I swear I'm not on Jeanine Basinger's payroll. Since I just wrote about this renowned film scholar, however, I can't resist linking to this excellent story by her in Variety. She discusses the upcoming remake of "The Women" as part of the "female ensemble" subgenre.
It's significant that a film starring a female, no matter what other genre it might be (comedy, romance, musical, crime, Western, film noir, melodrama), was always known as "a woman's film." There was no equivalent "man's film" category.She concludes:
I look forward to a revival of the ensemble subgenre in which women aren't alike, can feel liberated to behave badly without consequence, can fight it out among themselves (why should the men have all the fun?) and can ultimately become friends and learn to work together.