Femal roles, whats your view?

I have noticed that in many some action adventure films women could be presented poorly. My personal view is that they are being poorly represented, and i would like to know other peoples views on the matter. For instance in Indiana Jones movies the woman is always being saved and isnt capable of keeping herself out of trouble. Also in Propp's character archetypes the only one that is related to women is the princess role, this role is;
The princess may take 2 forms, first she may be the object which is deliberately sought after by the Hero, perhaps finding where the villain has taken her. Secondly, she may be the reward, such that after completing some other mission, he gains her affections or hand in marriage.
The princess may be seen very little in the story, perhaps appearing only at the end, or may be asn integral character, for example where she accompanies the hero on his mission, where he may win her heart by the courage and determination of his actions. The princess may be wooed by many in particular by the false hero. When we see the princess being won by the false hero we may rail and rant in frustration as we see her fallin g unwittingly into hiw clutches.

I think that this is a typical role for women in many action adventures although some such as tomb raider and tank girl show women as the hero in the film and have a male 'princess' this is suggesting there is a change is how women are being presented in the action adventure genre. I would really like to know about other roles that women have in action adventure films and what people think about these roles, whether women are represented well in them.

Gender

today i have been researching into the definition of gender and trying to find out the conventions of action adventure film. I managed to find many definitions for gender i started my search on google and found the dictionary definition on www.thedictionary.com I also found a small statement about gender on www.engenderhealth.org/wh/sg/egwhat.html, i printed out both of these things as they will help greatly with starting my research.
I also went to athens and searched for gender, the results weren't as good as those on google, i went to britannica online. When i searched gender on this site it came up with some interesting results, there was a very interesting article on gender identity which i thought might have helped with my research but it didnt define gender it was just about facts of gender. I also found an article on anthropologies view of gender which was talking about the changing conditions for women since the 1970's this will help my research later on so I printed this out to help as well. I am also going to use some of the handouts i was given from last year on gender in sitcom which defined gender.