Supervillainess

Like many inventions and cultural products, true supervillainesses have a Chinese precursor. A "folk novel" of the Ming dynasty, Feng Shen Yan Yi, a name usually translated as Investiture of the Gods, has the earliest. To explain how the Shang dynasty, ruled by a Chinese Emperor who has the Mandate of Heaven could be overthrown and replaced by another, the Chou dynasty, the author invents three gorgeous, magically-powered demonesses who attack his subjects who try to rescue him, and are able to pull him into madness and to his doom, thus satisfying the Chinese desire for imperial legitimacy and historical acceptance. Thus do feudal and hydraulic societies blame women for men not getting along. This work is most accessible to Westerners through its anime elaboration, renamed Soul Hunter.

American Comics

DC Comics

With the first issue of the comic book Batman, The Cat appeared, later to become the Catwoman. Wonder Woman had the Cheetah as an opponent, although there wasn't the sexual tension with that superheroine. Near the end of the golden age of comics, a burglaress named Black Canary first appeared as an opponent of Johnny Thunder.

In the silver age, supervillainesses took a while to appear. Hal Jordan became Green Lantern when he received an essentially magical item when specially selected by a man from outer space. When his boss Carol Ferris was selected to received one by women from outer space, she was misled into becoming Star Sapphire, his premier supervillainess.

The teenage Supergirl began her independent set of stories having young girls as her primary audience. Thus, her identical duplicate from the bottle-city of Kandor, whose name was Lesla-Lar didn't have much contact with male characters in the DC universe. Some criminals from the Phantom Zone destroyed her within a couple of years. Thus there never was the tension of a man confronting an evil Supergirl.

Aquaman had a bit of confusion with his wife Mera's identical twin sister, and then a supervillainess from the sea-world of the planet Venus appeared to get him to enable her criminal lover and his gang to survive in the seas of the Earth. This silvery-blue-skinned, dark-gray-haired Aliena was depicted with the slightly different eye contours of an Asian. However, she dies within the frame of one issue.

Genia was a robot similar to Brainiac, who became an opponent of the World's Finest superheroes: the Batman and Superman, while the Queen Bee appeared as an opponent of the entire Justice League of America.

Poison Ivy first appeared as a supervillainess proclaiming that she was superior to three other supervillainesses depicted in one issue and never appearing again for decades: Silken Spider, Tiger Moth, and Dragon Fly.

Adam Strange's own supervillainess, named Brittis years before girls were named after a certain peninsula of France, was superbly drawn by the romance comics artist Sid Greene, and had her own touch of the mythological imagination: it is not depicted clearly what she looked like before, but in order to get Adam Strange as her own, a machine in her spaceship changes the contours of her body so that he will fall for her. She sighs, putting up with the change, whatever it would be.

The second Flash, or the one whos identity was Barry Allen, had a supervillainess called the Golden Glider, who was the mistress of the villain called the Top.

Glorith was somehow connected with the faceless Time Trapper. She and the Emerald Empress were opponents of the Legion of Super-Heroes. A few times, some of the superheroines of that group were temporarily brainwashed by aliens into temporary supervillainesses as well, turning on their male teammates.

Marvel Comics

The most extraordinary supervillainess of all American comic books was Dark Phoenix, whose story is about the only comic book tale which ranks with tragedy. But the Black Widow was originally a spy, and the Scarlet Witch was originally an opponent of the X-Men.

American Serial Films

Detective Stories and Film Noir

The works of James McCain, Dashiell Hammett, and Mike Hammer, as well as many lesser authors and those whose work is more known for its adaptation into film rather than in print are responsible for many of these villainesses.
The character played by Barbara Stanwyck destroys Fred MacMurray's character in Double Indemnity.
The most spectacular villainess was in Gun Crazy.

Spy Craze

The best examples are the Bond girls, the bad ones. The lesser spy series starring Dean Martin and James Coburn had their own.