Females within Film Noir

The women in film Noir movies are very different to the roles women usually play in films, especially before the 1940's before Noir films became popular, where they were usually portrayed as the damsel in distress.  In Noir films, they rebel and subvert from these stereotypical roles and introduce the Femme-Fatale character. 
The term Femme-Fatale is a French term meaning simply 'fatal woman' who often has a great seductive charm and lures men into dangerous or compromising situations.
The Femme Fatal was a significant change in the portrayal of women in Films as it was the first example of the film industry portraying strong female characters, although it was not necessarily originally a positive representation of women, it was the first to show them as independent thinkers rather than merely passive wives of men as so commonly shown before. 
Below is a trailer for the film 'Double Indemnity' which shows the typical Femme Fatale in early Noir films, who are represented as beautiful, alluring, and troublesome who leads the male character into a state of misery and despair.
Despite the more dominating female role, the femme-fatale often meets a dramatic end, usually death, to punish them for their deviant and troublesome interference. The Femme-Fatale could therefore be viewed as a misogynistic interpretation of women as (certainly during the early introduction of this new character role) exercises the view that women who attempt to take a dominating stance in society will in fact meet a fatal end.

Example of traditional female roles in 'China Town.'

However, having said that, female characters besides the lead Femme-fatal are also very often in Noir films given stereo-typical roles such as receptionists, waitresses, or housewives, because this was the reality of the limited serving role the female had in the 1940's and 50's. An example of this is from the Noir Film 'China town' which as we can see presents women to appear very feminine looking and subservient, merely performing basic tasks and taking a role in the background working for the male lead in the film.

Many of the roles that women were given to play in Noir films were very demeaning, such as the female given role of prostitutes in these dark and bleak style films. An example of this is from the Film 'LA Confidential' where women are seen as beautiful promiscuous and essentially a sexual object for the viewing pleasure of men.

Having said that, the role of the femme fatal has developed throughout time and many contemporary representations have come from it. The more modern view focusing on the strong and independent woman rather than the deviant women subdued by marriage. An example of this is the character Lisbeth Salander who performs the lead female role in 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo' who is a strong female character and rebels against the iconic stereo-typical beautiful that we envisage with lead female characters in  films.