As a lot of other people have said, I think it's a problem of females customers being completely ignored and given no consideration in a game's development, which often results in discouraging women from buying certain games. When a game has so much juvenile pandering or awful characters that it breaks your immersion while playing it, I can understand someone coming to the conclusion that the game wasn't meant for them. Which is a shame, because the game might otherwise offer a lot of fun. It becomes a matter of how much you're able to tolerate the nagging feeling of exclusion.
I do think that more women getting involved in game development and influencing design/story decisions is the right way to address this problem, but it's definitely not going to happen overnight. Even if you've got a great concept art portfolio (for example) and you want to use your skills to make a positive impact, a game studio's not going to hire you unless your body of work is already in line with their style and IPs. You need a lot of experience, and the studio's willingness to explore new ideas. More and more women are working in the game industry every year, but I think it's going to take time before any major shift in how we design female characters is going to occur.
I'm an environment artist, and on the project I work on, that's the way I would like to keep it for now. I have very little interest in the character designs (especially the female ones, with a more or less "design by ability to attract hot cosplayers" approach), but I have to admit that I'm in the minority among the other artists, and the community responds to them well. I wouldn't want to work on character art that I think is retarded or makes me uncomfortable, but I do try to voice my opinions and offer my perspective and best advice whenever I can.
