What is the prototypical fantasy plot for a female protagonist?
I have rolled back my question to an earlier version, since the lack of context has led to a gross misunderstanding of what I want to know. If the introductory explanation is to extensive for you, please scroll down (or look in the question title) to get a brief version of my question.
Preliminary considerations
The roles of male and female protagonists in classic fantasy fiction were distinctly different. The male hero was a warrior who went on a quest and killed his opponents, while the female heroine was a witch or priestess who had to discover her innate powers and heal a rift in the world. The male hero had to journey outwards and fight physically; the female heroine had to journey inwards, into the mystery of herself, and fight psych(olog)ically.
In the wake of the women's movement, fantasy heroines in the Seventies and early Eighties began to take on male roles. A typical example is the short story "Northern Chess" by <PERSON> in which a female warrior overcomes the ghost of an evil sorcerer who had cast a curse that "no man" would be able to overcome – forgetting women.
Later, during the pseudo-historic wave in fantasy of the late Eighties and early Nineties, much of female written fantasy portrayed members of the aristocracy and their intrigues, showing powerful, powerhungry, and ruthless women manipulating the men around them much in the way the Queens of the past have done.
In the same time, fantasy for male readers has mostly remained true to the swordwielding and questing heroes of the past. From <PERSON> to <PERSON>, companions have overcome evil, and from <PERSON> to <PERSON>, barbarians have battled and killed.
The female in a male role has stayed active in fiction for young adult readers. Today, YA books with female leads are often classic male fantasy with the male protagonist replaced by a female one. For example, The Hunger Games, has a plot very much identical to Conan the Barbarian: <PERSON> kills <PERSON>'s people and takes him into slavery. 944
<PERSON> escapes, fulfills a quest, returns to the temple, and kills <PERSON>. Similarly, <PERSON> enslaves <PERSON>' people and takes her away from home as a kind of fighting slave. <PERSON> fulfills a quest, returns to the capital, and kills <PERSON>.
But The Hunger Games isn't fantasy. I haven't read much fantasy in recent years, and looking at the market today, it seems to me that fantasy for female readers has been largely replaced by dystopia, urban fantasy, vampire romance, steampunk, and other new genres. There are still male heroes battling and questing, and there are some female warriors, some witches, and some queens. But I don't see much of that, and nothing new.
And I wonder: Is there still a tradition of (medieval-type) fantasy by and for women, and what are its prototypical themes and plot?
Or, in other words:
Question
When a woman picks up a fantasy novel with a female protagonist today – and that is all she knows – what would she expect?
Note
The aim of my question is to understand current conventions and reader expectations in contemporary female-protagonist fantasy fiction. I do not want to write such a fantasy, but I want to understand – as I believe every author should – the genre they are writing in, because even if you create your own version of that genre, your novel will be read in the context of those conventions.
I am also not looking for general writing advice ("make it interesting") that has nothing to do with the present question. Really, my question is quite straightforward, and so should your answer be. Thank you. 412