Didn't see it on TV but DH's friend recently lent him the lot of DVD. Saw s bits of the first series and thought this, so didn't bother with it, but there was a decent female character in the bits of S3 so last week I started watching S4 from the beginning with DH.
So far we are halfway through and the female characters comprise:
Chloe - CTU operative who supports Jack but is quickly under suspicion due to knowing someone who reports something and kicked off the team
Marianne - her replacement. Having more or less slept her way into the job, she turns out to be working with the terrorists and attempts to frame several of her colleagues
Sarah - another CTU op - a goody but far from likeable
Audrey - politicians DD and Jack's girlfriend - spends most of her time simpering prettily at her various menfolk
Dina - One of the main terrorist's wife - murders her son's 16yo girlfriend (after trying to make son do it himself) in the name of keeping their plot secret
Possibly worst of all is the portrayal of Erin Driscoll, Director of CTU. She brings her mentally ill daughter in to the medical facility so she can continue to do her job, repeatedly ignores the girl begging to be taken home, and girl eventually kills herself. Driscoll is almost immediately dispatched because she can't focus and replaced with, you guessed it - a bloke (although his ex-wife has just turned up to run the show.)
So AIBU, or possibly overthinking it a bit?