Does JKR's portrayal of woment combat sexism?

[judyserenity]

I wrote: 
> > I think that childless women are going to have to look elsewhere
for positive childless female characters to identify with, because JKR
didn't do a good job of providing any in her books.<

And Pippin replied:
> Hermione has children???  <g> I'm not nit-picking here. Hermione is
such a dynamo and so important to the books that really, I think
focusing on the lack of other female characters is missing the forest
for the trees. If a girl, or a woman, can't identify with Hermione,
she isn't likely to enjoy the series in the first place, and she'll
find something else to read.<

It's true that Hermione has no children, but I'd consider her a girl,
not a woman. Jennifer was talking about childless women identifying
with characters whose life situation was similar to their own. If that
is what one is looking for, I don't think Hermione fits the bill. Her
life situation isn't that similar to an adult childless woman's
situation. 

I did mention Hermione earlier in this discussion, although given all
that I've posted here lately, it might be easy to overlook. I said
that Hermione was one of the two well-developed female characters in
the story, the other being Molly. I agree that Hermione is a good
character, but I'm not sure so many girls can identify with her. What
about girls who don't do well in school?  And, if one is looking for a
"role model" for girls, probably an adult character is needed. 
 

On the topic of female MoM employees, Pippin reminded me about Mafalda
Hopkirk, of the Improper Use of Magic Office --
Yeah, I wondered if I might be forgetting any other female MoM
employees who were mentioned by name. That's why I hedged and said
Bertha Jorkins was the only one I could *recall*. This way, I've left
myself an escape clause in my argument -- if a character isn't easy to
recall, then I'd say the character probably doesn't have much
influence on people's views. 

-- Judy