You statement about the difficulty of finding middle-aged women arguing about politics, etc., is very much the discussion (with the same character reference) that shimere277 and I were having a few posts back. We didn't really come up with any, which is a telling statement about the continuing dearth of female presence. One intelligent middle-aged woman with things to say about politics is considered an epic win for feminism (ex. Laura Roslin). We know what "they" would say about two: "Why do have two of the same character type? It's overkill of intelligent, middle-aged women. The audience will leave in droves," and so on.