[Alassë Estel]

I fear that I cannot add much to this discussion.

But it seems wrong to treat the lack of prominent older female characters in Tolkien's work as some sort of grievous insult to women.

Tolkien wrote about what he knew and understood (language and myth, being things he knew very well, and as such they are enormous elements in his works).

He can hardly be blamed for not writing all manner and variety of female characters when he was a man himself, and therefore not well-versed in the feminine.