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In other cases, the women are [[Distaff Counterpart|feminized versions]] of existing male characters.
 
This trope has lessened over time, but even now it often applies to animated fare aimed at boys or a general audience. This is especially serious when the regular cast is full of synthetic entities or other species which have a voice or are sufficiently humanoid; these will always be more masculine than feminine, with any feminine examples receiving special attention, [[Men Are Generic, Women Are Special|suggesting that women are merely an unusual subtype of men]].
 
Why does this trope happen? Often, the problem lies with the source material -- the work's an adaptation of something [[Values Dissonance|written or created decades before]] equal recognition for women started to gain momentum. Sometimes, however, writers will try to correct this problem by inserting a few more female characters or at least an [[Affirmative Action Girl]].
 
When the time for merchandising comes, unless the cast is all female, manufacturers won't create as many figures of the female members as they would males of the franchise even if the series is [[Merchandise -Driven]] (or at least, until the mid-90's). This creates a vicious cycle in which The Smurfette Principle is upheld by both toy manufacturers and TV writers, each reasoning that the other will enforce it anyway. This may be because, statistically, companies believe that action figures of female characters don't sell as well as the male ones, all evidence to the contrary. Of course, the shortage of female action figures to base those figures on can lead to another vicious cycle.
 
In classic comedy animation or shows, especially slapstick, women are often absent because [[Wouldn't Hit a Girl|hitting a girl]] just isn't [[Double Standard|considered]] [[Dude, Not Funny|funny]]. (In the case of harmless [[Amusing Injuries]], this [[Slapstick Knows No Gender|isn't always the case]].)
 
This trope can also be [[Justified Trope]] by its unfortunate [[Truth in Television|accuracy]] in certain contexts. It is fairly realistic for [[Men Are the Expendable Gender|armies]], police forces, adventuring parties, and similar groups to be predominantly male, especially if set in a non-[[Politically Correct History]].
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Writers who recognize the problem after a season or two may expand the cast with [[Affirmative Action Girl|Affirmative Action Girls]]. This is usually more effective.
 
Interestingly, this can extend to [[Mooks]] and the [[Monster of the Week]] with [[Mono -Gender Monsters]], to avoid the [[Unfortunate Implications]] of violence against women.
 
The name of this trope was first coined by [http://www.nytimes.com/1991/04/07/magazine/hers-the-smurfette-principle.html an article in the New York Times printed April 7, 1991, called "The Smurfette Principle"]. The article discussed the negative message which this trope gave its young audience: that males are individuals who have adventures, while females are a type of deviation [[Never a Self -Made Woman|who exist only in relation to males]].
 
Contrast [[Two Girls to A Team]], [[Useful Notes/The Bechdel Test|The Bechdel Test]], [[Girl Show Ghetto]]. This is also [[Distaff Counterpart]] to [[The One Guy]]. See also [[Smurfette Breakout]] when the character becomes popular on her own, and [[Territorial Smurfette]] when another female is added to the show and the character reacts negatively.
 
{{examples|Examples}}
 
== Anime and Manga ==
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* In ''[[Saint Seiya Omega]]'', Aquila Yuna is the only girl among the Bronze Saints.
* ''[[Science Ninja Team Gatchaman (Anime)|Science Ninja Team Gatchaman]]'' (and its various [[Macekre]] including ''[[Battle of the Planets (Anime)|Battle of the Planets]]'') has one heroine in a squad of five heroes.
* ''[[Voltron (Anime)|Voltron]]'' (''Golion'') also has one heroine in a squad of heroes. ''Dairugger XIV'' didn't have that much better a ratio either, with roughly three females in ''three'' squads. Notably, Princess Allura originally only joined the team as a replacement after one member of the all-male [[Five -Man Band]] was killed. Even then, it was over everyone else's objections, and only because they couldn't form the Giant Robot without a fifth member.
** That said, Princess Romelle could be seen as an additional female character, even though she doesn't make her debut until Episode 17, and a more kick-ass one than Allura. (Unlike the former, Romelle actually 'fights back' against would-be attackers.) [[Ensemble Darkhorse|Queen Merla]] was added by the American writers/editors of the series for the second season that got distributed to the Western market.
* ''[[Uchuu Senkan Yamato (Anime)|Uchuu Senkan Yamato]]'' has -- you guessed it -- one heroine in a squad of heroes. Early episodes showed more women among the crew, but they all abruptly disappeared.
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* This trope is scaled up for ''[[Legend of Galactic Heroes (Anime)|Legend of Galactic Heroes]]''. It's pretty conspicuous that there are only five notable female characters among a ''literal cast of HUNDREDS'' in a 110 episode saga, {{spoiler|one of whom dies early on}}. The Alliance has an [[Action Girl]] and [[The Chick]] among its ranks, while the Empire has another Chick and the one woman who even comes close to the [[Magnificent Bastard|Magnificent Bastardry]] of the male characters. This is partly justified by the Empire's archaic social structures.
* Casca is the only woman in the Band of the Hawk from ''[[Berserk (Manga)|Berserk]]'' and mainly serves as Griffith's [[Number Two]]. She's quite respected by pretty much the entire band, at least some of whom refer to her as "anego" (sister). In time, she becomes the [[Love Interest]] of Guts. When the Eclipse goes down, {{spoiler|she becomes the victim of a horrific [[Break the Cutie]] ordeal, culminating in her rape at the hands of Femto right in front of Guts}}. Two years after the horror, she and Guts form the core of a new group of [[True Companions]] later on, which is fairly evenly split between four guys (Guts, Serpico, Isidro and Puck) and four girls (herself, Farnese, Schierke and Evarella), but because of her traumatized post-Eclipse state, she's not the combatant that she used to be.
* ''[[Jo JosJo's Bizarre Adventure (Manga)|Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure]]'' is severely lacking in the female department until Part 6. Most of the women up to that point are either secondary characters or love interests with no real role in the story, and almost all the antagonists are men as well.
** Averted in Part 6, where the primary protagonist and two of her closest allies are women, with at least a couple of female antagonists.
* ''[[Sailor Moon (Manga)|Sailor Moon]]'' inverts this, Tuxedo Mask and Artemis being the only male (non-villain) primary character.
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== Comics ==
* [[Trope Namers|Named for]] Smurfette, the only female [[The Smurfs (Franchise)|Smurf]] for years out of a population of 100.
** Ironically, ''The Smurfs'' [[The Smurfs (Animation)|cartoon]] actually toned this ''down'', a little. While you could argue Smurfette is as much a stereotype as any other specific smurf, Peyo (their creator) caught some flak by admitting she was not intended to be a real heroic character at all, describing her in mostly childish ways. The [[Hanna -Barbera]] show only played this up in her origin, where she was created by Gargamel to disrupt the lives of the Smurfs. Otherwise, Smurfette is typically a strong-willed type who is often ready to take charge when necessary in Papa Smurf's absence.
** Later, another female Smurf, the younger and more tomboyish Sassette, was created by similar means as Smurfette. The final season added Nanny Smurf, who confusingly seems to have been a natural female Smurf.
** Although, as noted in ''[[Donnie Darko (Film)|Donnie Darko]]'', as a creation of Gargamel Smufette wasn't a true Smurf. Originally, the Smurfs were all male (or possibly asexual).
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* ''[[Bloom County (Comic Strip)|Bloom County]]'''s cast had a series of strips dealing with the necessity of introducing a female character after the Supreme Court declared male-only clubs unconstitutional. ("Nothing's more 'male-only' than Bloom County! We've GOT to introduce a WOMAN!") Before, the comic strip had several notable reoccurring female characters including the feminist schoolteacher Ms. Harlow, who actually ''did'' [[Does Not Like Men|like men]]. Eventually, Ronald-Ann was created as a regular, who subverted the trope by ''not'' being [[The Chick]]. {{spoiler|Rosebud the Basselope}} was also revealed to be female, much to the surprise of the cast. Unfortunately, it looks like this was [[Retcon|retconned]] to oblivion.
** Even more directly addressed in the not-a-sequel-series-I-swear, ''Outland''. In the strip, a woman asked why all the well-known animal characters in comics and animation are all male; any female animal characters were just [[Distaff Counterpart|The Girlfriend]]. Opus announced that the strip was just about to hire the first major female animal character star to join the main cast, Hazel the Hedgehog. In a brilliant sequence that ran for ''weeks'', she lampshaded ''why'' most animal characters are male. (Are we asking girls to identify with a "little pig-rodent"? Can she participate in a slapstick pie fight if depicting violence against females is taboo? Is she still her own distinct character if we ''have'' to [[Put a Bow On Her Head]]?)
* In Hergé's ''[[Tintin (Comic Book)]]'' comics, just about the only recurring female character is Bianca Castafiore, who's an impossible diva. Oh, and her maid.
** [[Word of God]] says that Hergé had a lot of trouble drawing adult characters that weren't ugly or ridiculous (Tintin doesn't count, as the character design is almost childish and very simple anyway) - something that didn't bother Hergé when it came to men, but annoyed him greatly when drawing women. He actually started to get better at it in the latter albums, and a cute female character with a major role was introduced in "Tintin et l'Alph-Art", but this effort suffered [[Author Existence Failure]].
* Alison Bechdel's ''[[Dykes to Watch Out For (Comic Strip)|Dykes to Watch Out For]]'' initially inverted this, with scarcely any male characters, partly as a response to the Smurfette principle (as discussed in ''The Indelible Alison Bechdel'') and partly to force male readers to identify with the female characters, as women often have to identify with male characters. Over the last several years, more male characters have appeared; one of the main characters, Sparrow, had a long-term relationship and a child with a man named Stuart. This may have also been her accommodating what has become to be known as [[Useful Notes/The Bechdel Test|The Bechdel Test]] in her own work.
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== Film ==
* 7 is the only female ragdoll in ''[[Nine9 (Animation)|Nine]]''. The twins 3 and 4 never talk, so their gender is ambiguous, but that's still a 1/2/6 ratio. On the other hand, only 7 is a fighter or independent by nature.
** They were made from the brain essence of a man, so it's surprising there are ANY females among them.
** Made fun of in [http://mad-but-happy.deviantart.com/art/Pick-of-the-Litter-140004585 this] comic.
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* All three main characters in ''[[The Hangover (Film)|The Hangover]]'' films are male and so are nearly all substantial supporting characters but Jade from the first film comes closest to being a female lead. The second film effectively has ''no'' important female characters in terms of screentime - even Stu's fiancee has only a few lines.
* Like its source material, the 2011 film ''[[Tintin (Film)|Tintin]]'' exemplifies this trope. It has only a handful of female characters, and only two of them (Tintin's landlady Mrs. Finch and opera singer Bianca Castafiore) have names, dialogue, or any importance to the plot.
* Out of all the support crew for [[Captain America: theThe First Avenger (Film)|Captain America the First Avenger]], Peggy Carter is the only significant female on the SSR team. She, however, is arguably one of the main characters of the movie, though.
* In ''[[Immortals (Film)|Immortals]]'', Athena is the only female god seen in the entire film. Phaedra is also the only female travelling with Theseus.
* ''[[Galaxy Quest (Film)|Galaxy Quest]]'' parodies this on ''[[Star Trek (Franchise)|Star Trek]]'' (see Live-Action TV below) by having only a single female character on the show, whose actress was constantly annoyed that her only roles on the show were [[Fan Service]] and repeating the computer.
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* Beverly Marsh is the only female in The Losers Club in ''[[IT]]''. [[Deconstructed Trope|This has its]] [[Squick|consequences later]].
* From 72 demons featured in ''[[Ars Goetia (Literature)|Ars Goetia]]'', only Marchosias, Vepar, and Gremory are female. And that's only from their usual forms on manifestation (respectively: [[Mix and Match Critters|gryphon-winged, snake-tailed she-wolf]]; mermaid; camel-riding noblewoman); the text itself still uses male pronouns for all the demons. Marchosias, Vepar, and Gremory included.
* The only female disciple of Aldur in ''[[Belgariad]]'' is Polgara. Well, also Poledra, but she's a [[Missing Mom]] most of the time. And these women are Belgarath's wife and daughter, so apparently to be a female member of the group [[Never a Self -Made Woman|you have to have a connection to a male member of the group]].
* [[Isaac Asimov]], until he married his second wife had issues with women due to relations with [[My Beloved Smother|his beloved Smother]]. Susan Calvin was the shining exception in the 400+ books he wrote until he was old.
* ''[[Of Mice and Men (Literature)|Of Mice and Men]]'': There are a total of eleven characters mentioned in any capacity in the book. Two are women. One, Lennie's Aunt Clara, deceased, is never seen and is only a part of Lennie's background. The other, Curley's wife, doesn't get a name. {{spoiler|And she dies anyway}}.
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** Neither show ever had a female character in Red until ''[[Power Rangers SPD (TV)|Power Rangers SPD]]'''s Charlie, but she was fighting for the villains. The first heroic female Red Ranger appeared in ''[[Samurai Sentai Shinkenger]]'' (and even then, she got minimal screentime/development/relevancy/etc).
** Also, ''[[Super Sentai]]'' often has one female major villain. She is usually a comic relief character. This is less prevalent in ''[[Power Rangers (Franchise)|Power Rangers]]'', which usually makes female villains [[The Dragon]] or even the [[Big Bad]].
** ''[[Engine Sentai Go-onger]]'', for once, had one of the extra rangers as a female with actual screentime. The ratio of the Go-onger team was still 5:2, but at least they made an effort. ''[[Power Rangers RPM (TV)|Power Rangers RPM]]'', sadly, took this a step backward; Gold and Silver became [[Single -Minded Twins]], so the girl basically amounted to half a character. Though it did make up for it by having the mentor character be female and get plenty of focus.
** In the toylines, [[Girl Show Ghetto|the female Rangers usually get basic action figures produced and that's it]], while the boys get [[Environment Specific Action Figure]] variations out the wazoo. With the ''[[Power Rangers Jungle Fury (TV)|Jungle Fury]]'' and ''RPM'' toys, Bandai America has actually ''created extra marketable'' (read: male) ''Rangers for the toyline'' to give these extras to, rather than give them to the existing female Rangers. Then again, that's less misogyny and more because girls don't sell: young boys really ''are'' the primary consumers of action figures for fighting series, and in second and third grade, owning a Pink Ranger "doll" can be hazardous to your health.
*** Some series have made non-Yellow females a Blue or White Ranger rather than Pink, so that even if little boys don't want her action figure (because the costume will usually have a skirt on it) they can still be persuaded to buy other merchandise based on the character - her weapons, mecha, etc.
* The only major female Muppet is Miss Piggy, a glamourous diva. When she was first introduced, she was a minor character. The large cast of ''[[The Muppet Show]]'' is male-dominant, but this may be due to its slapstick nature (Miss Piggy, for example, rarely takes any of the slapstick, but she certainly dishes it out when provoked). Furthermore, the regular cast used to include other female characters, such as Janice and Hilda, but both became much less prominent after Hilda's puppeteer quit and Janice's puppeteer died, leaving Piggy. Janice herself rarely appeared outside of her [[Five -Man Band|(The Electric Mayhem)]], of which she was [[The Chick]].
** There have been a few other female Muppets, but their tenure is either short-lived; or they're one-off characters. A notable example is Annie-Sue Pig; a young ingénue and foil to Miss Piggy. Her appearances declined considerably after the 3rd season, although she did still appear from time to time. A number of the [[Ambiguous Gender|ambiguously-gendered]] monsters are noted in background material as being female; but there is no clear indication of this on the show.
*** This applies to the puppeteers as well; in the first season, there were seven puppeteers, and only one (Eren Ozker) was a woman. Ozker & John Lovelady left after Season 1, so they held auditions for a new female for Season 2, with Louise Gold getting the part (although she was uncredited for the season). In Season 3, they hired another female puppeteer (Kathryn Mullen) but also hired another male (Steve Whitmire) making it 6 guys, 2 girls. Also, in relation to Miss Piggy & Janice, they were (and still are) performed by males. Yeah.
** ''[[Sesame Street (TV)|Sesame Street]]'', on the other hand, has an almost evenly split human cast, but for a period had almost no female Muppets. Even now, there's only a few significant ones, such as the mild-mannered Prairie Dawn (and Betty Lou, who was actually the same Muppet), Snuffy's little sister Alice, and the more recent characters of fun-loving Zoe, earthy Rosita, and girlie-girl Abby Cadabby.
** The spinoff ''[[Muppet Babies (Animation)|Muppet Babies]]'' added Skeeter, Scooter's [[Half -Identical Twins|"identical" twin]], to balance the sexes.
** ''[[Fraggle Rock (TV)|Fraggle Rock]]'' has a fairly even gender balance, with over seven reoccurring Muppet female characters, of which five are regulars: [[Action Girl]] Red, [[Cool Big Sis]] Mokey, levelheaded Ma Gorg, [[Shorttank]] Cotterpin, and wise Trash Heap. Furthermore, the series has an excellent age balance as well, with [[Cool Old Guy|Cool Old Guys]] like Doc, Cantus, Architect Doozer, The World's Oldest Fraggle, and the female Storyteller and aforementioned Trash Heap. That's not even getting into the species diversity!
** ''[[Bear in The Big Blue House]]'' had Ojo as the only female in the main cast.
* ''[[Stargate SG 1 (TV)|Stargate SG 1]]'' suffers from this: Samantha Carter is the only woman on the team (although there is a very prominent female doctor who eventually ends up {{spoiler|getting [[Killed Off for Real]]}}). Can be justified by the fact that, even in modern times, the military is hardly the most gender equitable of places. Due to [[Executive Meddling]], a sexy female thief gets added to the team in the final two seasons. ''[[Stargate Atlantis|Atlantis]]'' is a lot better at balancing out the roles.
* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] on ''[[3rd Rock From the Sun (TV)|3rd Rock From the Sun]]'', where the aliens, having learned their ideas about Earth from its popular culture, decided that only one of them needed to be "[[The Chick|The Woman]]".
* [[Justified Trope]] on ''[[MashM*A*S*H (TV)|Mash]]'', given it's set in a military installation and most surgeons at the time were male. Only one, Margaret Houlihan, maintained a major role at all times (and not as [[The Chick]]), with a number of other recurring and once-off nurses (most notably, Kellye Nakahara/Yamoto, Ginger Bayliss, Janet Baker, Nurses Baker, Shari, Jo Ann, Bigelow, and Able) typically playing the role of [[The Chick]] where necessary. Gender issues were explored in the show -- most notably when a male nurse is the victim of gender discrimination, having been made a private when all the other (female) nurses were drafted as officers.
* ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus (TV)|Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'' featured almost no women, but then again most of the roles were played by the same six actors anyway, regardless of gender. By their own admission, the Pythons brought in women like "[[Sixth Ranger|Seventh Python]]" Carol Cleveland only when they needed a female character to actually be attractive, otherwise, they'd just get into drag.
** Both Python precursor series, ''Do Not Adjust Your Set'' and ''At Last the 1948 Show'', featured five person casts consisting of four men and one woman.
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** Interestingly [[Equal Opportunity Evil|villains don't suffer this problem]]: ''[[Star Trek Deep Space Nine (TV)|Star Trek Deep Space Nine]]'' had the Female Shapeshifter, and Kai Winn as [[Big Bad|Big Bads]] and the Dominion has plenty of female Vortas. The Borg equally have plenty of female drones and are led by the Queen. In ''[[Star Trek the Next Generation (TV)|Star Trek the Next Generation]]'' there was Planet Angel 1, led by women and Tasha Yar's home planet, complete with Tasha's sister.
* ''[[Chouseishin Gransazer]]'' has twelve Gransazers (transforming superheroes), divided into four "tribes", each consisting of two guys and a girl. The two guys of each tribe can be quite clearly categorized as an "alpha male" and a "beta male". The girl is invariably [[The Chick]]. Ai of the Water Tribe is the chickiest of the four, though. (Her name means "love". It doesn't get any more cheesy and girly than that.)
* The [[Five -Man Band]] in ''[[Captain Power and The Soldiers of The Future (TV)|Captain Power and The Soldiers of The Future]]'' included Captain Power, Hawk, Tank, and Scout, all male. Sometime before the start of the show, they rescued Jennifer "Pilot" Chase from the Dread Youth. She was an awkward mix of skills and talents: she was on par with Power and Scout in combat and infiltration, but the former could easily (and often did) replace her at the helm of the Jumpship, and most of the time she was there only to be [[The Chick]]. Worse, at the end of its [[Cut Short|only season]], she was [[Killed Off for Real]] in a [[Heroic Sacrifice]]. Leaked scripts for a proposed Season 2 would have brought in a more [[Action Girl|Amazonian]] replacement.
* ''[[Kamen Rider]]'' has always been quite the wiener party, with female Riders being few and far in between. ''[[Kamen Rider Ryuki]]'' introduced the first official female Rider. Her title was "Kamen Rider Femme". Go figure. ("Femme" is French for "woman"...) She only appears in a movie, thus being non-canon. Oh, and she {{spoiler|dies after like 30 minutes}}, but not before {{spoiler|killing the most evil Kamen Rider apparently.}}
** ''Ryuki'''s Western Adaptation ''[[Kamen Rider Dragon Knight]]'' expanded the role of Femme's counterpart Kamen Rider Siren with original footage; making her a [[Sixth Ranger]] and forming a [[Power Trio]] with the two male leads. She's still the only girl out of thirteen Riders, but points for doing what they could.
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** Preceding all of them was Electro-Human Tackle (yes, that was her name) from ''[[Kamen Rider Stronger]]'', who had all the qualifications to be considered a Rider, but wasn't. The manga ''[[Kamen Rider Spirits]]'' addresses this by saying that {{spoiler|following her [[Heroic Sacrifice]], Shigeru/Stronger wanted her to rest in peace as a normal woman.}}
** ''[[Kamen Rider Decade]]'' tries to redress some of the issue by having Natsumi temporarily become [[Kamen Rider Den-O|Den-O]] and later {{spoiler|becoming Kamen Rider Kivala in the [[Grand Finale]] movie (Keyword: "Finale". Go figure.)...and '''not''' dying, unlike the previous female Riders}} as well as giving ''[[Kamen Rider Hibiki|Hibiki]]'''s Akira full-fledged powers as Kamen Rider Amaki (in ''Hibiki'', she only ever assumed a middle-stage transformation).
* Both the U.K and U.S versions of ''[[Whose Line Is It Anyway? (TV)|Whose Line Is It Anyway]]'' feature four players, all of whom are almost always male. Only one episode in 18 series featured one male and three female performers. This is not helped by both Colin Mochrie and Ryan Stiles appearing in every episode of the last 11 series, meaning the best the women could achieve was parity with the male performers.
** Lampshaded in one episode during a game of ''Scenes From A Hat'' in which the scene was "Bad Times to Kiss Someone". Since all the players were male, when the game ended, Colin Mochrie asked if they could get some women on the show.
** This is a common issue on similarly structured comedy shows. The most [[Egregious]] offender is probably ''[[Mock the Week]]'', since all four recurring panelists (out of six) are male and the host is as well.
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* In ''[[Angel (TV)|Angel]]'', Cordelia is the only female main character for the first 2 seasons and Fred/Illyria (and while Illyria is in Fred's body, she likely has [[No Biological Sex]] anyway) is the only one for most of the fifth season before Harmony was thrown in the last few episodes. Note that this is basically the inverse of the show it spun off from, ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)|Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''.
* ''[[Scrubs (TV)|Scrubs]]'' started off with two females (Elliot and Carla) out of a cast of six--later seven once [[Almighty Janitor|The Janitor]] was [[Promoted to Opening Titles]]. Laverne started off as the only recurring female character until formerly one-shot Jordan became an [[Ascended Extra]], but then {{spoiler|Laverne was [[Killed Off for Real]] in Season 6}}. Season 8 averted this, adding three recurring female doctors (Sunny, Katie, Denise) and two recurring non-meds in The Gooch and Lady, but [[Retool|the last season]] only had two female mains and one recurring, who only served [[Funny Accent|two]] [[Ms. Fanservice|purposes]]. There were several female guest stars throughout the series, but the vast majority were just [[Girl of the Week|girls of the week]] for J.D.
* An interesting case is the BBC's ''[[Robin Hood (TV)|Robin Hood]]''. For the first four episodes, Marian was the only female character, not so much because of The Smurfette Principle, but simply because there was no other reoccurring female character in the legends. This was solved with the introduction of Djaq, a [[Sweet Polly Oliver]] in the [[Gender Flip|Gender Flipped]] role of the Saracen, who contributed her skills as a physician and scientist to the team. However, both Marian and Djaq were written out of the show at the end of Season 2, and replaced with [[Affirmative Action Girl|Isabella and Kate]]. Although Isabella had an important part to play in the narrative, the [[CreatorsCreator's Pet|widely-hated]] Kate was simply the Token Girl amongst the outlaws, a task that involved [[Shallow Love Interest|fan-girling Robin]], [[Damsel Scrappy|getting kidnapped every week]], and [[The Load|being a useless tag-along]]. [[Unfortunate Implications]] abounded.
* ''[[Human Target (TV)|Human Target]]'' will be adding a female character in its second season. The main characters are all guys. Please welcome this trope.
* ''[[Homicide Life On the Street (TV)|Homicide Life On the Street]]'' began with only one woman, Detective Howard, in the main cast. That was a deliberate decision to reflect real-life homicide squads which were dominated by men. More women were added later on, and the show tried valiantly to avoid [[Fan Service]] by casting actresses who looked normal (by TV standards).
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** They added Kara DioGaurdi in the eighth season, making it two male judges and two female judges. When Paula Abdul left before Season 9 she was replaced by Ellen DeGeneres. Beginning with Season 10 it's back two male judges(Randy Jackson and Steven Tyler) and one female judge(Jennifer Lopez).
** OK, so pick any jury on any other talent show. So You Think You Can Dance: 2 men, 1 woman. America's Got Talent: 2 men, 1 woman. The Sing-Off: 2 men, 1 woman. The Voice: ''3'' men, 1 woman.
* Lampshaded in ''[[ItsIt's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (TV)|Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia]]''. In "The Gang Solves the Gas Crisis." The gang are trying to figure out their roles within the group and summarise that Mac's the brains, Dennis is the looks, Frank's the muscle, Charlie's the wild card and Dee's the useless chick.
* The ''[[Law and Order]]'' universe is always a bit prone to this:
** On [[Fan Nickname|The Mother Ship]], the lack of female characters lead to one of the most positive examples of [[Executive Meddling]] ever, giving us [[Benevolent Boss|Anita Van Buren]] and [[Hello Attorney|Claire Kincaid]]. Ever since, there have been two women (Van Buren and Jack McCoy's current [[Hello Attorney]] ADA), apart from the single season in which Nina Cassidy was a detective. She was known as Detective Beauty Queen.
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== Toys ==
* Across [[LEGO]]'s various themes:
** In ''[[Bionicle (Franchise)|Bionicle]]'', every major Toa team is composed of five males and only one female. The same goes for the Matoran villagers; the story focuses on six [[One -Gender Race|One Gender "Tribes"]] of Matoran but only the tribe of water is female, and consequently all but two female characters are coloured blue. To make this even worse, most villainous groups of six, such as the Piraka or the Barraki, are entirely male. More Matoran tribes exist and are mentioned in the [[Expanded Universe]]: eleven male tribes, three female (Water, Lightning, and [[Psychic Powers|Psionics]]), and a tribe of Light composed of both genders (for what it's worth, the tribe of Plant Life was intended to be female, but a typo set the tribe's male status in stone forever). So it took a while, but the ratio is now somewhere around four-to-one and therefore slightly more balanced than the main ensemble tends to be.
*** When the focus shifted to the Agori race on another planet, it was established that whose tribes don't have the One Gender rule. In theory, there can be more females than there were before since no one role ''has'' to be male, and said female could be of any tribe. In practice, only one female character was introduced as a set in the one-and-a-half years of this story...and she was ''still'' the blue one. Supporting material discusses this somewhat - the story arc in question focuses on [[Gladiator Games|arena gladiators]] [[Serious Business|with survival of the race as a whole at stake]] (not the most feminine profession) and it's mentioned that female gladiators are generally less common because the villagers are less inclined to put their faith in female gladiators, which they perceive to be weaker. Of course, said sole female gladiator introduced really isn't at all fond of the sentiment.
** In Life on Mars, an older theme from the [[Turn Of The Century]], there is exactly one female character: Cassiopeia, a female Martian (distinguished from the others by her [[Tertiary Sexual Characteristics|eyelashes]]).
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* ''[[Ape Escape (Video Game)|Ape Escape]]'' series, Pink Monkey is one of the Freaky Monkey Five.
* ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (Franchise)|Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' 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 [[Dolled -Up Installment|edit her into]] ''[[Popful Mail (Video Game)|Popful Mail]]'' for localization of that game.
* In the first installment of the Nintendo [[Massive Multiplayer Crossover]], ''[[Super Smash Bros (Video Game)|Super Smash Bros]]'', the only playable female was Samus Aran ([[Samus Is a Girl|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.
* On a related note, many other [[Fighting Game|fighting games]] 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 [[Fragile Speedster|notably weaker]] than the male characters. This is parodied brutally in ''[[VG Cats (Webcomic)|VG Cats]]'' -- [http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=130 here].
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** Also, some of the RPGs feature individual female characters from enemy species (e.g. Goombella the Goomba from ''[[Paper Mario the Thousand Year Door (Video Game)|Paper Mario the Thousand Year Door]]'', Bow the Boo from ''[[Paper Mario (Video Game)|Paper Mario]]'', and Kylie Koopa from ''[[Mario and Luigi Partners In Time (Video Game)|Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time]]'').
** 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.
* ''[[Donkey Kong Country (Video Game)|Donkey Kong Country]]'' has only a few female Kongs: Candy Kong was the first, a vaguely [[Fan Service|fanservicey]] 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 ''[[Donkey Kong 64 (Video Game)|Donkey Kong 64]]'''s [[Five -Man Band]].
** 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).
** ''[[Donkey Kong Country Returns (Video Game)|Donkey Kong Country Returns]]'' has no [[Ambiguous Gender|apparent]] females at all.
* Many games with a four- or [[Five -Man Band]] have exactly one female. [[The Chick|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 [[Lampshade Hanging|noted by an NPC]].
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*** ''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 ''[[Mega Man Zero (Video Game)|Zero]]'' series began to turn the tables. The series had Ciel (the most important non-player character), Leviathan (one of the four Guardians, a [[Quirky Miniboss Squad]] that evolved), Neige, and many of the bosses and Resistance [[Non Player Character|NPCs]] are female.
** Finally, each of the ''[[Mega Man ZX (Video Game)|ZX]]'' games has one male and one female protagonist -- a decision that [[SchrodingersSchrodinger's Player Character|has its own problems]], but at least lets girls save the ''Mega Man'' world for once.
** The ''[[Mega Man Battle Network (Video Game)|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.
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* ''[[The Order of the Stick (Webcomic)|The Order of the Stick]]'''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 [[Running Gag]], and who isn't very good at physical combat at all), though other female characters have since become prominent ''supporting'' cast.
** ''O0TS'' may have started out this way, but a large portion of the most recent stories have shown the personality conflicts between two very different female protagonists: Haley and Celia.
* ''[[Hanna Is Not a BoysBoy's Name (Webcomic)|Hanna Is Not a Boy's Name]]'' 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 ''[[Magic the Gathering (Tabletop Game)|Magic the Gathering]]'' webcomic ''[[UG Madness]]''. 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 ''[[Eight 8-Bit Theater (Webcomic)|Eight Bit Theater]]'' 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 [[White Magician Girl]], 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 [[Big Bad]] 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 ''[[Questionable Content (Webcomic)|Questionable Content]]'', 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 the [[Shout Box]] whenever a new female character shows up: "Because all I need is another female character".
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*** On a smaller scale, [[Cute Bruiser|Toph Bei Fong]] appears to be the only female competitor in the Earth Rumble VI.
*** In the spinoff series ''[[The Legend of Korra (Animation)|The Legend of Korra]]''. 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, [[Da Chief]] of Republic City Police, {{spoiler|who is Toph's daughter, and at least one appearance of old!Katara}}. [[Badass Normal]] women also exist, and even Korra's polar bear-dog Naga is a female.
* Examples from [[Hanna -Barbera]]:
** All of H-B's [[Talking Animal]] characters were male until Cindy Bear was introduced.
** Penelope Pitstop was the only woman not only in ''[[Wacky Races (Animation)|Wacky Races]]'', but also in [[The Perils of Penelope Pitstop|her own series]].
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** ''[[Toy Story (Animation)|Toy Story]]'''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 [[Shallow Love Interest]] with no part in the main action. The second and third films even out the gender inequality, though not by much.
*** Even though Toy Story 3 had many more female characters than the other two, I think it should be worth mentioning that {{spoiler|Andy got rid of Bo Peep}}.
** ''[[A BugsBug's Life (Animation)|A Bugs Life]]'', despite having a few female royalties, is guilty of the [[Insect Gender Bender]]; 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 ''[[Monsters, Inc. (Animation)|Monsters Inc.]]'' 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.
** ''[[Finding Nemo (Film)|Finding Nemo]]'' has 9:3.
*** The writer explains on the DVD commentary that in fact ''Dory was originally male'' until he saw [[Ellen De Generes]] on television and realised that was the sweet-but-scatty tone he was looking for.
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* On ''[[Dragon Booster]]'', 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 ''[[Winx Club (Animation)|Winx Club]]'': 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 Interests]] 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 ''[[One -Gender Race|entirely of females]]'' (they are generated by a Magical Tree). Specialists are totally forgotten by toy manufacturers.
** [[Magical Girl]] show - European version.
* ''[[The Railway Series (Literature)|The Railway Series]]'', the series of books on which ''[[Thomas the Tank Engine (Animation)|Thomas the Tank Engine]]'' 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, [[Unfortunate Implications|made things worse]].
* ''[[Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go]]'' 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 [[Five -Man Band]] 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|Author Avatars]]. Which leads, on the other hand, to loads of [[Die for Our Ship]] (or pairing her up with the other male monkeys) towards Nova (if the fangirl pair herself up with Sparx), and a few [[Crossover Ship|Crossover Ships]].
* ''[[Captain Planet and The Planeteers (Animation)|Captain Planet and The Planeteers]]'' had up to five female main characters: Gaia the Spirit of the Earth, Eastern European Planeteer Linka, Asian Planeteer Gi, [[Mad Scientist]] Dr. Blight, and [[Evil Poacher]] Mame Slaughter.
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* ''[[Visionaries (Animation)|Visionaries]]'', which had Galadria on the heroic Spectral Knights, and Virulina on the evil Darkling Lords.
* In ''[[The Land Before Time]]'', 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 [[George Lucas]] 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 ''[[The Land Before Time]] [[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, [[Tertiary Sexual Characteristics|slightly longer eyelashes and her skin is a little redder]] (which [[Pink Girl, Blue Boy|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.
* ''[[Rocko's Modern Life (Animation)|Rocko's Modern Life]]'' had no major female characters outside the wife of the [[Cranky Neighbor]], Bev Bighead, until [[Affirmative Action Girl]] 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.
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* Susan/Ginormica is the only woman in the main cast of ''[[Monsters vs. Aliens]]'' ("We are in the presence of the rare female monster."). However, she is the main character and has the most [[Character Development]] of anyone else, going from [[The Chick]] to [[Action Girl]]. The rest of the female characters are in small, stereotypical roles, with the exception of the girl [[Auto Erotica|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.
* ''[[Storm Hawks (Animation)|Storm Hawks]]'' has one girl (of the [[Closer to Earth]] variety) on the [[Five -Man Band]]. 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 [[Sixth Ranger]]), and a ''female [[Big Bad]]'' as well as one major female minion (but the male Dragon gets the most villain screentime).
* ''[[Danny Phantom (Animation)|Danny Phantom]]'' 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 [[The Chick]] 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.
* ''[[Street Sharks]]'' 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.
* ''[[El Tigre (Animation)|El Tigre]]'' is ''really'' bad about this. The only regular female character is the considered highly annoying [[Genki Girl|Frida Suarez]], and all the male characters frequently display cliche Latino machismo in all its glory. (For example, "Rivera men never back down", [[Berserk Button|'''COWARDS?!'']], and of course, the "Rivera...Super...Macho...'''BLITZ'''!") Maria is either a timid, hyperventilating [[Distressed Damsel]] or a crazy [[Knight Templar]], [[Dark Action Girl|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. [[Better Than It Sounds|It still rocks, though]]. And I guess it gets points for [[Big Bad|the most powerful villain]] being a (long dead) woman.
* ''[[Xiaolin Showdown (Animation)|Xiaolin Showdown]]'' - 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.
* ''[[Phineas and Ferb (Animation)|Phineas and Ferb]]'' sort of counts: despite a half-dozen [[Scout Out|Fireside Girls]], [[The Chick|Isabella]] is the only girl in Phineas and Ferb's group with any significant personality. The creators have since developed the Fireside Girls a ''bit'' more, and there are plenty of other notable female characters, particularly [[The Cassandra|Candace]], [[Asian Airhead|Stacy]], [[Hot Mom|Linda]], and [[Mad ScientistsScientist's Beautiful Daughter|Vanessa]].
* ''[[Ka Blam! (Animation)|Ka Blam]]!'s'' male cast (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 [[The Chick|chick]], as she was just originally a dumber, over-excited, female version of Henry.
** ''[[Action League NOW (Animation)|Action League NOW]]'''s only main female was Thundergirl, and Justice (the dog) since it switched from male to female in some episodes.
* The cartoon adaptation of ''[[Redwall|Martin the Warrior]]'' averted this by changing the normally 3:1 ratio to 2:2, by making Pallum the Hedgehog a girl.
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* ''[[WITCH (Animation)|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 [[Put On a Bus]]. The rest? {{spoiler|Caleb's also [[Put On a Bus]], Blunk doesn't exist here and Mr. Huggles died early on.}}
* Played with in the "You Got F'ed in the A" episode of ''[[South Park (Animation)|South Park]]'', when Stan is putting together his dance team.
** "We can't have [a dance team of] all guys; [[Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?|people will think we're fags]]"
* The two recent Disney films, ''[[The Princess and The Frog (Disney)|The Princess and The Frog]]'' and ''[[Tangled (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]] 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 ''[[Young Justice (Animation)|Young Justice]]'' there are no females, and for several episodes thereafter there's only Miss Martian. Even with Artemis there's still a pretty noticeable disparity. Although the group's "[[Team Mom|den mother]]" and combat trainer is Black Canary, and an aged-down [[Zatanna]] has appeared as a [[Guest Star Party Member]] for a few episodes.
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[[Category:Token Index]]
[[Category:The Smurfette Principle]]
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