They might mean just getting the question "why write a female lead".
Choosing a male protagonist is default, choosing to write about a women though is strange and needs to be questioned.
The whole thinking behind that kind of complaint within the context of the question with no reason is stupid. I don't see the interviewer "questioning" the author of the choice of a female lead. People are just making too much out of innocent questions that may have interesting answers.
Choosing a protagonist whose gender (and race, etc.) is the same as the author's is the default. I don't think anyone asks Margaret Atwood why she chooses a female protagonist.
It is, for example, why Rowling published Harry Potter as "JK" and not "Joanne"—she didn't want her own gender to affect how readers perceived her book. A large number of female authors have done this over the years.
There does seem to be some asymmetry where male authors struggle to write female characters well and are questioned about it more. I'm not sure where the imbalance comes from.
Maybe in the 1950s or something.