It's always fascinating to search up arguments maintaining that Tolkien was a sexist, due to his lack in female characters.

As a female, I've never thought of the books as being sexist for the majority of characters being male. I believe Tolkien based his writings on the Nordic sagas, such as Beowulf. No women there too, but is anyone complaining? His writing and (non)inclusiveness of women is reflective of the time he writes for (hurrah for historical accuracy) as well as the environment he lived in, although I'm not going to say outright that he purposely had a majority of men for that very reason, since I do not know Tolkien's mind :)

In saying that though, let me name some amazing women of his works:

Varda - Queen of the Valar (gods), goddess of light and the maker of the stars. The Dark Lord Melkor finds her to be pretty terrifying because he can control all other elements but he cannot control light.

Haleth - a woman whose brother and father were killed by orcs. She kills a bunch of orcs herself and then becomes a WARRIOR QUEEN and well after her death her people were known as "The People of Haleth".

Melian - Queen of Doriath, she set an enchantment about her kingdom so none could pass into it unless by her will. She has a great gift of foresight and her husband, a high king over the woodland elves, relies greatly on her counsel. Oh, and that Dark Lord I talked about is pretty terrified of her, too.

Luthien - Daughter of Melian, the most beautiful of all people on the earth, breaks into the Dark Lord's stronghold with no one but an enchanted dog to help her, in order to save the life of the man she loves. She then enchants the Dark Lord with her singing and she, her lover and her dog all manage to waltz right back out of his stronghold because of her enchantments.

Eowyn - Shield-Maiden of Rohan...niece of the King of Rohan and powerful warrior and Rider. Defeats and kills the Witch-King of Angmar, chief of the Nazgul and one of the most powerful necromancers to have ever walked E.

AND

Galadriel. Queen and Lady of the Galadhrim (Silvan, or Wood Elves) and of Lothlrien. Is one of the bearers of the Elvish Great Rings, indicating TREMENDOUS will and mental fortitude, and openly admits that if she took the One Ring she would be more than capable of single-handedly unseating Sauron and ruling Middle Earth. Even without the ring, she is still immensely powerful in her own right, being capable of powerful Elven magic. Tolkien himself described her as being ""the mightiest of all the Elves that remained in Middle-earth". Even though Lorien is besieged three times during the War of the Ring, they cannot be overcome because "the power that dwelt there was too great for any to overcome, unless Sauron had come there himself." In other words, no being in Middle Earth can stand against her except Sauron and hope to survive the encounter. She also led the seige of Dol Guldur, Sauron's stronghold in Mirkwood, where she herself ripped the fortress' walls and foundations out of the earth.

Again, I have never understood the arguments of Tolkien being a sexist, and it pains me more when arguments like that come from people who have only watched the Lord of the Rings films and made a judgement from there.

- Nerwen (who wishes that she would put this much time into an academic essay instead of Facebook)