That's obviously not exclusively the case (I first started reading fantasy to some extent because woman who babysat me was a voracious consumer of fantasy novels), but it is a definite problem. It shouldn't be that surprising in this sort of context that scifi and fantasy have for a long-time been seen as male-dominated genres. (Interestingly, another major foundation of the work- The Chronicles of Narnia has much more in the way of strong females.) Note that in the case of Lord of the Rings, it fails the Bechdel test so badly that no two major female characters even have a conversation. Indeed, much of it doesn't even get close to passing the Bechdel test. And one sees a similar pattern in science fiction. One sees the extension of this to other variants as well in modern games, where in many videogames and MMOs otherwise equivalent armor is depicted as covering much less on the women and often emphasizing the female figure. Worse, when later fantasy did try to have empowered female characters, they were often more male fantasies, the classical "chicks in chainmail" and the like. (It is true that The Silmarillion also introduces some females but the overall numbers are low). One sees how this conflicts with more modern sensibilities- look at how much screen time was given to Arwen and Eowyn compared to how much time they had in the books. In Tolkien's case even when they are characters they are often far more passive than active. This does in some ways raise serious points: A lot of classical fantasy had a dearth of women as characters.
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