It's true that L.M. Montgomery's female characters are much better developed than male ones, but that doesn't matter to me, bc there is plenty of fiction with well developed male characters (and underdeveloped female ones--men writing women is a thing after all) already. LMM was better at writing friendships.
Thinking about it, Agatha Christie, my other favourite author, also has better female characters than male characters (though she does have some good men in her fiction). Best example is the love triangle in Death on the Nile. You have Linnet and Jackie, these two amazing women, fighting over someone as lame as Simon Doyle. Seriously, there is nothing to this guy. He's not even Ken.
What both writers also have in common is that they were masters (mistresses?) at writing older women.
