Rise of the female action movie role?

Bella from the Twilight series. Katniss from The Hunger Games series. Hanna from Hanna.

Are we witnessing a demonstrable rise of female action leads? That’s what this Guardian article posits:

“Twilight has done so much to change the culture of Hollywood and it does not get the acknowledgement it deserves because it is about a girl,” said Melissa Silverstein, editor of the blog Women and Hollywood. “It is gigantic. It has shown women can fuel box office. But it still is something that Hollywood does not know what to do with.”

And there’s more to come:

In 2013, another supernatural series, Beautiful Creatures, will get its turn in America’s cinemas. The main character of Lena — a “caster” whose magic powers can be claimed for good or evil on her 16th birthday — is to be played by young actress Alice Englert.

Next year will also see the first Mortal Instruments movie featuring Lily Collins as Clary Fray, a young girl battling demons who have kidnapped her mother. Meanwhile, top director Sam Raimi has been signed up for Angelfall, the first movie in another adaptation from a young adult book with a female protagonist and which takes place in a post-apocalyptic Earth. The trend has even reached the world of animation. This year Pixar released Brave, its first ever film with a female lead, a Scottish princess called Merida who is far more skilled with a bow and arrow than any of the male characters in the film.

Why is this happening now? Does it have something to do specifically with this generation of YA girls, their openness, even desire to see female action leads? Could it be tied to the whole male superhero dynamic feeling played out?

And a screenwriting question: Do films like this make you more likely to write spec scripts with female leads?

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