Does Hollywood have an issue with women?

This was supposed to be a big summer for women in movies. Charlize Theron ruling the Wasteland of Mad Max: Fury Road. Melissa McCarthy finally breaking out in a solo vehicle with Spy. The Barden Bellas of Pitch Perfect 2 racking up aca-awesome box office.

But then came Jurassic World, whose $208.8 million opening was the biggest of all time and exposed a problem much bigger than rampaging dinosaurs.

Critical voices have taken the blockbuster (closing in on $1 billion worldwide) to task for its poor treatment of Claire Dearing, the theme-park operations manager played by Bryce Dallas Howard. She puts her job ahead of everything else in her life, doesn't know how old her visiting nephews are and has a conversation with an employee (Chris Pratt) that's pretty much a highway to a sexual-harassment lawsuit — prompting Avengers: Age of Ultron director Joss Whedon to dismiss an early clip as " '70s-era sexist."

Yet Jurassic World isn't the only film this summer dodging accusations of sexism.

In a post on The Daily Beast, writer Jen Yamato called out Whedon's own Age of Ultron for showing Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) using her "feminine charms" to advance the personal growth of the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo): "The result is an overdue character exploration for Black Widow that still manages to reduce the baddest bitch in the (Marvel Cinematic Universe) to a shell of a superheroine who's sad she can never be a complete woman."

An Associated Press review charged high-speed thriller Furious 7 with having a sexist undertone, specifically when two main characters play "rock, paper, scissors" to call "dibs" on a woman. And a Cosmopolitan critic compared the bromantic shenanigans of the Entourage movie with the HBO source material thusly: "Whereas the show used to be so quippy and clever and sexist, the movie was repetitive and gross and sexist."

Does Hollywood have a woman problem? At the very least, it's in an interesting transition period, according to writer and critic Devin Faraci of the website Birth.Movies.Death.

After long ignoring women as an audience for blockbusters that appeal to everyone, "the studios seem to have begun to understand that women enjoy these movies without having to be dragged to them by their husbands/boyfriends," says Faraci. ‬

"But that transition is slow and what we see right now is an environment where a movie like Jurassic World thinks it's progressive by having its lead be a woman but actually portraying her in a way that strikes audiences as sexist and regressive."

When people talk about sexism in Hollywood, it's not always a simple conversation, says Jill Pantozzi, editor in chief of the female-centric pop-culture site The Mary Sue.

"I don't believe most instances which are perceived as sexist are purposefully meant to be sexist, which is why we like to call it out when we see it, so people can be more informed in the future,‬" Pantozzi says.

However, she adds, "society as a whole still has an issue with women, so of course Hollywood does, both behind the scenes and in front of the cameras."

This is nothing new when it comes to the movie business, says Susan Nolan, psychology professor in the Women and Gender Studies Program at Seton Hall University in South Orange, N.J. "People are more attuned to sexism now for various reasons."

She cites a recent study by the Institute on Gender in Media, which examines gender disparities in film, that found fewer than one-third of characters in American films were female. The same study found that there are three times as many male filmmakers — directors, writers and producers — as female ones in the USA.

"A big part of the problem is that it's still all men making the decisions and the movies," Faraci says. "They're presenting their own unthinkingly sexist visions of women." ‬

A 2014 study at the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University showed that women accounted for just 12% of protagonists seen in the year's top 100 grossing films — down from 16% in 2002.

"The cultural zeitgeist has shifted and moviegoers now expect female characters to be more fully drawn and more integral to the action of the film," says Martha M. Lauzen, a media professor and head of the center. "As a result, we are currently seeing a disconnect between moviegoer expectations and many of the films that Hollywood is producing."

Society right now also is just more sensitive about unequal treatment of women and minorities in culture, whether it's the lack of diversity among this year's Oscar nominees or what's said about transgender celebrities such as Caitlyn Jenner and Orange Is the New Black star Laverne Cox.

It's especially heightened on social media, with people picking up on discussions about women in the movies, says Melissa Silverstein, an activist and a writer for Women and Hollywood, a blog on Indiewire.com. "But this was happening way before Caitlyn Jenner."

For one thing, it's just easier to share thoughts on offensive matters now than it was even five years ago, says Kate Erbland, a writer for Vanity Fair and the movie site FilmSchoolRejects.com.

"Twitter and Facebook may be derided as outrage factories, but they also serve as interactive gathering places for consumers to talk about things that bother them," she says. "It's not entirely an echo chamber — it can also be a place to find like-minded people who want to get to the bottom of these types of issues."

Social media also is a place where actresses can expand their influence in Hollywood, says Zoe Saldana, who has starred in two Star Trek films and Guardians of the Galaxy. "It gives you the ability to eliminate the middle man and speak directly the people that honestly and earnestly follow you and want to know about you and want to see more of your work."

Nolan figures the availability of content from more voices, whether posted on YouTube or through a streaming service such as Netflix, could lead to more awareness of the lack of women in Hollywood productions.

Plus, she says, "there's evidence that Millennials are more likely than older generations to seek diverse media content. These technology and demographic shifts might be driving the current call for more gender and racial diversity in Hollywood."

Whereas Jurassic World's female lead fell flat for most, even while running for her life in a jungle in heels, Theron's Imperator Furiosa has not only become a new heroic icon but Fury Road on the whole raised the bar for what men as well as women should expect from action films, Pantozzi says.

Mad Max isn't perfect, Erbland says: "We do still meet (tyrant Immortan Joe's) wives when they're bathing in their underwear, after all." Yet Faraci maintains that it made a huge impression "because of the way that George Miller — a man! — was able to make Furiosa a cool, kick-ass character without falling back on boring sexist tropes for her. More than that, Fury Road doesn't make a big deal out of its gender balance, it just presents itself as a blast of a movie."

If filmmakers learn that lesson, there are plenty of chances ahead for blockbusters to do right by their female characters.

While fans clamor for a Black Widow solo movie, Marvel has its first film starring a superheroine, Captain Marvel, coming to theaters in 2018. (Bonus: Both of its screenwriters are women.) Warner Bros. is introducing Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman in next year's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice before she gets her own movie in 2017 directed by a woman, Patty Jenkins. Pratt has signed for another Jurassic World, so maybe he'll get a Furiosa-influenced female lead next time.

Hollywood's problem with women is fixable, Erbland says, "but it's definitely going to take time and the attention of the industry. Hollywood has to start listening to its audience and recognizing that they are hungry for something different, for bigger and better roles for all kinds of women."

For Silverstein, the key is "a single success" — say, a Kathryn Bigelow winning a best-director Oscar for The Hurt Locker — becoming consistent success. With critical mass, this conversation becomes moot."I don't want boys to grow up thinking that men are the (only) superheroes of this world or the only ones who made history."

Change is inevitable, Faraci says. "This is a business, and they want to appeal to customers. Just as Hollywood has pivoted to pander to China, they will eventually figure out how to pivot to pander to the new sensibilities."

At the same time, Silverstein reminds that films are supposed to be fun and no one should get carried away with cries of sexism.

"I want to challenge (entertainment) to do better by women and minorities but I don't want this to be overkill," she says. "I want us to be smart about our criticism. We can't throw this (criticism) out there every day, all day long, or people will become immune to it. And they'll stop listening."

Contributing: Maria Puente and Andrea Mandell