Prudent investing, not discrimination

Selim Tlili's answer to Television: Why are there more substantial roles for women in television and not in movies? - Quora

"There are few substantial roles for women in movies for the same reason there are few substantial roles for minorities in movies: Hollywood can't afford to take risks when they're investing hundreds of millions of dollars.

TV shows can afford to be more substantial because they have time and any big decision can be reversed without too much impact. A character that isn't working out can be killed off or removed and it won't be a huge loss on a given episode.

A tv show will have a budget of several million dollars if it is really successful. A comparably big movie series will have a budget of hundreds of millions of dollars. You can't afford to take risks when you're talking about that kind of money.

Groundbreaking has to occur in areas where there is a lot less to lose, it's just that simple."