Females.

Shakepeare's morals speak to me in Act 3 where everyone seems to be backing Queen Hermione over Leonte's. When perhaps this is a time when the King would have been feared and reverenced by his servants and men, it is interesting that even his best guards and other people around him, all plead with him to reconsider his judgment against his wife.

I am impressed with the amount of support that Shakespeare gave to the Queen. When this play was being written, no doubt womens rights were little. Being burned at the stake for all sorts of accusations like being a witch because she was singing or chanting something as she mixed spices and ingredients, women seemed to be only worthy of bearing children and doing a lot of dirty work around the house. In this scenario, although the king has the power to kill anyone who disagrees or argues with him, every single person around him is on the queen's side.

Another strong female character is that of Paulina. She defends the queen countless times and argues extensively with the King calling him "downright a fool". In 1773, a male critic Lewis Theobald, said of Paulina that she was "too gross and blunt". The very fact that critics of this time were not in favor of Paulina's character, suggests a familiar victimization of women.
On this feminist essay about Paulina, Elizabeth Brunner states: "Paulina fulfills a multitude of feminist expectations, both action-based and symbolic: she confronts the patriarch, she defends the sisterhood, she speaks for vulnerable children, she memorializes womanhood, she worships the great Goddess Nature, she preserves artistic beauty, she strives for gender reconciliation, and she finally restores balance in the community."

Go Shakespeare for giving us some strong female characters to love.