Women on average are still paid less than men, so we have less consumer power. As you noted, there are more male executives and directors than female ones also. And then, the question of "culture" -- sexism -- which has lagged behind the actual advancement of women in employment and promotion, so much so that female executives and directors -- like Julie Taymor -- may treat male and female actors differentially.
In most movies, it is still men who are protagonists, and women are their "love interests."
Most female actors over forty don't get to be leading women, whereas male actors in their sixties and seventies get to play studs scoring nubile women.
Men get kudos for gaining an extraordinary amount of weight and otherwise changing their bodies so as not to look conventionally beautiful: e.g., Robert De Niro playing Jake LaMotta in _Raging Bull_. Women are never allowed to go that far -- Renee Zellweger getting attractively plump (but far from fat) for _Bridget Jones' Diary_ is as far as female actors are allowed to deviate from the Hollywood ideals. Contrast between Day Lewis's Christy Brown and Hayek's Frida Kahlo fits into this category of sexism.
There has been a wee bit change, though, in that we have begun to see more pretty boys who are non-acting talents featured as stars than before: e.g., Keanu Reeves and Hugh Grant. One of these days, we may even get to see pretty vacant pretty boys featured as merely love interests of gifted and yet plain female actors who are action heroes, though most likely not any time soon.
Then again, in one sense, Hollywood has regressed: there are fewer juicy roles for female actors now than in the days of Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Lauren Bacall, Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, etc. Nowadays, it almost feels like three quarters of Hollywood films that come out are action adventures with male heroes. -- Yoshie
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