Women as central characters.

A couple of years ago, Disney released their animated production "Frozen" to theaters around the world. This movie followed on ground already broken by "Brave" and "Mulan" , in presenting a strong female character as the central figure in the story.  At the time, some commentators were actually angered by Frozen, because it had two good women heroes (Elsa and Anna) and the largest male part was relegated to a part-comic-relief part love interest for Anna, or an entirely comic relief snowman.
Fox News talking-head Steve Doocy even went so far as to claim that movies like "Frozen" are "Emasculating men" . To which I comment, really, Steve ? Emasculating ? Or how about they're just showing women as being more than maidens in waiting, damsels in distress or helpless schoolmarms ? But let's leave Mr Doocy in the past where he belongs and go on to talk about women as central figures in general. Would the movie "Frozen" have been better with Olaf or Sven as the hero, rescuing poor Anna from the Evil Ice Queen ? No.
The story is written around the two sisters and their growing back together again after having been separated. It's a great story as it is, and I wouldn't change it.
I myself have written stories with a woman as the lead character. Primarily because that's the story I wanted to write, and also because it's the story that spun out in my head. I wanted a hard boiled detective, and I got one. Only instead of Samuel Spade or Phillip Marlowe I came up with a woman. Of course, in the actual 1920s a woman private detective would not have an easy time of it, owing to the prevailing attitudes toward women that existed 90 years ago (and in some quarters, regrettably still exist today). So, to make it work I had to fictionalize the 1920s. In my "roaring twenties" attitudes toward women are more like those of today. The same goes for attitudes toward GLBT and toward ethnic minorities. People still use epithets. They still toss around words like "Dame", "queer", and "Heeb". Such things are cultural artifacts that are difficult to do away with entirely and still maintain the flavor of the period, so some of them stayed in. But I digress, again. The idea of a woman as a heroic figure should not surprise anyone, nor should it act in any way to make men feel lesser. Yes, sometimes a man is a comedy relief ? So ? Sometimes a man is a clown and sometimes a man is a Shakespearean figure of tragic heroism. So what ? There are hundreds of thousands, if not millions of stories of heroic male figures. Everything from Horatio Alger to Horatio Hornblower and everywhere else in every corner of literature there are heroic male figures. There should -- must -- be room for the heroic female figure. From my detective to Xena warrior princess. There needs to be women characters that women and girls can look up to and admire. Or even perhaps dislike but still see as a strong figure nonetheless.  Oh, and did I mention Marvel's Agent Carter ? Who could watch Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter and not like her ? She's intelligent, brave, resourceful but still human. She loves and is loved. She gains and loses. Her character is well drawn and ably portrayed. Yet Peggy Carter's existence does not detract in the least from that of Steve "Captain America" Rogers. There's room enough for all.