Back in the early days of Video Games, females in games were put there to be rescued by the brave & dashing hero in the game.
They were normally taken by an evil dude who took them to a castle / hideout in order to draw the hero to the bad guy's lair.
Pretty primitive and basic plot, but that sufficed as the sole reason for a female characters for a long time.
This primitive inclusion of females has evolved over the years as video games have matured and especially as video games now look to try and tell a story.
For me this has become apparent much more so than ever before whilst playing through TheWalkingDead and The Last Of Us, where in both games the female character is not just a helpless sap waiting to be rescued, they are the ones doing the rescuing.
This has inspired me to try and dig into the history of females in video games to try and illustrate the way the industry is very slowly maturing on this front.