I have no problem with the amount of pages spent on women in Lord of the Rings, because there weren't any women in the Fellowship. If there had been, then I would've expected to see quite a bit of her, but since there wasn't a woman, I can hardly be surprised by the lack of female focus in the story.
Should there have been a female sprinkled into the Fellowship? I don't think so. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think that would've seemed a bit contrived. The Fellowship was already full of males, and none of them could be easily replaced, you see.
The four hobbits- you obviously can't kick any of them out.
Aragorn, the returning King, is definitely in.
Boromir, the heir to the Steward, could not be replaced.
Gandalf- no question about him.
It makes sense that Gimli, the dwarf representative, was male, when you consider that the majority of dwarves were men, and dwarf women rarely seen. Plus, would a dwarf woman really be satisfactory to those desiring a female character? I mean, do you really think the average human female could relate to a dwarf female any better than she could relate to an ent?
Legolas is the Fellowship member that would perhaps be the easiest to replace, but the Fellowship needed an elf, so Legolas would've had to have been replaced by an elf woman. But who? Name me a noble, fair elven lady who would absolutely love to go off into the wilderness with a bunch of men and get all dirty and sweaty and knowing full well that there was a peril of being captured by orcs and such. We had a debate in this forum one time about what exactly befell Lady Celebrian when she fell into the hands of the orcs. Do you think any elf woman would like to risk that happening to her? Do you think any elf men would allow their sister/daughter to step forward and take this risk? No, they would've stepped forward themselves in order to shield their daughters/sisters.
Not to mention the fact that a female in the Fellowship would've changed the journey quite a bit. They'd have to bathe, dress, and relieve themselves separately and such, which would've been a liability because there were times when everyone needed to stay together and no one should've been wandering off alone.
Just for a moment, imagine sticking Eowyn into the Fellowship. Talk about a disaster. She and Aragorn caused each other enough problems in the short time they were around each other. And perhaps Boromir would've taken a liking to her. You never know. Let me tell you, there's nothing like an emotional complication involving a woman to harm a man's judgment. We're dumb like that.
So to sum it up, I don't think a woman belonged in the Fellowship. It makes sense the way it is. And since there is no woman in the Fellowship, you can't expect women to have a huge presence in the book, because the book follows the members of the Fellowship. Make sense?
PS I have this nagging feeling that I'm begging to have my head bitten off. Not that I care. If I stir up a storm of angry posts, at least I've done something.
