How to Write a Strong Female Protagonist

Making sure our female leads are strong, confident, and capable is something extremely important for writers (like me) who want to promote feminism and gender equality across the board. And while most writers have good intentions when they set out with their "strong female character" to conquer the world, I've read a number of stories and novels that go about portraying her the wrong way.

While it's great to show your protagonist in a predominantly "male" employment - like kicking butt, taking names, crunching numbers, and leading tech companies - this does not instantly make her "strong". Her body count racking up higher than the man's does not mean you've succeeded at writing her as a real, tangible character. Do you know why? Because that woman is normally portrayed through a lens of masculine characteristics.

She's an island without a single friend or family member. She's generally rude and terrible to be around. She swears to feel tough. She drinks to fit in. She's all around overly aggressive.

Why is this hurtful to women? Because it prolongs gender inequality by saying that woman can only be considered strong if they portray overtly masculine qualities.

Your character can in fact know that she is beautiful. This is not vanity. This is called not promoting body dysmorphic thoughts.

Your character can be confident with aspirations and goals and still be kind and have friends. This is reality. This is being a good person. This is not called being feminine and weak.

Your character needn't sit like a man, dress like a man, think like a man, belch like a man, and drink like one too...all while not falling over in her seven inch heels. This does not make her more confident or strong. This is called transforming her into the "tough guy" or even more insulting the T-U-F-F "tuff guy".

So, if none of this names a strong female protagonist, what does?

The answer lies in the most basic forms of story writing : character and plot.

Your character must make decisions, have desires, and affect the plot. The action of the story will unfold because of how she acts on the plot not on how she reacts to it. She must be the active driving force.

A woman who hates her job but does nothing about it but hope and pray that it gets better as she lives her day the same as she always does is being reactive.

Whereas, a woman who is unhappy in her marriage crashes her car and decides to fake her own death is being active. The plot now unfolds from her decisions and motivations rather than the things that happen to her. She's made the choice to do something about her situation. She's a fully fledged character.

It doesn't matter if your female character is a computer programmer or a preschool teacher. It doesn't matter if she wears high heels or flat shoes. It doesn't matter if she can take a person three times her size down in a parking garage or gets anxiety when she holds a gun.

The only way you can write a strong female protagonist is by making her the catalyst through which the plot flows. Make sure she has desires and motivations. Make sure she DOES stuff and doesn't just let stuff happen to her. And above all, make sure that she's strong because she has desires and gets things done, and not because she portrays the most stereotyped of masculine qualities.