Her Oscar win for Everything Everywhere All at Once was a watershed moment. Yeoh didn't win for playing a "dignified elder"; she won for playing a stressed, failing laundromat owner who saves the multiverse using kung fu and kindness. She proved that the leading woman of a sci-fi epic does not need to be 22.

Figures like Reese Witherspoon , Nicole Kidman , and Frances McDormand have shifted the power dynamic by forming production companies that prioritize female-driven IP.