Like Rey, Jyn’s gender is a nonissue in the film; she wears the same outfit and is often dirty, injured, or otherwise messy throughout the movie from the Wobani prison to the battle on Scarif and she has no romantic storyline, teased or otherwise. Jyn, like Rey in The Force Awakens, Padmé (Natalie Portman) in Revenge of the Sith, and Leia (Carrie Fisher) throughout the original trilogy, does struggle with being the only woman in the room for most of the movie; she shares two major scenes with Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly) and Alliance High Command in the film, but these are the only other scenes where multiple women appear and speak. Jyn carries the 35% female character screen time on her own, primarily interacting with Cassian (Luna), Bodhi (Ahmed), Chirrut (Yen), Baze (Wen), and K-2SO (Tudyk). As a non-Force-sensitive character, Jyn is certainly not overpowered, nor is she liked by everyone, as many Rebels see her as am in with Gerrera but otherwise a petty criminal with Imperial ties -- hardly the Rebel poster child they want associated with the organization. Requiring the moral and physical training and stamina to complete the mission, Jyn proves herself to be more than capable, on an equal level with the other members of the Alliance taking on the Empire -- and perhaps even more capable, as she remains uninjured during the Scarif mission unlike Cassian (Luna) in the same part of the mission. The actions required for this mission are within her skill range and physical ability sans the Force, and the film establishes that she was trained to be a soldier and had years on the run where she had to use these skills. By no means a Mary Sue, Jyn is also morally ambiguous to start the film but ends up buying into the Rebel cause by the final act to the point where she sacrifices herself for the cause; for only appearing in one film, she goes through a serious amount of character development over the course of the film. The morality transformation she goes through is particularly interesting and new for Star Wars, one of many franchises where good and evil are clearly delineated; moral ambiguity is new to the franchise and has continued to appear in Andor, a spinoff show in the years preceding the events of Rogue One. 

Though an incredibly independent character, Jyn’s relationship with the other characters in the film is particularly important to the progression of the storyline. As mentioned, her relationships with female characters are limited to her interactions with her mother Lyra (Valene Kane) in the opening scene of the film and to brief interactions with Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly) later in the film. Lyra’s early death fridges her character and makes her further Galen (Mikkelsen) and Jyn’s narrative arcs by separating them for decades. As for her interactions with Mon Mothma, the scenes reflect the hierarchy of power in the Rebel Alliance; Mothma is a superior and speaks to Jyn as such, reinforcing her authority in the Rebel Alliance over her male colleagues like General Draven (Alistair Petrie). Jyn also takes on a position of leadership, though informally, with her second major scene with Mothma by calling on the Alliance to step up and attack Scarif, and she leads the unsanctioned mission herself, taking on the more dangerous job of infiltrating the base and stealing and transmitting the plans herself. In the rest of the film, Jyn’s platonic and familial relationships with male characters are really important to the development of the story; the Rebel Alliance leaders, even Mothma, define her by her relationships to Saw Gerrera (Whitaker) and Galen Erso (Mikkelsen) for nearly the entire movie though she only interacts with them as an adult in one scene each. Only in Act Three of the film (the Scarif mission) is Jyn finally seen as her own person independent of the men in her life by the Alliance. Jyn, however, continually defines herself by her own worth and, as explored in Rebel Rising (2017) by Beth Revis, she builds herself again and again away from her connection to her parents and to Gerrera. Like Rey, she has the chance to define herself and her story by not being connected to a larger galactic narrative by blood or by allegiance. However, this can also be used to define Leia’s early role in the Alliance before A New Hope as outlined in Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022), Star Wars Rebels (2014-2018), and Leia, Princess of Alderaan (2017); Bail Organa’s (Jimmy Smits) role in the Alliance partly helped Leia get involved and into positions of leadership. Both women, however, earned their positions through their hard work, leadership, and their strength of character. Her relationships with Cassian, Bodhi, Chirrut, Baze, and K-2SO are different from her interactions with these other characters because she is their equal, not a subordinate or a daughter; through these particular interactions she gets to argue back, stand up for herself, make decisions, and establish her own identity. 

Women of the Rebel Alliance

Lyra Erso (Valene Kane) really only appears at the beginning of the film when young Jyn (Beau Gadsdon), Galen (Mads Mikkelsen), and she are hiding on Lah’mu as farmers before Krennic arrives to recruit Galen for Project Stardust (what will become the Death Star). While it is not explored much in the film, Star Wars: Catalyst establishes Lyra as a skilled scientist in her own right (specifically a geologist, she met Galen on a scientific expedition) with her own interests in the Force as part of the Church of the Force (as indicated by her clothing and expanded upon in the Rogue One Visual Dictionary). However, her early death in the film greatly impacts her film-exclusive narrative. She briefly talks with Jyn, going through their evacuation plan together, until Lyra sees that Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn) is involved. Giving Jyn her kyber crystal necklace (which Jyn wears for the rest of the film), Lyra sends Jyn to the hiding place and goes towards the field to kill Krennic. Galen, however, had said that Lyra had died, so her appearance does more harm than good; while Lyra shoots and hits Krennic, the death troopers also shoot and kill her. As explained in Catalyst, Lyra gave up her scientific career to care for  Jyn, reinforcing traditional gender roles which support a working father and stay-at-home mother, surprisingly conventional for Star Wars whose female characters have often had more complex and empowering roles. When Lyra disobeys Galen and fights back against Krennic and the patriarchal, oppressive Empire he works for, she gets killed and cannot protect herself or her family. Both Jyn and Galen see her die, which is a critical moment in both of their narrative arcs from the film. Lyra, like Padmé (Portman), Miramir (Comer), and Shmi (August), has been fridged to further another character’s arc rather than her own, and she falls into the narrative trap of mothers being killed off early in a story or text, though Star Wars’s treatment of mother figures has improved with Leia (Carrie Fisher) and Hera Syndulla (voiced by Vanessa Marshall in Star Wars Rebels and played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead in Ahsoka). Like other female characters from the Star Wars universe, Lyra receives off-screen development in other forms of transmedial entertainment to compensate for her marginal role in the film, but even then she is still a minor character in Catalyst; Galen and Krennic are the main characters in that particular novel. 

In the Rebel Alliance, there are of course female characters that are central to the narrative. Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly) and Princess Leia Organa (Ingvild Deila, Carrie Fisher) reprise their roles from other Star Wars films but do not receive much in the way of character development since their development occurs elsewhere. For Mothma, her role here solidifies her presence as the connection between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope (which gets expanded on further in Rogue One spinoff show Andor); Leia’s presence at the end of the film ties Rogue One to A New Hope and is more of a cameo. Senator Tynnra Pamlo of Taris, Minister of Education (Sharon Duncan-Brewster), is a new character unique to Rogue One that diversifies the Alliance High Command, increasing the number of women and people of color in Alliance leadership (which is still rather white even with the inclusion of Bail Organa (Jimmy Smits), Mothma, and Princess Leia). Pamlo is also one of the highest-ranked women of color to appear in the Star Wars universe as a senator, a minister of education, and a member of Alliance High Command, another significant moment for the franchise. As in the original trilogy, women appear in the background of Yavin 4 command center, a major Alliance location where women did not appear in the original trilogy and a useful retconning in keeping with other media set in the period between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. 

Rogue One also introduces female Rebel Alliance pilots with speaking lines, a notable omission discussed on the Original Trilogy page. Jaldine Gerams (Geraldine James) flies as Blue Three. Other pilots include Laren Joma, Blue Eleven, Wona Goban (Gabby Wong), Gold Nine, and Lt. Zal Dinnes, Red Eight (Zarene Dallas), who has been retconned into A New Hope to fly in and die during the Battle of Yavin. Three other female characters (two humans and a droid) -- Corporal Walea Timker, Corporal Rodma Maddel, and E3-S1 -- appear in the film; Timker and Maddel are part of Rogue One and take part in the strike on the tower and landing pads on Scarif, while E3-S1 works as a manager of other astromech units and droids on the rebel base. E3’s negligible role as a fussy manager of other droids is vaguely emblematic of domestic roles and parental management which are typically associated with mothers or female persons, similar to TC-14 (John Fensom, Lindsay Duncan), the Trade Federation protocol droid in The Phantom Menace. 

Women of the Ring of Kafrene, Wobani, and Jedha

As in the other Star Wars films, some unknown, unnamed, and uncredited women appear in the background of various scenes throughout the movie. During the scenes on the Ring of Kafrene space station, women move around in the background behind Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) as he speaks with and kills his contact Tivik (Daniel Mays). On Wobani, Jyn Erso’s cellmate is a Blutopian female going by the names of Kennel and Nails, but her real name is Oolin Musters (Kiran Shah); the character reappears in Beth Revis’s 2017 novel Rebel Rising and has lines and more development in the novel. On Jedha, both in Jedha City and on Saw Gerrera’s (Forest Whitaker) Partisan base, some women appear. Two mechanics, Kaya Gimm and Gavra Ubrento, appear in the city, while Killi Gimm is a disciple of the Whills based in the holy city; none of the actresses who play these women are credited for their roles. Cassian Andor also mentions that he had to meet with a contact, Tivik’s sister, in the city before they can go to the Partisans’ base, but she is never named or shown on screen. In the city, a decraniated female server works at a cafe; she had her brain removed by a scientist, thus making her subservient and unable to think independently as a forced laborer. Decraniated workers also reappear elsewhere in the franchise, particularly Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) and in Doctor Aphra comics. During the battle between the Partisans and the Empire in Jedha City, Jyn (Jones) rescues a little girl, Pendra Siliu (Ivy Wong), who has wandered into the street where the battle is occuring. As for the larger Partisan organization, Jyn and Magva Yarro (Sabine Crossen) are the only two female Partisan members to appear in the film; other women members of the Partisans appear in Rebel Rising. In a longer shot within the Partisan base, some members of the Partisans are watching a hologram video of a female Twi’lek dancer, further reinforcing the sexualized stereotype of this species discussed elsewhere on this site. 

Women of the Galactic Empire

In keeping with the demographics of the Galactic Empire in the original trilogy, there are no female officers, scientists, stormtroopers, or women of any kind in scenes where the Empire is the main focus. While canon novels like Star Wars: Catalyst established that women scientists like Lyra Erso (Kane) worked on the Death Star when it was first being developed under the Republic, they did not appear in Rogue One. While maintaining the massively patriarchal and masculine structure of the Empire ensures continuity, particularly at the higher or specialized levels of the Death Star scientists and crew, there were opportunities to include some female scientists or officers (as seen in Solo, Star Wars Rebels, and Andor) into the cast. There were opportunities to grow the Empire beyond its appearance in the original trilogy that were not taken in this particular production.