I have a 9 year old daughter who loves movies!  I would very much
appreiciate a list of movies OR TV shows about strong women and movies
that empower women and show women in a position of authority.  She has
alread watched all seasons of Gilmore Girls and Alias.  We need much
much more!  Help!  Thanks!

The first two seasons of "Sailor Moon" (Japanese TV cartoon series) is
astonishingly empowering for women. Serena is a 14 year old who finds
out she has special powers. She really isn't interested in them but
learns about the importance of friendship, cooperation, and being true
to oneself. Issues examined include body image, ethics, loyalty, and a
host of others. Very clean cut stuff. After the second season,
marketing forces began to propel the series and it declined.

Probably not quite right for a 9 year old, but the first two "Alien"
movies feature first a capable, if emotional, Ripley (Sigourney
Weaver); and second, a tough-as-nails Ripley (but not as tough as the
female Space Marine, Vasquez). That the second movie has the character
essentially playing a mother hen is lost completely in all the violent
action and swearing.

Linda Hamilton's character in the second "Terminator" movie is
similarly tough and single-minded. Still, it's really another mother
hen. Oh, and it's violent. And they swear.

The daughter-in-law in Kurosawa's "Ran" is a domineering woman in a
culture that keeps women subjugated. Lady Kaede (Mieko Harada)
engineers the utter destruction of the Lear character, Lord Ichimonji,
and her depiction of evil as engrossing as any. Of course, she's doing
this to elevate her son to the throne. so we have the mother hen thing
going on once again. This probably isn't a good movie for a 9-year-old
either, plus it's in Japanese with subtitles. Nobody swears, though,
or they only do it in Japanese.

"The Vicar of Dibley" (BBC TV series) is about a female vicar sent to
a sleepy little English village. She encounters a bit of resistance to
her prescence. A surprising amount of British-type swearing ("right
bastard", "bollocks", and "Noah was a prick" come to mind) and the
occasional poorly-disguised innuendo), but swearing like a Brit is
very classy. OK, maybe not a good idea.

Hello kabint-ga,

I'm not posting this as an answer because I'm not sure if these movies
would be appropriate for a 9-year old. I hope you'll find some
interesting suggestions here.

Recently someone asked for movies  about single moms raising
teenagers. Some of the movies listed in that answer might be of
interest to you.

Q: Movies about Single Mothers/Parents 
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=582073

Ten Hollywood Movies That Get Women Right
http://www.alternet.org/movies/24026/

Mother-Daughter Movies : 101 Films to See Together (See table of
contents for the full list of movies.)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/031232054X/ref=sib_rdr_dp/103-6955205-8390268?%5Fencoding=UTF8&no=283155&me=ATVPDKIKX0DER&st=books

Enjoy!

~ czh ~

I don't know about movies but I know there have been many tv shows
catered to women by having a tough leading female. Such as Buffy,
Charmed, Dark Angel, Alias, just to name a few. There was also La
Femme Nikita which was on USA channel, but I don't know if it's for a
9yo. Many of these have ended also, but you can rent them I guess. I
tried to but the regular offline stores didn't have them. You can try
an online dvd rental. I would only suggest online dvd rentals if you
rent more than 5 dvd's a month otherwise it's not worth it really. A
good place to see a few of these sites is
http://www.onlinedvdrentalz.com/  I first stumbled across it and
that's how I found out about the whole online dvd rental thing. Good
Luck. Hope you find the movies for your daughter.