Nala, Simba's friend, is portrayed as Simba's equal early on. She wrestles with him and pins him several times throughout the movie. She comes up with better ideas then he does. She is the one who starts Simba thinking about his past and his future. Yet, despite the fact that she left the pride lands to find help, she also does not challenge Scar's right to rule. She does little more than Sarabi to work toward getting a better life for herself and the other lionesses, only leaving the pride lands to seek help (read: a different male lion). Only when Simba returns to the lionesses stand up to Scar. This is because a new male has been found to lead them. The lionesses are very much kept in the shadow of the male lions.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2136253&forum_id=2#22229966)

The only other female character is Shenzi, the hyena. She seems to be the lead hyena and is certainly the most intelligent of the trio. However, she is little different then the other two, and is always seen in tangent with them. It appears as if she is going in the same direction as them, but she just barely ‘’touches’’ them on the same level. Certainly she takes the lead, speaks first most often, and is the bright one. But nothing specific is female about her. She is never referred to as "she", we can only assume she is female from her name and her voice (which could also be a high male voice). All three hyenas are very androgynous, meaning being both male and female; hermaphroditic, or at least the two: Shenzi and Ed. (This, however, is common in spotted hyena clans.) Both Shenzi and Ed have both masculine and feminine characteristics, an ambiguous sexuality, neither clearly masculine nor clearly feminine in appearance…unless Ed is gay.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2136253&forum_id=2#22521697)