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To me, there's a big difference between an author describing an oppressive society, and an author applauding an oppressive society.
Austen describes a society where women have very few rights, and writes about women who depend on marriage to make a living. But there's quite a lot of quiet fury about women's lack of options in her writing -- at least, that's how I read her.
On the other hand, I started reading a classic Norwegian crime/pulp novel published in the 1930s where all the women were described as extremely silly and childish -- not just when viewed through the eyes of the protagonist, but also in the narrative. That book annoyed me so much, and it wasn't great enough in other ways to overcome my annoyance, that I stopped reading.
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