It's great leading men have progressed, but they're still men at the end of the day. You don't see as much variation and change with actresses. Because they haven't been in enough movies to make all these different progressions. While we've seen Katherine Hepburn to Diane Keaton wearing a tie to Kate Winslet. But what they also have in common is that even those women have been ridiculed for certain things actors aren't. The average actress who gets work now are still usually young, beautiful and a certain age.
And that comes from society as how we see men in these roles. How we just see them and don't make the effort to see that women by now can do the same things. But when I say police, people would usually think a man. Same with a fireman. I mean the word man is in these titles. Women aren't thought in these roles because women throughout history were usually second and pigeonholed in certain other roles. These things are just programmed in our brains from very early on where things that shouldn't be normal are deemed normal.
I know Sanders is at fault too and isn't directing this sequel, but the man is now making ****ing Ghost in a Shell, an even better potential film than this film's predecessor. He's climbing up. And where's Stewart? A sequel is seen as a next step too, especially for a lead role. And she's not there. Even these are separate cases now, the bigger picture of Hollywood favors Sanders. This is more of a regression when this first film, despite it not being good, helped an actress to be a step closer to that long road to equality that people say. And yes, things are slow and they take time. But they shouldn't be taking this long. And women should have never been treated like this to be at this long road to equality. People either haven't seen this or they're just so complacent. Either is a bad thing. Things can be done where great things can happen sooner than people think. People's thinking needs to be changed and actions need to be taken to upend these things. It's why I'm happy those lawsuits are happening in Hollywood where women are being interviewed and asked about their treatment and their lack of opportunity.
As far as star driven vehicles go the bar has moved given how many films are sniffing around that $100M opening weekend every year. Also you mention Gone with the Wind, at the time Clark Gable was known as King of Hollywood, he was a huge reason for that films success. 
