Given that they were always going to be fleshing out Mirkwood (because people like Elves ;)), I have no objections to a female warrior. As Cassie says, the Lady Artanis was an excellent fighter - and one of the only Noldor to fight against Feanor at the Kinslaying in Alqualonde. Aredhel, Turgon's sister, was also a fighter. The divide isn't between male and female - it's between fighter and healer, since the Elves had a notion that killing actually reduced your skill/power/capacity for healing. Of course, Tolkien was a Victorian-Edwardian, so yeah, he wrote the fighters as men and the healers as women (mostly) - but the idea of equality is entirely there.
I do have two objections to Tauriel, though...
1/ She's a redhead. Not only is that cheap shorthand for 'feisty', which Peter Jackson should know better than, it's also incredibly rare among the Eldar. The only known line of redheads is the descendents of Mahtan - specifically his daughter Nerdanel, and at least one of her children, Maedhros. And if Tauriel is a Feanorian, I'm a Dwarf.
2/ That name. Oh, that name. Shall I go on? I shall.
--It means 'Daughter of the Forest'. That's not a name you give to a normal Silvan child, because they are all children of the forest. So there's no way it's her Father-name. Since there are presumably a fair number of elves involved in fighting/guarding, it also doesn't work as a Mother-name, since it's still uninformative. (For the unfamiliar with Elven naming - fathers gave a name they liked. Mothers gave a name with prophetic overtones)
--That leaves it being either an after-name or self-name. Again, why would anyone give her the name 'Forest-girl', and have her keep it? It's a silly name for a Woodland Elf.
--And as a self-name... well, it's possible. But unbelievably arrogant, once you recall that 'Tauron' (Forest-Lord) is the Sindarin name for the Vala of the Hunt, Orome. It would be kind of like naming yourself 'Godette'.
--The alternative is the one suggested by Philosopher at Large for Mablung of Doriath - that she's an orphan. If her parents were killed in the woods (by spiders?), she could be a literal 'daughter of the forest' - a child whose true name is unknown, so she grows up with a fairly generic one (with pious overtones - after all, who would have preserved her but the Lord of Forests?). Only... in the film, Greenwood only became Mirkwood, and the spiders only showed up, while the Fourteen+Gandalf were on their way to Rivendell. So that doesn't work either. There is literally no way that name makes sense for a character.
(In contrast, Legolas is named 'Green leaf'. Yes, it's a woodland name - but recall that Thranduil (apparently 'vigorous spring') is not a Silvan elf. He's Sindar, and probably from Doriath. Giving his son a name that evokes the name of his (or his father's) realm - the 'Green' component - but also spring, and the promise of rebirth (calen/galen, as in Eryn Galen 'Greenwood the Great', comes from 'bright', whereas Sindarin 'laeg', Silvan 'leg', comes from 'fresh') is a brilliant political move (as is naming him in the local dialect, rather than using Sindarin 'Laegolas'), and also potentially personally meaningful. But 'Daughter of the Forest'? No)
3/ I know, I said there were two... but she also has a romantic arc, according to Wikipedia. What, the only female simply has to fall in love, because she's a flighty emotional creature who needs a strong hand to give her direction? That's wildly sexist.
(I'm guessing either Kili or Bard, by the way. Her actress says not Legolas)
hS