Heroines and male authors

I read fairly quickly and nearly always finish the books I start. However, I recently quit on a book about 2/3 of the way through. Though this was an award winning book, I was very put off by the language and situations they described. But I was put off by something else, as well -- the heroine. When I told my husband what I did not like about this book (he was the one who had checked it out of the library), he indicated that I only approved of female authors -- particularly those of the British19th century. I allowed that I do like some of the works by male authors of the 19th century, as well. But what I do not care for heroines who cling to those who abuse them -- physically, as well as verbally.

One thing that chick-lit (not the sappy romances, mind you, but the ones written as comedy) has going for it, aside from the sheer escapism of guaranteed happy endings, is a heroine who is not a dishrag. The central female characters usually have to both use their minds and stand up for themselves without becoming the witch-like figures that powerful women often are in male literature. The fact that chick-lit is primarily written by female authors while novels that feature the suffering female as heroine tend to be written by male authors (note the qualifiers here; I did not say all fall into these categories) would seem to indicate something about gender perspective.