Yes! It's like--look! She's being strong and independent because she's going off and DOING someth-- oh, wait, nevermind. She'd just being stupid. If this weren't such a common trope it wouldn't be such a big deal, but I've seen it happen again and again. It seems to be one of the loopholes authors would use in order to allow their heroines to exercise some independence without getting, in the eyes of the readership, too uppity.

It's quite hard, isn't it? I was surprised at how many people spoke up in the comment thread at Dear Author (though I probably shouldn't have been).