Evette Davis

I’m obsessed with female leaders and their portrayal in entertainment. Are great women leaders seen as ruthless? Sexy? Brittle and sarcastic? Or are they kind, but firm, leading through inspiration instead of intimidation.

For me, creating a compelling female character is tricky. Too many portrayals of women in popular culture repeat outdated stereotypes or reinforce negative images. Recently, I shared a rough draft of book two in my Dark Horse trilogy with a few beta readers. The feedback about the protagonist Olivia – a woman coming to terms with an unknown past, while being groomed to lead a secret society – was interesting. Through their eyes at times, she was too weepy, too callous, too discombobulated and even disloyal. Although they liked the book, they clearly wanted Olivia to behave differently.

These are smart readers and I’m making some tweaks accordingly – but I also took their comments as validation that I’d hit on something with the way I’d written Olivia. That is to say that Olivia is imperfect: human, a work in progress, striving to become someone better. Their responses also got me thinking about some other deliciously complex female characters. Herewith are my top five favorites. I’ll add five more in an upcoming post.