Absolutely! There's a much wider range for what's acceptable behavior in guys while women are supposed to be strong or noble from the start unless they're villains. There's a lot less grey area for women imo, at least in animation.

^Ikr?! I see people bashing female characters all the time for being "bad role models" yet I hardly see people saying the same with guys. One thing is when a character who we are supposed to cheer for is never called out on for their flaws, another is bashing them for being a "bad role model". We need more heroines like Megara and Amalthea in terms of morality in kids movies.

Yes, I think this double standard has hurt writing for women in many ways. Which Is frustrating when you see news tabloids and the like complaining how all the "cool" or "complex" characters are boys and the girls are always one note. Exactly these are the same people who cry to the heavens the moment a female character is shown doing something strange or having an out-there attitude.

Yes: if you have a very flawed female , she´s a bad role model , If she is not flawed enought then she´s a mary sue.
If male characters are flawed,they are a great,human and realistic but if they are not flawed enought...they are just awesome

Its so freaking frustrating,if we talk about the disney princess , everybody says Snow white or Cinderella are plain and lack of personality and a bad role model because of that: but their princes doesn't even have a name ...and nobody cares

^Oh, they do care about the princes lacking names...But only to trash them and complain about how all the Disney Princes lack in personality or charm or the like.

Ignoring characters like Beast, Aladdin, Naveen, Peter Pan, Flynn, Hercules...

Definitely

Modifying my answer a bit:

I think that with any character in the lead role, male or female, there's an expectation to end up playing the hero.
Even with anti-heroes/assholes like Tulio, Sinbad, Kuzco, at some point the narrative is going to force them into doing the right thing. First, because omg there's kids watching, and also because the audience needs a reason to root for them. It's boring watching the lead be an asshole for 2 hours.
Still, it's rare to see a woman in that role, or to get female characters with a variety of moral types. She's either unambiguously good or she's a villain.

Of course male lead tend to be more complex and grey male characters are more common than grey female ones.

However, sometimes people react at any criticism of a female character by starwmaning and automatically assuming the critic feels differently about male characters like this, even if nothing the critic indicates. This really annoys me.

^ Yeah, like when there's criticism of Mary Sue female characters, and someone invariably tries to shut it down with "I bet you don't care when men are written like that." In fact I do, and they suck too, but thanks for asking.

^ Agree. I hate so much that not believing all female characters are equally good and having any expecations on female characters often gets called "misogyny". Yes, misogyny is real but the term gets overused at times.

Especially in the past, there have been plenty of good male role models, and a shortage of good female role models. Being a good role model has been the default for male protagonists for a long time.