being the only "girl" of Queen Beryl's four generals.
46* ''Manga/OnePiece'', Nami was the only female member of the Straw Hats for the entirety of the East Blue Saga. Once they get to the Grand line, they are quickly joined by Vivi, who serves as a GuestStarPartyMember for the Baroque Works Saga, and then Robin, who permanently joins the crew almost immediately after Vivi leaves. Of course, both Vivi and Robin are both well rounded and beloved characters who are vastly different from both each other and Nami.
47[[/folder]]
48
49[[folder:Comic Books]]
50* ''ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica'':
51** In post-Crisis continuity, the original Characters/BlackCanary, Dinah Drake, was commonly made a founding member (or at least, a member who joined early into their tenure), and nowadays Liberty Belle (Libby Lawrence) has been increasingly featured as a founding member too (a carryover from her having lead the All-Star Squadron, which was basically the JSA merged with other teams active at the time). Retroactively, Hippolyta has been featured in place of her daughter.
52** Dinah Drake's daughter, the second Black Canary, Dinah Lance, has followed her mother's footsteps with the Justice League in Post-Crisis continuity. She was made a founding member of the team in the early 90s, in place of Wonder Woman, and later when this was retconned out, she was established still as being the eighth member recruited to join.
53** The Wonders of the World, the equivalent of the JSA in ''ComicBook/Earth2'', initially only had one female member, Hawkgirl, before adding Power Girl and Huntress when they returned to Earth-2.
54* ''ComicBook/TheSmurfs'' began with an all-male cast. After some books, a female Smurfette appeared, but she seldom appeared until she moved to the Smurf Village several books later and became the {{Trope Namer|s}} of TheSmurfettePrinciple. Then, a few books later, she stopped being the sole female with the addition of the tomboyish kid Sassette.
55* ''ComicBook/TheBeano'':
56** During ''[[SuperheroSchool Super School's]]'' first run there were originally four super kids three male one female and then ComicStrip/{{Banana|man}}girl was added to the cast balancing the sexes quite a bit.
57** In 2021 and 2022, several new girls were added to ''The Bash Street Kids'', which had previously had Toots as the only girl. Many of them were {{transplant}}s from other strips, and all of them were {{Twofer Token Minorit|y}}ies.
58* The O5 X-Men, created in the days of TheSmurfettePrinciple, are joined by [[Characters/MarvelComicsLauraKinney X-23]] in ''ComicBook/AllNewXMen''.
59* ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'' had [[InvertedTrope inverted this trope]] in part due to inverting TwoGirlsToATeam, with there being four girls and two guys. When one male member, [[DecoyProtagonist Alex Wilder]], was revealed to be TheMole and died at the end of the first arc, Victor Mancha was introduced in part to fill the void and has served as a longtime member since.
60* ''ComicBook/TheFlash'': Somewhat downplayed as the idea of the Flash Family is OlderThanTheyThink; there had been multiple speedsters since MediaNotes/{{the Golden Age|OfComicBooks}} who were loosely connected to the JSA, and by the Silver Age Jay Garrick, Barry Allen, and Wally West (then only Kid Flash) were an informal 'family'. When the Flash Family aspect got more focus and became a more solid unit in the 90s, Jesse Chambers/Jesse Quick, daughter of Golden Age speedster Johnny Quick, was introduced, and even briefly became Wally's chosen successor as the next Flash. TheSmurfettePrinciple aspect was downplayed somewhat by how much Wally's girlfriend-late-wife, Linda Park, helped out, and sometimes also had Bart's cousin XS, a speedster who works with the Legion of Superheroes, as a slightly looser member.
61** When ''ComicBook/DCRebirth'' revived the idea of a Flash Family after they were ExiledFromContinuity during ''New 52'', new speedsters Avery Ho and Meena Dhawan were introduced, who were both also TwoferTokenMinority examples too (Avery is mixed-Asian and Meena is AmbiguouslyBrown but assumed to be Indian in origin). At the end of Josh Williamson's run, he revived Jesse Quick (who he had wanted to bring back for some time anyway) and also saw Wally's daughter Irey return, so there were now four female Flashes active compared to ''seven'' male ([[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and Godspeed]]).
62* Featured in-universe in ''ComicBook/{{Empowered}}'', where it's alluded to a few times that there is indeed an affirmative action program for superhero teams. Consequently, when the [[FauxActionGirl hideously unsuccessful]] Empowered is given a slot on a fairly prominent team (albeit only as an auxiliary member), the immediate musing in the crowd is "quota hire."
63* ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogIDW'': It was directly stated in interviews that Tangle the Lemur was created to add another major female member to the cast, as the only previous examples were Amy (who was only just recovering from {{Flanderization}} at the time), Rouge (an AntiHero and overly sexy for a children's series) and Cream (a young child and mostly ActualPacifist). The comic would later add Whisper, Jewel and Belle, along with a villainous example in Surge.
64[[/folder]]
65
66[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
67* Most of the cast of the first ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory1'' is, well, a collection of boy's toys. The only female character, Bo Peep, was fairly minor and only existed because the boy shared a room with his baby sister (and so Woody could have a {{Love Interest|s}}). In ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory2'', Mrs. Potato Head and Tour Guide Franchise/{{Barbie}} were also fairly minor, but Jessie was one of the mains. ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory3'' gives Mrs. Potato Head a larger role and adds Great Shape Barbie as a new main character, but Bo Peep was cut entirely. (In the first film, Bo Peep was supposed to be a Barbie, but Creator/{{Mattel}} refused. It wasn't until [[TheRedStapler they saw how the first movie caused sales of Mr. Potato Head toys to spike]] that they agreed to let her make an appearance.) ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory4'' not only brought back Bo Peep in a leading role but added several other female toys, in particular antagonist Gabby Gabby.
68* [[GenderFlip Ms. Li]] from ''WesternAnimation/BatmanUnderTheRedHood''. She's also [[SparedByTheAdaptation spared the gory death of]] her [[DistaffCounterpart Spear Counterpart]], Mr. Li, and instead just ends up BoundAndGagged at the end.
69[[/folder]]
70
71[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
72* ComicBook/BlackWidow was the only female Avenger for [[Film/TheAvengers2012 the first film]], but in ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'', Characters/ScarletWitch is added to the line-up. If one counts the supporting cast, [[Characters/SHIELDDirectors Maria Hill]] was the only significant woman helping the Avengers out in the first movie.
73* The live-action ''Manga/DeathNote'' [[TheMovie movies]] have Sanami, who was created to add a woman to the Task Force. Similarly, the role of [[spoiler:the Third Kira]] was given to an adapted version of (attractive twenty-something woman) Kiyomi Takada, originally [[spoiler:merely a Kira-supporter and a go-between for Light and Teru Mikami (the fourth Kira)]], when character-wise, an adapted version of (unattractive older male) [[spoiler:Kyosuke Higuchi]] would have worked just as well, although in Takada's defense, she ''had'' a role in the live-action story.
74* ''Film/TheVoyageOfTheDawnTreader'' adds a second girl to the crew - Gael, a girl who stows away after her mother is kidnapped. This would have created a PlotHole for when the Dufflepuds kidnap Lucy as in [[Literature/TheVoyageOfTheDawnTreader the book]], they do so because only a girl can read the spell to free them. However, the film remedies it by having one of the Dufflepuds note that Gael is also a girl but that Lucy has a book next to her, indicating she knows how to read.
75* Arwen's role in ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' is expanded considerably compared to the original trilogy. Glorfindel's ride to bring Frodo to Rivendell is given to Arwen and she was filmed fighting at Helm's Deep so that the main romantic interest wasn't left out of the story for too long, but according to the [[WordOfGod DVD extras]], her being Affirmative Action Girl didn't feel right so they delved into the periphery material to show her feminine strength (supporting, encouraging, negotiating and persuading to aid the fellowship from afar) instead of the masculine strength of bashing stuff with a sword. And also according to [[WordOfGod the commentaries]], to avoid introducing a new named character who will have two total minutes of screen time. WordOfGod also said that Tauriel from ''Film/TheHobbit'' film trilogy is what Arwen could have been since she was added to include some feminine energy.
76* Tia Dalma, a minor character in [[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMansChest the second]] ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' movie, joins the crew in ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd At World's End]]'' so that Elizabeth isn't the only woman on the ship (since Anamaria vanished in ''Dead Man's Chest'').
77* In ''Film/SWAT2003'', a new character was added, Chris Sanchez, a woman who has repeatedly applied to join SWAT but was rejected for being a girl, with her number of police brutality accusations (Actually just perps who were embarrassed at being taken down by a girl) given as a reason for not allowing her to join. And then came Creator/SamuelLJackson...
78* A variation in ''Film/MissCongeniality''. While there is a large female cast in the first movie, the majority of them are the pageant contestants - and Gracie is the only female FBI agent. The sequel teams her up with another female agent Sam, though ironically features fewer female supporting characters (as the plot is about rescuing one pageant contestant).
79* A few people complained about ''Film/BatmanBegins'' and ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' not featuring any interesting female characters. The only prominent woman in the story was Rachel Dawes, the love interest [[spoiler:who is killed in the second film]]. ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'' introduces both [[Characters/CatwomanSelinaKyle Selina Kyle]] and Miranda Tate, who both have prominent roles in the story.
80* ''Film/XMenApocalypse'': Mystique was the only prominent female mutant in the previous two [[Film/XMenFirstClass First Class]] [[Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast movies]], and Agent Moira [=MacTaggert=] was absent in ''Days of Future Past''. Moira is re-inserted here, and significant roles are given to Jean Grey and Storm.
81* ''Film/TheMagnificentSeven1960'' had only one woman with a speaking part - Petra the TokenRomance for Chico. The [[Film/TheMagnificentSeven2016 2016 remake]] does ''not'' give one of the seven a GenderFlip, but gives the role of ''Film/SevenSamurai''s Rikichi to Emma Cullen, a prominent character who assembles the seven, and the movie features a couple of supporting female characters.
82[[/folder]]
83
84[[folder:Literature]]
85* Used in-universe in ''Literature/ArtemisFowl''. Holly Short is the only female officer on the [=LEPRecon=] force (there is another one, but she's a complete bimbo and serves as a PR move due to distant ancestry with a fairy king), and feels greatly put upon by her boss for being a girl. He quickly reveals that this is indeed the case... but because he knows she can take it, being better than all the other male officers, and if she succeeds the LEP will finally allow more women to join.
86* ''Literature/HarryPotter'':
87** ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'' adds Tonks to the team of good badass adults we're used to as well as Ginny Weasley and Luna Lovegood to the main group. Although Ginny was in the story before this book, she had only been either a background character or a DamselInDistress (in [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets the second one]]). Here she becomes a proper ActionGirl and joins Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville in the fight at the Ministry. Luna as well then makes the main group have three girls and three boys. On the evil side, we originally had [[PsychoSupporter Bellatrix]]. Alecto Carrow then appears as another female Death Eater, but this trope fits Bellatrix's sister [[MamaBear Narcissa]] better; she technically appeared earlier and she's only the wife of a villain, but her role gets greatly expanded in the final two books, culminating in [[spoiler:a HeelFaceTurn that allows Harry to kill Voldemort]].
88* ''Literature/LockwoodAndCo'': In the first two books, the tomboyish protagonist Lucy was the only woman in the team. In the third book, the more feminine Holly joins the team.
89* ''Literature/{{Phenomena}}'': Even though Millian first appears in the 3rd book she does have a unique personality and is a good addition to the series and has many fans.
90* The second book of ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', ''A Clash of Kings'', introduces many female warriors into the already large cast of characters, including [[DarkActionGirl Asha Greyjoy]], [[SamusIsAGirl Brienne of Tarth]], [[FieryRedhead Ygritte]], [[CoolBigSis Meera Reed]], and fire priestess [[HotWitch Melisandre]]. Martin explores how each fits into the male-dominated world of Westeros. The fourth book, ''A Feast for Crows'', also introduces the Sand Snakes, a group of sisters who were brought up to be badasses by their father.
91* ''Literature/TheStrangeCaseOfDrJekyllAndMrHyde'' had virtually no female characters in it. The PerspectiveFlip novel and film ''Film/MaryReilly'' tells the story from the POV of one of his maids. It adds in a significant female character in Mrs. Farraday, as well as featuring another maid and the cook as supporting characters.
92[[/folder]]
93
94[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
95* The fourth season of ''Series/LawAndOrder'' had Creator/DannFlorek and Creator/RichardBrooks replaced by Creator/SEpathaMerkerson and Creator/JillHennessy due to [[ExecutiveMeddling NBC's request that Dick Wolf add female cast members to the show.]] Considering that Merkerson was still on the show 15 years later and that Hennessy is widely considered to be the best of [=McCoy=]'s assistants (sometimes tossed up against Creator/AngieHarmon), this is a rare case where ExecutiveMeddling worked out for the best.
96* ''Franchise/SuperSentai'' and ''Franchise/PowerRangers'':
97** Trini Kwan, the Yellow Ranger / GranolaGirl from ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers''. In the original Japanese version, ''Series/KyoryuSentaiZyuranger'', there was only one girl on the team (Mei/Ptera Ranger). [[ShesAManInJapan The Yellow Ranger was a guy]] (Boy/Tiger Ranger).
98** Speaking of original Japanese versions, ''Franchise/SuperSentai'' started the practice with ''Series/ChoudenshiBioman'', but from then it swings back and forth between playing the trope straight and averting it (of the 28 seasons since then, 13 ran on TheSmurfettePrinciple). ''Series/EngineSentaiGoOnger'' played with this by starting off only with Saki Rouyama (Go-on Yellow), then introducing Miu Sutou (Go-on Silver), the first-ever female Ranger with SixthRanger status.
99** Similar to Go-Onger, ''Series/ZyudenSentaiKyoryuger'' only had one girl in the main FiveManBand (Amy Yuuzuki/Kyoryu Pink), but two of the [[SixthRanger auxiliary Rangers]] later [[PassingTheTorch passed their mantles]] to women (Dr. Ulshade/Kyoryu Violet to his granddaughter Yayoi, and Ramirez/Kyoryu Cyan to [[spoiler: Yuko Fukui]]).
100** Getting back to ''Franchise/PowerRangers'', the same ShesAManInJapan practice applied to Trini was applied in later seasons: ''[[Series/PowerRangersLostGalaxy Lost Galaxy]]'' had Maya (replacing ''Series/SeijuuSentaiGingaman'' 's Hikaru), ''[[Series/PowerRangersLightspeedRescue Lightspeed Rescue]]'' had Kelsey Winslow (in the place of Daimon Tatsumi from ''Series/RescueSentaiGoGoFive''), ''[[Series/PowerRangersTimeForce Time Force]]'' had Katie Walker (replacing Domon from ''Series/MiraiSentaiTimeranger'') ''[[Series/PowerRangersWildForce Wild Force]]'' had Taylor Earhardt (replacing ''Series/HyakujuuSentaiGaoranger'' 's Gaku Washio), and ''[[Series/PowerRangersDinoFury Dino Fury]]'' had Izzy Garcia (replacing Towa from ''Series/KishiryuSentaiRyusoulger'').
101** One could make a case for Aisha Campbell as well (Trini's direct replacement after she was PutOnABus); even though the Yellow Ranger, by now, was a bit more "girly", the corresponding Sentai still has her in the place of a guy (Kazu/Kirin Ranger from ''Series/GoseiSentaiDairanger'').
102* The ''Franchise/KamenRider'' franchise is notoriously bad when it comes to including female Riders. Women are usually on the supporting cast, but they don't often get involved with the actual combat. As a result, the franchise has repeatedly used this trope as it's taken gradual steps towards getting women on the battlefield alongside the men:
103** The trend began back in 1975's ''Series/KamenRiderStronger'', where the title character had a female sidekick named Tackle. She was a FauxActionGirl who died partway through the series and still isn't considered an official Kamen Rider to this day. (Though in fairness, RealLifeWritesThePlot was working against her; the actress had asthma that got in the way of doing fight scenes, and there were plans to bring her back if the series hadn't been CutShort.) Tackle was the only major female combatant in the original Showa era run of the show in the '70s and '80s.
104** When the franchise returned in the Heisei era after a hiatus, it would occasionally include a token female Rider:
105*** ''Series/KamenRiderRyuki'' introduced the first female Rider, Kamen Rider Femme, though she only appeared in a tie-in movie and died at the end.
106*** ''Series/KamenRiderDragonKnight'', the second American adaptation of a Rider series, took Femme's counterpart Kamen Rider Siren and promoted her from a one-shot movie-exclusive character into a major recurring hero on par with the original show's [[TheLancer Lancer]].
107*** Subverted in ''Series/KamenRider555''. The show built up Kamen Rider Delta with multiple [[OffscreenMomentOfAwesome Offscreen Moments of Awesome]] before it revealed that SamusIsAGirl... and then killed her off just before we could see her fight for real. The Delta equipment and identity would be used by men for the rest of the series.
108*** ''Series/KamenRiderBlade'' included a woman in its group of movie-exclusive Riders as Kamen Rider Larc. Like Femme, she doesn't survive the movie.
109*** Not exactly striking a gender balance, Kamen Rider Shuki from ''Series/KamenRiderHibiki'' was a lot more competent and stayed on the show longer than Larc and Femme. And by longer, we mean [[spoiler:two episodes as opposed to just a tie-in movie]]. Meanwhile, Akira was another girl training to be a Kamen Rider as Ibuki's apprentice, but she only managed a half-transformation in an emergency and afterward decided not to pursue it any further.
110*** ''Series/KamenRiderKiva'' had Yuri and Megumi Aso, mother-daughter {{Vampire Hunter}}s (Yuri in 1986, Megumi in the then-present day of 2008). They're not Riders themselves, and [[FauxActionGirl usually get in over their heads so a Rider has to save them]], but the fact that they regularly stand their ground against the monsters is more proactive than most female supporting characters. They also each get the chance to borrow the Kamen Rider IXA powers from its regular male users once or twice.
111*** ''Series/KamenRiderDecade'' gave its female lead Natsumi powers as Kamen Rider Kivala, but [[EleventhHourRanger only in the finale movie]] so she doesn't get to do much with them. On the plus side, she's the first female Rider to not die. ''Decade'' also gives some other female Riders extra promotion; Akira from ''Hibiki'' is a fully-fledged Kamen Rider in this version, while a web short argues that Tackle from ''Stronger'' should be acknowledged as a proper Kamen Rider and she gets a badass fight scene in the finale movie.
112*** ''Series/KamenRiderFourze'' once again has a female Rider that only appears in tie-in movies (though two films this time instead of just one), Kamen Rider Nadeshiko.
113*** ''Series/KamenRiderWizard'' had Mayu Inamori, the GoodTwin to the villainous Medusa, eventually become the first (and most prominent) Kamen Rider Mage and the first ''recurring'' female Rider, albeit one that used a mass-produced suit and arrived too late in the series to rack up many appearances.
114*** Mayu was soon overshadowed by ''Series/KamenRiderGaim''[='s=] Yoko Minato, who was a badass spy even before she became Kamen Rider Marika (it helped that she was played by stuntwoman Minami Tsukui, who was the first Rider since [[Series/KamenRider the original]] to use NoStuntDouble). She ended up the only woman in the Heisei era to have Rider powers for the majority of a show's run. ''Gaim'' also had a number of one-off villainous Riders in spin-offs, including two women, Idunn and Sylphi.
115*** ''Series/KamenRiderDrive'' has another non-Rider example in Kiriko Shijima, a policewoman and Shinnosuke's partner. In-story, she was a candidate for being Drive herself but [[{{Handwave}} lacked some unspecified factor]], which rubbed some fans the wrong way given that she was otherwise [[HypercompetentSidekick generally more capable than Shinnosuke was]].
116*** ''Series/KamenRiderGhost'' had a QuirkyMinibossSquad using knockoffs of Kamen Rider Necrom's powers in the summer movie; and one of the team members was a woman. Necrom's sister also briefly used her own variant of his powers in one of the episodes tying into said movie. Years later, return appearances reveal that Kamen Rider Specter's own sister Kanon has also become a Kamen Rider herself.
117*** ''Series/KamenRiderExAid'' ended up giving both of its most prominent female characters Rider powers later in the series; on the one hand, they're both {{Lethal Joke Character}}s (Poppy has incredibly powerful SuperCuteSuperpowers while Nico [[WeakButSkilled uses a Mook suit but is skilled enough to kick butt with it]]), but on the other, they don't in get a whole lot of fights.
118*** Finally, ''Series/KamenRiderZiO'' mirrors ''Decade'' in several ways, including giving its female lead Tsukuyomi Rider powers [[EleventhHourRanger in the series finale]]. But ''Zi-O'', at least, has a few post-show projects where she can use them.
119** The Reiwa era looks to be taking more steps forward and making female Riders more common, as every series so far has had at least one in the regular cast:
120*** ''Series/KamenRiderZeroOne'' is the first series in the entire franchise to ''start'' with a female Rider in the cast, Kamen Rider Valkyrie; and she was the first woman to take part in the franchise's SwissArmyHero gimmick by being able to switch between two forms. However, while one of the series' main characters on paper, she was eventually DemotedToExtra and left on the sidelines more often than not. If you're willing to stretch gender definitions, Naki also becomes a Rider late in the series (the character is androgynous and, as an android, has NoBiologicalSex; while the actress identifies as non-binary); but only transforms a few times.
121*** After spending the first half of ''Series/KamenRiderSaber'' as a [[ManipulativeBastard Manipulative Bitch]], Reika reveals that she's also combat-capable as Kamen Rider Sabela.
122*** ''Series/KamenRiderRevice'': Ikki and Daiji's little sister Sakura is a karate student that can hold her own against {{Mooks}} and human criminals, and that's before she gets her own TransformationTrinket and becomes Kamen Rider Jeanne. It's considered the first time that a female Rider was one of the main protagonists. She's also the first one to get a SuperMode.[[note]]Valkyrie technically got one before her, but A) it was in a spinoff and Jeanne's is in the actual show, and B) Valkyrie's was a PowerupLetdown and she got badly beaten.[[/note]] Sakura's FriendlyEnemy relationship with Aguilera also leads to [[spoiler:Aguilera making a HeelFaceTurn and becoming a Rider herself, so the series gets ''two'' regular female Riders]].
123*** ''Series/KamenRiderGeats'' involves a DeadlyGame that recruits both men and women as contestants, though most are just nameless {{Red Shirt}}s that get eliminated or even killed offscreen. Of the Riders that actually get screentime, men still outnumber women at around four-to-one, but the cast is still large enough that the women include a main character (Na-Go), a few short-term {{Mauve Shirt}}s (Letter, Lopo, and Hakubi), and even a major villainess (Beroba). Though some of those are downplayed since they aren't really Action Girls -- Hakubi could defend herself decently, but was less experienced than everyone else at that point and eventually got overpowered; while Letter was a RedShirt whose only purpose was to get killed off (but so are some of the male Riders, avoiding sexism on that front).
124*** In ''Series/KamenRiderGotchard'', Gotchard is aided by his friend and ally Rinne, who supports him in battle by casting "spells" (actually UsefulNotes/{{Alchemy}}) from the sidelines, LadyOfBlackMagic-style; and soon enough she becomes a Rider herself and takes a more direct role in fighting as Kamen Rider Majade. She's credited as the first time that the franchise's traditional Secondary Rider role was female (Jeanne and Na-Go were main characters, but each officially only ranked third in importance in their respective series).
125* Samantha Carter was living large as the sole estrogen representative of ''Series/StargateSG1''. And then along comes Vala Mal Doran, who ironically was more of a chick than [[TheSmartGuy Carter]] ever was. Sam never really filled the role of TheHeart, despite being initially the only girl. Instead, [[NonActionGuy Daniel]] [[TookALevelInBadass Jackson]] functioned as TheHeart, while Sam was the resident ActionGirl and OmnidisciplinaryScientist.
126* In the third season of ''Series/{{Alias}}'', Sidney's sister Nadia was introduced. She didn't stick around for long though...
127* ''Series/{{Flashpoint}}'' became a victim of this. With the death of its [[BlackDudeDiesFirst sole black team member]], the team replaces him with a black woman this time. It averts TheSmurfettePrinciple with the presence of Jules Callaghan, though prior to the new girl, she represented that trope.
128* Season two of ''Series/HumanTarget'' added two new female characters to balance out the original three male main characters.
129* Caitlin joins the guys in the second season of ''Series/{{Airwolf}}''.
130* The end of the second season of ''Series/RobinHood'' saw the departure of [[OneTruePairing Marian]] and [[ActionGirl Djaq]]. The writers unsuccessfully tried to compensate in the third series by introducing [[DerailingLoveInterests Isabella]] and [[CreatorsPet Kate]] to take their place as Robin's {{Love Interest|s}} and the TokenGirl respectively.
131* Inverted on ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures''. In the original pilot, the gender ratio was three women (Sarah Jane, Kelsey, and Maria) to one man (Luke). When the series began, Kelsey had been replaced with Clyde to balance out the gender ratio (and because Kelsey's actress was rather difficult.) Kelsey went on to join Franchise/FactionParadox and became the president of Pluto, so things worked out for her in the end.
132* The ''Series/HawaiiFive0'' reboot/remake changed Kono into a chick, because, well, they needed a chick. Grace Park seems to be making a career out of this (c.f. Boomer in ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'').
133* Speaking of ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|1978}}'', the show only had [[BridgeBunnies Athena]] and [[HospitalHottie Cassiopeia]] in the main roster. Sheba was not added until halfway through the show.
134%%* While the reimagined ''Battlestar Galactica'' had two women among the main pilots from Day One (Kara and Sharon), of the three "nuggets" added partway through Season 1 Kat was the one who got the most screen time and character development.
135* GenderFlip in ''Series/{{Warehouse 13}}'': the original cast was Mrs. Fredrickson, Mika, Leena, Artie, Pete, with Claudia joining after a few episodes in making it 4 girls and 2 guys. Season 2 introduced [[spoiler:female]] H.G. Wells then dropped that character at the end of the season and has introduced Agent Jinks in Season 3 making 4 girls and 3 guys. [[spoiler:5 girls and 3 guys if you count H.G. Wells who is CommutingOnABus]]
136* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' starts out with 4 different geeks and the one chick across the hall. After almost 3 years of seeing TheSmurfettePrinciple in action (and [[spoiler:2 failed relationship attempts between some girl and the DoggedNiceGuy]]), two new main female characters are brought in that help balance the two more socially extreme geeks of the group and the gender ratio in general.
137* GenderFlip in ''Series/Charmed1998'' as the ratio was typically the three sisters and one male character. Andy filled this role in season 1 but then season 2 replaced Andy with Dan and gave Daryl and Leo more prominent roles. Cole got added in season 3, making the main cast an even split of 3 men and 3 women.
138* Another Gender Flip in ''Series/H2OJustAddWater'' with a lead cast of three girls and one guy. Season 2 adds Zane to the opening credits and then season 3 adds Will (though dropping Louis as well).
139* {{Inverted|Trope}} on ''Series/MythBusters''; when the Build Team began to be shown on camera, there were ''two'' women: Kari Byron and [[GenderBlenderName Scottie]] Chapman. Scottie [[ThePeteBest left after a year or two]], and was replaced by Grant Imahara, leaving Kari as the lone female [=MythBuster=]. A couple of female [=MythTerns=] have been on the show (one of which, Jess Nelson, could be considered a straight example as she joined with the FiveManBand in the current configuration), but they typically doesn't last much longer than a year.
140* ''Series/ColdCase'': For the first two seasons, main character Lilly Rush was [[TheSmurfettePrinciple the only]] female homicide detective in the PPD. The third season introduced Josie Sutton, and since [[ExecutiveMeddling the suits didn't like her]], she was PutOnABus and replaced with Kat Miller.
141* ''{{Series/Angel}}'' had Cordelia as the only woman in the main cast. Season 2 gave [[EvilFormerFriend Darla]] and [[AmoralAttorney Lilah]] big roles, but they were still only recurring, not to mention villains. [[TheSmartGuy Fred]] ([[GenderBlenderName a girl]]) was added to the main titles for Season 3, making it TwoGirlsToATeam. By Season 5, Fred was the only woman in the main cast, but [[AffablyEvil Harmony]] was added as Angel's secretary and [[PromotionToOpeningTitles promoted to the opening titles]] for the last few episodes.
142* As Lucy Brown left ''{{Series/Primeval}}'' during Season 3, that would have left Abby as the only woman working at the ARC - if Laila Rouass hadn't joined as Sarah Page at the start of the season. When she leaves at the end of the season, Ruth Kearney's Jess and Ruth Bradley's Emily are added in Season 4.
143* Characters/{{Supergirl|TheCharacter}}'s adopted sibling was a boy in the comics. For ''{{Series/Supergirl 2015}}'' the character becomes Kara's stepsister Alex. This adds a third female protagonist in addition to Kara and her boss Cat Grant. Additionally the show received complaints about having no women of color in the first season, so the second (where Cat is PutOnABus) adds Maggie Sawyer and Miss Martian.
144* ''Series/SavedByTheBell'' was envisioned as having only TwoGirlsToATeam - with Lisa and Kelly as only two girls versus a main cast of four males (five if you count Max, who was a recurring cast member at first). Creator/ElizabethBerkley's audition (for Kelly) impressed producers and they created a third woman - Jessie Spano - to accommodate her.
145[[/folder]]
146
147[[folder:Multi-Media]]
148* The ''Franchise/StarWars'' franchise was hit with this, mostly because the original films tended to stick to TheSmurfettePrinciple.
149** ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' added Ahsoka Tano and [[DarkActionGirl Asajj Ventress]] as the main characters. Bonus points for both of them being non-humans.
150** ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'' added Sabine Wren and Hera Syndulla to the team, with the latter carrying on the unusual non-human tradition.
151** ''Film/TheForceAwakens'' introduced Rey, Captain Phasma, and Maz Kanata.
152** ''Film/RogueOne'' now adds Jyn Erso in addition to Mon Mothma, who was last seen out of action in ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi''.
153* After three of the four original members (all male) left Music/TheWiggles, one of the new members was female.
154[[/folder]]
155
156[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
157* It's common for a promotion to have just one championship for women to fight for, due to having fewer female wrestlers. However, if their roster goes up, they will sometimes introduce a secondary title for the women:
158** Prior to the rise of the Wrestling/NationalWrestlingAlliance Cora Livingston's title was only one recognized World Championship belt. This was an UnbuiltTrope, better than the men, who couldn't agree on a World Heavyweight Championship belt until Wrestling/GeorgeHackenschmidt, who forced the issue and still had to have ''two'' different World Heavyweight Championship belts for the Easter and Western Hemispheres, but over the decades various governing bodies introduced dozens of world championship belts for men of various weight divisions, and even {{tag team}}s, but with wasn't until the NWA that the women finally got World Tag Team and Junior Heavyweight belts of their own.
159** For eighteen years Lucha Liga Internacional's governing body, the Universal Wrestling Association, only recognized on women's title belt. In 1992 they created women's tag team title belts however, to capitalize on the popularity of [[Wrestling/AllJapanWomensProWrestling Zenjo]] stars Wrestling/ManamiToyota and Toshiyo Yamada.
160** Wrestling/{{AAA}}'s Reina de Reina's title belt was the only one they created for women, and even that was intially just the DistaffCounterpart to the recurring Rey de Reyes event until Xóchitl Hamada's feud with the Moreno family proved so popular a belt was created to keep it going. In 2003 the Apache family as started gaining popularity, and since there was only one man at the time (Gran) and three women (Lady, Faby and Mary), a "Mixed" title belt where a man must team with a woman was also created.
161** Due to Wrestling/{{WWE}}'s female roster expanding in 2008, they introduced a second female title - giving the Raw brand the Women's Championship and Smackdown the Divas' Championship. The Women's Championship was retired in 2010, but in 2016 when the brand split was brought back a second female championship was introduced again, and women's tag team championships were introduced in 2018.
162** When Mexico's City's ban on luchadoras was lifted Wrestling/{{CMLL}} had one women's title belt for every level (local, national, world), but in 2011 a partnership with the Japanese "Joshi" federation REINA lead CMLL to create two more international title belts for women.
163** [[Wrestling/TotalNonstopActionWrestling TNA]] originally had the Knockouts Championship but later expanded things to add a set of tag team titles for the women too.
164** Wrestling/AllEliteWrestling started out with a world championship for the women's division, but eventually added the TBS championship.
165* Wrestling/TheOddities' only female member was Wrestling/LunaVachon for a while. {{Wrestling/Sable}} later joined the group, or at least was considered an honorary member.
166* {{Wrestling/Ivory}} was the female member of the Wrestling/RightToCensor but then a storyline took place where [[Wrestling/StacyCarter The Kat]] was forced to become a member...[[SubvertedTrope but then she was released from WWE in real life]].
167* Wrestling/DGenerationX historically had one female member and in its first incarnations it was {{Wrestling/Chyna}}. In 2000 Chyna left the stable and it was reformed with Wrestling/StephanieMcMahon, as she had joined forces with Wrestling/TripleH. A second female member came in the form of [[Wrestling/TerriPoch Tori]], who became [[Wrestling/SeanWaltman X-Pac's]] girlfriend.
168[[/folder]]
169
170[[folder: Puppet Shows]]
171* The second season of ''Series/RolandRatTheSeries'' introduced Roxanne Rat, an outspoken female rat, to a franchise that had previously only had one major female character, Glenis the Guinea-Pig. Unfortunately, the popularity of Roland Rat was already fading, and Roxanne isn't remembered as strongly as even the (male) characters added in season one.
172[[/folder]]
173
174[[folder:Theater]]
175* ''Theatre/SpiderManTurnOffTheDark'' introduces a CanonForeigner villainess named Swiss Miss as a member of the [[LegionOfDoom Sinister Six]]. Note that in the first iteration of the play, Miss Arrow [[LampshadeHanging explicitly states]] she created the character because she felt the team could use a woman.
176* The ''Marvel Universe LIVE!'' stage show uses the same [[ComicBook/TheAvengers Avengers]] line-up as [[Film/TheAvengers2012 the movie]], with the exceptions of [[Characters/CaptainAmericaHeroes The Falcon]] and [[Characters/MarvelComicsCarolDanvers Captain Marvel]], who were added so that the team could have a [[MonochromeCasting non-white hero]] and [[TheSmurfettePrinciple another woman]], respectively.
177[[/folder]]
178
179[[folder:Video Games]]
180* ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'':
181** Despite the large cast, only a handful of the ones that are significant to the plot are female. The first fifty-odd hours will lead one to think that Elly is destined to be the game's playable Smurfette compared to the five guys Fei, Citan, Bart, Rico, and Billy, only being mitigated somewhat with Miang as the DarkMistress to Ramsus's presumptive BigBad, Margie as a non-playable PluckyGirl, and the all-female QuirkyMinibossSquad. Then, after completing the Shevat story arc near the end of the first disc, three female playable characters in a row are added: Maria, Chu-Chu, and Emeralda.
182** Also, there turns out to be more to [[spoiler:Miang]] than what the player is told at first. [[spoiler:She is not only manipulating Ramsus from behind the scenes but has been doing the same to the whole world for 10,000 years--she is one of the two {{Big Bad}}s in the story and for all intents and purposes, [[GodInHumanForm the physical avatar of their world's god.]]]]
183* The characters of Kim Wu and Maya were created for ''VideoGame/KillerInstinct 2'' specifically because Orchid was the only woman in the first game.
184* The female Archer from ''[[VideoGame/{{Gauntlet}} Gauntlet Legends]]'' replaced the male Elf.
185* ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'': ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros64'' has only one playable female character, Samus. ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosMelee Melee]]'' on [[Platform/NintendoGameCube GameCube]] added Peach, the Ice Climbers (one of whom is female) and Zelda (who can transform into Sheik), essentially adding four female characters. ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl Brawl]]'' added Zero Suit Samus (a transformation for Samus similar to Zelda and Sheik), as well as Ivysaur (whose bud type actually confirms it as female, oddly enough), putting the total female playable character count (should you count Zelda/Sheik and Samus/Zero Suit as their own fighters) to 6 out of 39. Then came ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosForNintendo3DSAndWiiU'', which split Zelda and Sheik as well as Samus and Zero Suit Samus into separate characters, finally giving those characters their own roster space, while simultaneously removing the Ice Climbers and Ivysaur. This would balance things out if they didn't add in the Wii Fit Trainer (who has a male alt-skin, but the female is default), Rosalina, Palutena, Lucina, and (as DLC) VideoGame/{{Bayonetta}}, as well as multiple characters with female-alt skins such as Wendy (Bowser Jr.), Mii Fighter (two times over, technically, as only the Mii Gunner is female by default), Robin, the Villager, and Corrin, adding ''ten'' new female characters in one installment. It's for this reason that the fourth installment has received praise for being much more gender-accepting. Meanwhile, ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'' [[TheBusCameBack brought back]] the Ice Climbers and Ivysaur and giving a female skin to the Pokemon Trainer, while at the same time adding in Daisy, the Inklings (with the female Inkling as the default) and Isabelle, while DLC character Byleth comes with a female-alt skin, as well as Min Min, the Aegis and Alex as a skin for Steve.
186* Typically, the most recurring female character in the ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' series is Peach. In the spin-offs, they literally throw in as many female characters as they can find. While many of the additional characters in the ''Mario'' spin-offs (Daisy, Baby Peach, Rosalina, Birdo, and more recently, Pauline) could be accused of being this trope, only Toadette and Baby Daisy were created specifically for this purpose.
187* ''VideoGame/MetalSlug'':
188** The original ''Metal Slug'' had two characters, the guys Marco and Tarma. ''Metal Slug 2'' revealed their female counterparts, Fio and Eri. Fio and Eri have stuck around ever since... except for when Tarma and Eri were put on a different mission in ''Metal Slug 4'' and replaced with Trevor and Nadia.
189** ''7/XX'' adds Leona, but you have to ''buy'' her first.
190** ''VideoGame/MetalSlugAttack'' ratchets things all the way in the ''other'' direction after exaggerating this trope during its launch. The game has added dozens of new characters for both the good guys and all the bad guy factions, pretty much ''all'' of them female. It wasn't until the game had been out for a year or so that they started to add a few males to the expanded cast.
191* The first ''VideoGame/FinalFight'' game had 3 playable characters, all of them men, and the most important female character in the plot was the DamselInDistress. Both sequels in the original trilogy, on the other hand, had Maki and Lucia respectively as playable women.
192* The original version of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII'' had a party of four generic boys. The [[VideoGameRemake remake]] changes the blue Onion Knight to a girl.
193* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX2'' is an interesting case. The original game had three girls on the team but the protagonist was male. The sequel has two of the original girls now as the protagonist, with a third new one added - marking the first time in the series the player has an all-female party. What's more is that those three are the ''only'' party members and there are no {{Guest Star Party Member}}s either.
194* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' based the Espers on the signs of the Zodiac - of which only Virgo is represented by a female symbol (the rest are either male, animal, or inanimate objects). Indeed the Esper representing Virgo - Ultima - is female. Developers made another of the Espers female too - Shemhazai who was based on Sagittarius (a male centaur).
195* ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy'': As the only real lead character in the series (from I to XII), [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI Terra]] is designated as the sole female character you can play in the story mode. [[OriginalGeneration Cosmos]] is an NPC, [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI Shantotto]] is a bonus character, and NoCampaignForTheWicked (ergo excluding the female villains [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII Cloud of Darkness]] and [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII Ultimecia]]). The sequel, ''VideoGame/Dissidia012FinalFantasy'', adds a new female lead, [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII Lightning]], and supporting characters to the roster, with [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Tifa]], [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX Yuna]], and [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI Prishe]], slightly evening out the sausage fest.
196* ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'':
197** ''VideoGame/WarcraftIITidesOfDarkness'': The expansion pack adds Alleria Windrunner, an elven ranger hero and the only female unit, to the story.
198** ''VideoGame/WarcraftIIIReignOfChaos'': Female units are usually relegated to supporting magical roles (sorceresses for Humans[=/=]High Elves and Banshees for Undead), up until Night Elves had women filling all the primary attack unit roles. The expansion adds the Night Elf Warden, the only female melee hero in the game.
199* ''VideoGame/DiddyKongRacing'': In the original Platform/Nintendo64 version, the only female character was Pipsy the mouse. In order to even the balance a bit (and fill the empty spots left by [[ExiledFromContinuity characters Nintendo no longer had permission to use]], along with making the game less of an InNameOnly addition to the ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry'' franchise), Diddy's girlfriend Dixie Kong and her younger sister Tiny Kong were added to the Platform/NintendoDS version.
200* ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'': Aqua is the franchise's first properly playable female character (not just a bonus addition like Larxene or Xion in multiplayer). [[MemeticBadass And she is awesome]].
201* ''VideoGame/StationeryVoyagers'': Viola. It was strongly implied that Neone would join shortly after the first launch, so she doesn't count. But Viola appears from seemingly out of nowhere in the second season, and quickly convinces the team to let her join, [[SoulBrotha in spite of her eccentricities]] being confusing to them.
202* ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' with its increasingly enormous playable roster has an already pretty-even gender ratio, though fan request and Riot's own interest for more diversity has led to female champions taking affirmative positions in originally uncommon roles. Examples include [[LadyOfWar Fiora]] (designed out of demand for a female [[MasterSwordsman melee duelist]]), [[ThePaladin Leona]] (a female [[StoneWall tank]]), and [[BadassPreacher Ill]][[AmazonianBeauty aoi]] (a female "[[TheJuggernaut jugger]][[MightyGlacier naut]]"). There have interestingly also been a few [[GenderInvertedTrope gender-inversions]] of this trope, such as [[ShotgunsAreJustBetter Gra]][[{{Cowboy}} ves]] (made out of demand for a manly ranged marksman) and [[BarrierWarrior Br]][[HuskyRusskie aum]] (a manly support).
203* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'': [[ClassyCatBurglar Rouge the Bat]] and Blaze the Cat. The former was the first additional major female character after [[GenkiGirl Amy Rose]] (whom only started becoming an ActionGirl herself recently at that point) and was an adversary for Knuckles. The latter debuted a few years later but is noticeable for being the only female character to match [[TheHero Sonic's]] skill in combat and is also the only woman to have a SuperMode of her own.
204* The cast of THQ's cancelled ''Avengers'' video game pretty much exclusively consisted of characters featured in the [[Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse MCU]] ([[Characters/MarvelComicsTonyStark Iron Man]], [[Characters/MarvelComicsSteveRogers Captain America]], [[Characters/MarvelComicsBruceBanner the Hulk]], [[Characters/MarvelComicsThorOdinson Thor]], Characters/{{Black Widow|TitleCharacter}}, [[Characters/MarvelComicsClintBarton Hawkeye]] and [[Characters/IronManHeroes War Machine]]) with the lone exception of [[Characters/MarvelComicsCarolDanvers Ms. Marvel]], who would have appeared as an unlockable character.
205* Due to the lack of female combatants in the franchise, the makers of ''VideoGame/DragonBallFighterZ'' actually created a brand new character named Android 21.
206* The third ''VideoGame/ToejamAndEarl'' game added Latisha as the first female playable character, with ''Back in the Groove'' adding Lewanda and Flo to the playable cast as well.
207* From the original release of ''VideoGame/StreetFighterII'' to ''Hyper Fighting'', Chun-Li was the game's sole female playable character (she was also the earliest playable character in a fighting game ''ever'', hence her nickname "First Lady of Fighting Games"). This changed when Cammy was added in ''Super'', and subsequent installments of ''Franchise/StreetFighter'' have made sure that at least two women are in the cast.
208* The later instalments of ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}'' have leaned much more heavily towards female civilization leaders and great people from history, even when it meant picking more obscure historical figures, or ones who don't quite fit where the game puts them. Case in point: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Hopper Grace Hopper]] most certainly had the rank of Rear Admiral in the American navy, but her contributions were in computer science and programming, not leading ships, so her presence in Civilization VI as a Great Admiral rather than a Great Scientist or Great Engineer seems clearly directed to achieving greater gender balance in the Great Admiral list.
209[[/folder]]
210
211[[folder:Web Animation]]
212* Failed attempt: The creators of ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' tried on a few occasions to develop other female characters for the site to supplement Marzipan; none ever saw the light of day, except in a bonus short on the DVD appropriately titled "Why Come Only One Girl?" They eventually gave up, deciding that the sub-feature ''WebAnimation/TeenGirlSquad'' would be their new female outlet.
213* In-continuity, Bethany of The Escapist's Game Dogs is literally this-in spite of a behavioral record as long as any arm you'd care to present, stuffed full of reprimands for violence that would get anyone else fired twenty-seven times over, she keeps her job explicitly because of affirmative action rules mandating a certain number of female and minority employees. Outside of continuity, they probably thought they were doing this tongue-in-cheekily by making her actually the only girl. Color me unimpressed.
214* ''WebAnimation/RedVsBlue'':
215** While Tex didn't balance out the sexes, throughout the whole show she has consistently been, by far, the best soldier in the series, at one point delivering [[CurbStompBattle a merciless smackdown]] against the Reds and Tucker at the same time without taking a hit. ''Red Vs Blue'' usually avoids the negative aspects of the trope: particularly with Season 9, more and more female characters have been added, and they, as well as Tex, have been a major impact on the plot and have become well-developed characters. However, Sister's inclusion in Season 5 smacks of the downsides: she's promiscuous, stupid, and female, and that's really all there is to her character. This may be why she [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse hasn't been seen]] since the beginning of Season 6.
216** Sister reappeared as a major character in season 16, and she underwent some major offscreen CharacterDevelopment, having matured and really become quite a bit smarter (though that really doesn’t mean much in this show). Her and Tucker pair up in the [[spoiler: time travel shenanigans]] involved in this season, with Tucker once more making constant passes at her. Eventually it’s revealed that they had a falling out and when Tucker keeps pushing it, she hits him with a scathing TheReasonYouSuckSpeech about how she’s grown up but he’s still the same old horn dog he was back in the Blood Gulch Chronicles, that leaves Tucker absolutely speechless.
217* For the first six years of its run, ''[[WebAnimation/Supermarioglitchy4sSuperMario64Bloopers SMG4]]'' had only Princess Peach as a major female character (Daisy and Toadette were never major). Then in July 2017, the series introduced Meggy Spletzer, an [[Franchise/{{Splatoon}} Inkling]] whose popularity quickly catapulted her to the main cast. She immediately distinguished herself as the {{tomboy}} to Peach's GirlyGirl through her sporty FieryRedhead personality. Meggy soon replaced Peach as ''the'' main girl of the series. However, unlike Peach, she would be joined in short order by three more major female characters (plus at least two minor ones), making the gender-balance of the series more even …which Mario {{lampshade|hanging}}s at least once.
218[[/folder]]
219
220[[folder:Webcomics]]
221* Zoe's inclusion into ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' (she's the first female character with any dialogue) after Riff comments, "This strip needs women." It's a lesser example because she appeared when the strip was only a month old, and Pete Abrams claims he'd had her character planned from the beginning. The revelation that Aylee is female made her qualify.
222* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' begins with just one woman, Haley (unless you count [[AmbiguousGender gender-indeterminate]] Vaarsuvius). In strip #43, they meet "The Linear Guild", their first set of antagonists, which includes two women, Sabine and Hilgya. Hilgya soon leaves, and Celia the air elemental law student is introduced. She goes on to become a much more important character, as does Sabine, who sticks around with her boyfriend Nale after the rest of the Linear Guild breaks up. Another female character is added in strip #200, the stuck-up paladin Miko. Xykon the lich's army starts out apparently all male but gets an infusion of estrogen in the form of [[ILoveTheDead Tsukiko]] right before Miko [[spoiler:lets her paranoia get the best of her and dies]]. Later we meet the AscendedExtra Kazumi Kato, and her boyfriend and eventually husband Daigo. The female paladin Lien also plays a supporting role. Intrigue among the exiled paladins and their people also introduces Lord Kubota as a villain, his female ninja protege Therkla, and the male imp Qarr. And it goes on from there. OOTS goes from Smurfette Principle beginnings to a nearly equally balanced cast.
223[[/folder]]
224
225[[folder:Western Animation]]
226* The Geek in ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfSamAndMaxFreelancePolice''. Put in as a compromise - the executives wanted a female main character and their original idea was to make Max female (which would never work as Sam and Max are HeterosexualLifePartners with the occasional moment of HoYay). Luckily she hardly had any effect on the show. The silly thing is there are plenty of female characters in ''Sam and Max'', but the network wanted one as a main character.
227* The second season of ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender''. Until then, Katara was the only woman in the [[FreudianTrio main cast]]. Then [[DarkActionGirl Azula]], [[EmoTeen Mai]], [[CloudCuckoolander Ty Lee]] and [[CuteBruiser Toph]] all arrive in the first six episodes, and suddenly the gender ratio for main and recurring characters is four male, five female. Though she appeared as a minor character in season one, Suki may also count as seasons two and three increase her prominence. Incidentally, Toph and Azula were [[WhatCouldHaveBeen originally conceived as guys.]] The genders were swapped somewhere down the line, presumably to let this trope happen, and because swapping Toph's gender was hilarious.
228* ''WesternAnimation/TheAvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes'' initially boasted only one female protagonist, Characters/TheWasp. About halfway through season one, viewers met her friend [[Characters/MarvelComicsCarolDanvers Carol Danvers]], in an episode that ended with Carol gaining Kree superpowers. By season two, Carol assumes the superheroine identity of Ms. Marvel, whom [[Characters/MarvelComicsTonyStark Iron Man]] recruits into the Avengers.
229* ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'':
230** Ellen Yin was the sole major female character for the first couple of seasons. Unsurprisingly, she was written out of the show around the time Characters/{{Batgirl}} was introduced as a main character.
231** The show's version of the Terrible Trio had Vulture [[GenderFlip depicted as a woman]] so that the group wouldn't be entirely male.
232* According to Creator/BruceTimm, Characters/{{Batgirl}} was [[AscendedExtra made into a main character]] in ''[[WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries The New Batman Adventures]]'' because the network thought adding a girl to the main cast would help court female viewers.
233* Botanica from ''WesternAnimation/BeastMachines''.
234* Almost all the main cast of ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'' came from the "Uncle Scrooge" comics. Two new female characters were added though – Webbigail "Webby" Vanderquack and Mrs. Betina Beakley.
235* Angela from ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'', added in Season 2. All the gargoyles were male except for [[BigBad Demona]], who was a villain. Elisa was the existing female character, but she's not a gargoyle and therefore [[OvershadowedByAwesome not quite as action-y]], despite being a police officer and often participating in combat. In the original series pitch, there were apparently two female gargoyles in the main cast--Coco, who was forced by ExecutiveMeddling to evolve into Broadway because they didn't like the idea of an overweight woman as a main character, and Dakota, the original leader of the clan, who was dropped for being very boring. It's worth noting that neither character was stuck in limbo permanently: Coco was brought back in the comic continuation as a member of the London Clan, while Dakota was retooled into Demona.
236* ''Captain Scarlet'''s Lieutenant Green was turned into a woman for the CGI remake ''WesternAnimation/GerryAndersonsNewCaptainScarlet''. Aside from a few shows of bravery and one episode in which the Mysterons cloned her father, her character was barely touched on.
237* Season 2 of ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibleHulk1996'' bumped up ComicBook/SheHulk to co-lead status and renamed the series ''The Incredible Hulk and She-Hulk''. WordOfGod was that this was specifically done to get more young girls to watch the show.
238* By the time ''WesternAnimation/HouseOfMouse'' came around, WesternAnimation/MinnieMouse and WesternAnimation/DaisyDuck were the only female characters in the Disney shorts - as the respective partners of Mickey and Donald. This series adds the obscure Clarabelle Cow into a regular character, also expanding Minnie and Daisy's roles.
239* ''WesternAnimation/IronManTheAnimatedSeries'' had two CanonForeigner villainesses named Hypnotia and Elastika, who were created in order to add some women to Iron Man's mostly-male rogues gallery.
240* Later iterations of the ''WesternAnimation/JonnyQuest'' franchise (such as ''WesternAnimation/JonnyQuestVersusTheCyberInsects'' and ''WesternAnimation/JonnyQuestTheRealAdventures'') introduced Jessie Bannon, daughter of Race Bannon, to add a little gender diversity to the otherwise all-male cast.
241* Hawkgirl from ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' was added because the network wanted one more female character besides Wonder Woman. It worked out though because, despite her relative lack of notoriety in the original comics, she ended up becoming one of the most significant (in both [[EnsembleDarkhorse a good way]] and [[CreatorsPet a bad way]], according to the BrokenBase) in the series, and even led to her being used more in the mainstream DC universe, which in turn was because [[Franchise/DCAnimatedUniverse Timm and Dini]] are just that good. They are in fact ''so good'' that TheMovie is entirely centered around her origins and race, and even when [[spoiler:she leaves the team]] she's ''still'' a huge deal later on. When the show is relaunched as ''Justice League Unlimited'', it adds ''many'' new characters, both male and female, and will often give these new characters ADayInTheLimelight to show them off without being overshadowed by the originals. It's notable though that the characters who get these the most are Black Canary, [[Characters/BatmanHuntress Huntress]], ComicBook/{{Vixen}}, and Supergirl; while Green Arrow and Question also get a sizeable amount of focus too, Canary and Huntress end up with a budding Birds of Prey subplot growing, while Vixen gets major focus as Green Lantern's new {{Love Interest|s}} and Supergirl goes through a decently sized subplot.
242* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfZelda1989'' added Spryte The Fairy to the cast of characters. While there ''are'' fairies in the [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Zelda series]], there wasn't a main fairy character until ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina of Time]]'' in 1998, and Spryte was likely added for this reason. Strangely, Impa was not in the cartoon despite being an important female character present in the first game, but to be fair, she was [[AllThereInTheManual only mentioned in the manual]].
243* WesternAnimation/LolaBunny basically existed in ''Film/SpaceJam'' because of how few notable female WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes there were – having Granny play basketball would be pushing suspension of disbelief[[labelnote:*]] (which doesn't stop her from playing in [[Film/SpaceJamANewLegacy the sequel]])[[/labelnote]], while Petunia Pig and especially Melissa Duck are seriously obscure. They found a gender-neutral niche for her in the comic books, and eventually turned her into a CloudCuckoolander and StalkerWithACrush for ''WesternAnimation/TheLooneyTunesShow''.
244* Skeeter in ''WesternAnimation/MuppetBabies1984'', as Miss Piggy was the only major recurring woman on its parent series, ''Series/TheMuppetShow''.[[note]] For the record, there weren't many minor recurring women on ''The Muppet Show'', either. There was really just Janice, who was part of the rock band. On the other hand, Animal was part of the band too, and they used him regardless. And Camilla (the chicken, and Gonzo's love interest).[[/note]] Camilla also appeared in the cartoon as a stuffed doll that interacted with the other characters whenever they'd have their imagination sequences. Like when they did an episode on [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Greek mythology]] and needed a third woman for the goddesses' contest with Paris. She was Aphrodite, goddess of beauty, to the other girls' chagrin.
245* ''WesternAnimation/MuppetBabies2018'' adds another new woman to the main cast named Summer, again in a further attempt to appeal to female audiences.
246* ''WesternAnimation/PAWPatrol'''s first season had five male pups (Marshall, Chase, Rubble, Rocky, Zuma) and one girl (Skye). The second season added Everest, a second female pup, and Tracker, an ethnic-minority pup (he's Latino, inasmuch as that concept applies to dogs – he's bilingual in Spanish and his English is strongly accented).
247* For most of ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot'''s run in the first two seasons, the main cast had a ratio of about 4-1. (Megabyte, Bob, Enzo, and Phong to Dot.) Towards the end of the second season, likely to give Enzo somebody to talk to, [=AndrAIa=] the game sprite is introduced. Afterward, series guest stars Hexadecimal and Mouse are given larger roles and made into regulars.
248* ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'':
249** Dr. Hutchinson was created originally for this purpose – the writers were told they needed "a professional woman [...] with a good hook." They [[HookHand took that a bit more literally than intended]]. Though reluctant at first, they eventually grew fond of her and created a storyline where she dates and marries Filbert.
250** And in "JustForFun/WackyDelly", a show-within-a-show from one particularly memorable episode, the three main characters each come up with their own characters for the show. Rocko's is introduced simply as "This here's Betty Bologna. She's a girl!". It is unlikely that he had any other plans for the character aside from being a token woman.
251* ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' had Lil as the only girl in the core group of babies, with Angelica as the antagonist. Eventually Susie and later Kimi were added. The original lineup of Rugrats was three boys to one girl (or two if one counts Angelica, who isn't really part of the group) and by the end was a GenderEqualEnsemble.
252* Inverted in ''WesternAnimation/SheRaPrincessOfPower''. Bow is TheOneGuy in the FiveEpisodePilot and is initially the only notable male member of the rebellion. Sea Hawk is then added into the main cast a couple of episodes later.
253* ''WesternAnimation/SWATKats'' Had Felina Feral, the neice of Enforcers Commander Ulysses Feral be added to the cast in season 2 as the only on screen female Enforcer and the only FriendOnTheForce to the SWAT Kats. Sadly though the series was cancelled before season 2 could be finished, so she only appeared in 8 episodes.
254* Kip Kangaroo in the second season of ''WesternAnimation/ShirtTales''.
255* Sassette in ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs1981'', who was a tomboy compared to Smurfette's chick.
256* In ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark,'' Bebe has one [[ADayInTheLimelight day in the limelight]] episode, but besides that pretty much only exists for when they need a girl character other than [[TheSmartGuy Wendy]] (in particularly, playing her as Wendy's [[TomboyAndGirlyGirl girlier]] {{Foil}}). Really, Wendy was the only important non-adult female early on, though as time goes on more of them are becoming {{Ascended Extra}}s. Heidi was a main character as Cartman's girlfriend in Seasons 20 and 21 but returned to the background afterwards.
257* ''WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends'':
258** The series had no (canonical) female steam engines until Season 7 introduced Emily, who eventually became part of the main cast. Then the ''Big World! Big Adventures!'' ReTool added TWO new female members - Nia the Kenyan tank engine, and Rebecca the yellow streamlined tender engine. Their addition expands the number of female members in the core cast from only one (Emily) to a whopping three, combined with four existing males (Thomas, James, Percy and Gordon) to form a near GenderEqualEnsemble. According to WordOfGod from Mattel executives, Nia and Rebecca's introduction, much like Emily's, was done in response to criticism over the show being sexist, and also due to a rise in interest for the series from female and minority audiences.
259** Prior to the show's [[ShiftedToCGI transition from scale train models to CGI]], Isobella was [[TheSmurfettePrinciple the only female member of the Sodor Construction Company]]. Although Isobella wasn't carried over from the transition, Season 23 introduced two new female members to the team: Brenda the Bulldozer and Darcy the Digger.
260* An interesting case that stretches between the ''Series/{{Thunderbirds}}'' of the 1960s and the most recent 2015 remake ''WesternAnimation/ThunderbirdsAreGo''. In the original series a female character by the name of Tin Tin was added to the cast to address the imbalance between the male/female character ratio -- only for the show to do nothing particularly interesting with her. The remake reconceives the character as Kayo, who is given a more delineated skill set and a backstory of her own -- resulting in a much more interesting and important character.
261* Arcee in ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformersTheMovie'' and Season 3 of ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers''.
262* ''WesternAnimation/TronUprising'' has Paige (the more competent of Tessler's CoDragons), Mara (one of Beck's co-workers), Lux, Pearl, and a guest appearance from Quorra. In less than a dozen episodes, they managed to have more female characters than two movies, ten games, two graphic novels, and the ARG ''combined.''
263* Occurs in ''WesternAnimation/VoltronLegendaryDefender'' in the form of a GenderFlip. Pidge, a male character from the original ''Anime/{{Voltron}}'', is made a girl in the ContinuityReboot (though she originally [[SweetPollyOliver presents as male]]) to balance out the gender ratio.
264* In the original ''Watership Down'' [[Literature/WatershipDown novel]] and [[WesternAnimation/WatershipDown animated film]], Hyzenthlay was the only female with a big role. The TV series changes Blackberry to a female and expands the role of Primrose. It also adds in a female mouse character called Hannah who didn't exist in the books.
265* {{Inver|tedTrope}}sion: In the AnimatedAdaptation of ''WesternAnimation/WITCH2004'', the producers added Blunk to increase the number of male characters (originally, they had only TheOneGuy in Caleb). Also in the second season, Matt (Will's boyfriend) was given a much bigger role, making them affirmative action ''guys''.
266* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010''
267** [[TheStraightAndArrowPath Artemis]] sort of counts: she did not join the cast until episode six, but was planned from the start (even appearing in commercials and the opening sequence).
268** Characters/{{Zatanna}} and [[{{ComicBook/Icon}} Rocket]] join over the course of the first season. No other male characters joined the team until season two. The second season also added Batgirl, Wonder Girl, and Bumblebee to the team.
269** When considering new members to be added to the Justice League the three female members [[DiscussedTrope specifically say that another girl would be nice]].
270--->'''Characters/{{Wonder Woman|TheCharacter}}:''' Athena knows the League could use more female members.\
271'''Characters/BlackCanary:''' Agreed.\
272'''[[ComicBook/{{Hawkman}} Hawkwoman]]:''' Hear, hear!
273[[/folder]]
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