I second everything JF said. Women are being written as more rounded characters, and an actress today has more choices today that she did 50 years ago. I think that probably has something to do with more women writing the scripts and screenplays who understands what a women feels and the unique choices she has to make. For example in action films where a woman plays the star or a major character, she's often conflicted with what her heart tells her is right and what her mind tells her is right. It's much easier to write those kinds of things when you're a woman than when you're man trying to figure out what the heck is going through a woman's mind.
I do feels that women are often objectified in comedies today, though. Honestly I don't watch many "dumb comedies" but the few I have seen always show the woman as the "straight man" to the comic and/or an object of lust to joke about. Strong feminist could argue that an old films objectifies a woman just as much, but to me it's much better to be portrayed as a loving wife and counselor to her husband than a dumb you-know-what to be taken advantage of.
You know, in some ways I think women might have even more diverse roles than men! But that could be because I'm a woman and can understand different women's motives a lot easier than men's.
