Depending on the study you would like to cite as a source, anywhere between 20 and 40 percent of people who play games are women.
First let's assume that all of these women are "gamers" in the sense that they play "hardcore games". If these women had a strong dislike to the characters they play as, they would simply not play the games. Something akin to, if you don't like Howard Stern don't listen to his station or in a more extreme case don't pay for your satellite radio. No one forces anyone to buy a multi hundred dollar gaming console or the $60 dollar game to play on it. As with all things retail, vote with your wallet.
Now let's assume that these "gamers" are the iPhone/iPad game players, who will pay .99 to play a game for an hour or two and forget it exists. Depending on how any of these studies are worded the results could be skewed. If someone were to ask my girlfriend if she plays games she would say yes, and it is very true, she does indeed play games. But she knows nothing of console gaming beyond what she sees me play. The point to this is, if there was such a large and fervent demand for game designers to create quality video games in the image that females would like to be seen in, then these games would exist. There is very likely a large number of women being counted that do not actually indulge in "hardcore gaming" Most companies in the world are "for profit" so it would seem to hold true that if they could make a profit on these games, they would certainly make them. It is not out of disdain for the females of the world that they do not exist, just a proclivity towards a better bottom line.
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