And these nostalgic series may be to female audiences what series like “Combat!” and “Band of Brothers” have been for so many men — a chance to relive historic battles in all their glory as well as horror. Many men are fascinated by their predecessors’ exploits and sacrifices at Guadalcanal or the Battle of the Bulge. And plenty of women are increasingly curious about their mothers’ struggles with illegal abortion, men-only clubs and mandatory girdles — “Band of Bunnies.”

Image Laura Benanti, above, in “The Playboy Club” on NBC. Credit... Matt Dinerstein/NBC

The power shift is most obvious in a new wave of sitcoms about young single women. On Fox “New Girl,” which stars Zooey Deschanel, was created by Liz Meriwether, a member of a posse of high-powered Hollywood writers known as “the Fempire.” The comedian Whitney Cummings not only is the star and executive producer of “Whitney” on NBC but also helped write and is an executive producer of “2 Broke Girls” on CBS.

Ms. Deschanel plays an adorable nerd who wraps three male roommates around her little finger. Ms. Cummings’s series showcase heroines who are less postfeminist than pre-Amazon; they are hard-edged sophisticates who don’t expect much from men besides sex, maybe, and who instead find fulfillment in the company of fellow warrior queens, which is to say urban warrior queens who battle cellulite and New York City landlords.

“Apartment 23,” an ABC comedy that is scheduled for midseason, is even more brazen, featuring a semi-sociopath who sleeps with her roommate’s boyfriend and traffics in black market A.D.D. medication. “Anyone want to study like an Asian teenager?” she says, holding up her stash.

Not surprisingly, perhaps, new comedies about men, like “Man Up!” and “Last Man Standing” (both on ABC) and “How to Be a Gentleman” (CBS), mine the humor in emasculation.