Criminal Minds and women

One of my favourite TV shows of these past few years is Criminal Minds. It's an extremely interesting, well-written and well-acted series about a bunch of FBI-profilers who kick unsub's asses. There's two main things that I love about it, the first is Dr. Spencer Reid (Matthew Gray Gubler), their resident socially-awkward genius who is beyond adorable and nerdy, and the second is the fact that there's 3 strong female characters on the show.

Jennifer Jereau (A.J. Cook) is the FBI-liason and although I have no idea what that means, she basically decides what cases they take on, and what baddies they're gonna catch. She is the one with most people skills (which is helpful because she does all the contact with the media as well), yet she completely holds her own in the team. In season 4 she became a mother, but returned to work pretty quickly, and her becoming a mother appears only to have added to the character.
Penelope Garcia (Kirsten Vangness) is the computer-geek of the team. She finds all the facts and details and everything else the team needs. She also appears to be the only character that is still affected by seein gruesome murders, which is quite.. refreshing. She has a really close friendships with Derek Morgan (Shemar Moore), who I suppose is the most "macho" of the men. I love their friendship because they are complete equals, they make fun of each other and make lots of inappropriate jokes.
Emily Prentiss (Paget Brewster) is the last one to join the team but she could kick everyone's ass. She speaks more languages than the other team members combined. In one episode she sacrifices herself to save Reid, how often do you see that a woman sacrifices herself to save a man (who she is not related to)? She is very serious in what she does, and extremely good at it.

There are hardly any comments in the show about the looks of these 3 female characters, and them being female appears irrelevant unless it can help them catch a baddie. They are completely equal to the men (although Hotch and Rossi are sort of "in charge", they still take JJ, Garcia and Prentiss as seriously as they do the others) and they are completely irreplacable in the team. Or so I thought.

Apparently A.J. Cook is fired and Paget Brewster will no longer be a full-time cast member. They will not be replaced, this decision is to "save money". Why saving money can only be done by axing female cast members is a mystery to you and me. But yet again it seems more proof that Hollywood is still a very sexist industry.

Those of you who are as upset/angry about this as I am; please sign the petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/cmwomen/petition.html