“There were so many years when the City Council was all men. Any time I think of the historical nature and all of that, it just makes me feel the additional responsibility. I have a responsibility to perform for the city as a whole, but I also know that girls look up to me.”

For the last 241 years, the city of Los Angeles has been run by men. Come Tuesday, a woman has a fighting chance to lead the City of Angels. The question is, do voters care?

Katie Hickman’s riveting new history, “Brave Hearted: The Women of the American West,” works to correct the overarching narrative of the history of the American West as being dominated by white men. Instead, she foregrounds the historical experiences of Western women — Black, white, Mexican, indigenous, mixed race and Chinese.

The presence of female directors on the best picture and other nomination lists, including animation and documentary feature, is not the solution to the larger problem of gender disparity. But the Oscars is, at its root, a PSA for movie-making, beckoning viewers to the world of movie-making. Not just as an audience for the telecast and the films, but also as potential members of the industry itself.

Mixed gender events have become a focal point for the IOC, which uses the unique formats to promote gender equity. Nine mixed team events debuted in Tokyo, including swimming, track relays and triathlon, bringing the total number for the Summer Games to 18. In Beijing, there are 11 mixed events.

This summer, L.A.-based Fast Studios plans to launch the Women’s Sports Network, a 24-hour television channel entirely devoted to covering female athletes on and off the field.

The Tokyo Olympics helped show the world that skating is not just for white kids in the suburbs. People of color have risen to the highest levels of competition and the vibe is distinctly urban, fueled by hip-hop music and street fashion. Now more women and the LGBTQ community are joining in.

Even as the mandates on women and people of color have become a flashpoint in the culture wars, companies across the country are embracing California’s boardroom diversity directives. Women now control more than a quarter of corporate board seats nationwide — 50% more than they did before the 2018 California law requiring women on boards was passed.

“Curating is not just selecting in a vacuum, it is also the combination of stories you are telling and what happens in between that space. That’s why it’s so important that we are aware of multiple perspectives, and representation in a larger sense — not just gender, but also sexuality and race and abilities, all of that played a part in our discussions.”

While Hollywood has produced a handful of notable examples of female characters who break out of the helpless side roles women were frequently relegated to, including Sarah Connor (“Terminator”) and Ellen Ripley (“Alien”), their copycats have just as often exposed the trope’s limitations, failing to capture the multidimensionality that made Connor and Ripley “badass.”