" A woman, although not receiving an inheritance, knew that she would at least be under the roof of her husband. Johnson, in her book, Jane Austen: Women, Politics and the Novel, characterizes Austen as a novelist who "defended and enlarged a progressive middle ground that had been eaten away by the polarizing polemics born of the 1790s." She also states that Austen was a product of her times. She agrees that Austen "opted definitely not to ratify the anarchism of the radical opposition" (166). Her adoption of conservative fictional models was strategic rather than partisan, a means of escaping the charge of wishing radically to change the social structure at a time of extreme political reaction.

Was Jane Austen a feminist? It thus depends on the readers' expectation. If they expect a book that is radical by today's standards,...

However, if readers expect a book that does not strictly follow the standards of the times and, in fact, gently makes fun of that society with a nice touch of irony, they will more than satisfied.
References

Barreca, Regina. They Used to Call Me Snow White...But I Drifted: Women's Strategic Use of Humor. New York: Penguin, 1992.

Gray, Donald. Pride and Prejudice. 3rd Edition (Norton Critical Editions). New York: W.W. Norton, 2000.

Johnson, Claudia. Jane Austen: Women, Politics and the Novel. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990.

Prewitt Brown, Julia. "The Feminist Depreciation of Austen: A Polemical Reading." Rev. Of Jane Austen: Women, Politics and the Novel, by Claudia L. Johnson, in Novel: A Forum on Fiction 23 (spring 1990).