[Finwe]

I'm inclined to disagree with your assertion that Tolkien had less insight than writers today. The female characters in his legendarium simply didn't need to be as fully developed as the male ones. It wasn't essential to the story. In some cases, especially in The Silmarillion, a lot of character development was included for Galadriel and Aredhel, because they were important to the story. I'm not saying that Eowyn wasn't important, but from looking at her role in the story, she didn't need to be any more developed than she actually was. There's no point in overworking or overdeveloping a character. Sometimes I feel that more "modern" authors are guilty of that crime. When a character, especially a more minor character, remains less developed, it adds a certain hint of mystery to the story, because we don't know them. We don't know how they think. We know what Frodo is thinking, and how he reacts to situations, but we don't know that about Eowyn and Arwen, and that makes them all the more interesting.