As I was searching for women detectives I came across an old photo of Honey West. As this site was discussing TV detectives there are very few women that filled this category. Angela Landsbury was one of the women, otherwise it was male dominated.
Now we have a lot of shows with female detectives, Law and Order, Cold Case, Castle (one of my favorites), the Mentalist among others. It seemed to start with Charlie’s Angels.
The women give off a sense of confidence and are feminine in a conservative way. There dress code is tailored but does allude to some sort of sexual innuendos.
I don’t know about the teenage girls, but these shows have captured my attention. Maybe they are governed toward the middle age woman who wants the self confidence and strength that is portrayed. The teenage girls seem to be geared toward the movie Twilight and similar movies and TV shows that have romance and thrill.
The Museum of Broadcast Communications gives a long list of detective shows, a male dominated industry: Mannix, Harry O., Police Story, Cannon, The Fugitive and there are many more. All the shows that I recall were male dominated but there was usually a beautiful sidekick or co-star. Tyne Daly was another that opened the market to female detectives. You can really see how women in these shows have evolved.
Citation:
The Museum of Broadcast Communication. Detective Programs.
2010. <http://www.museum.tv/eotvsection.php?entrycode=detectivepro>.
Castle: Retrieved from www://imagesgoogle
<dipity.com>.
Retrieved from: http://googleimages. <Flixter.com>
Honey West: Retreived from http://imagesgoogle
Svalois Blog 
I think a lot (if not most) TV shows give in to the “sexy/beautiful female sidekick” trend It seems like a lot of these female characters, who are often portrayed as professionals in a workplace setting, are dressed a little too provocatively to be realistic. The courtroom scenes where “Ally McBeal” characters dressed in microminiskirts is a classic, if extreme, example of this phenomenon. Even shows like “Law and Order” frequently portray female attorneys and A.D.A.s in outfits that hardly seem appropriate for appearances before a Judge. As a legal secretary, I see the outfits that real female attorneys wear to court, and they certainly don’t look like anything portrayed on TV! Indeed, attorneys showing up to court in those types of outfits would at best be sent off to change, or at worst, found in contempt. It makes you wonder, then, why TV shows would choose to portray so many of their female characters in such an unrealistic light. Do tight or low-cut outfits make the show more interesting? Do the TV shows think that their production, script, actors and actresses or plots are too weak to succeed on their own merits, and thus they resort to overtly sexual imagery? I’m not sure, but I do wonder what would happen if the “sexy/beautiful female sidekick” trend were to suddenly die out. Would people still like the TV shows that used to feature such women? Would they still watch them at all?