How does Rosalind differ from a conventional romantic heroine?

The character of Rosalind has become something of a favorite with successive generations of feminists. She is warm, intelligent, high-spirited, and she completely dominates the stage. Moreover, she is a woman with the remarkable ability to subvert not just the norms of a male-dominated society but also the long-standing conventions of courtly romantic love.
In relation to the ideal of love, she occupies a midpoint between the gushing romanticism of Orlando and the cynical earthiness of Touchstone. She wants to believe in romantic love, but at the same time she is fully aware of just how absurd it all appears on the surface.
A more conventional romantic heroine would be sweetly submissive, living up to the expectations imposed upon her by a patriarchal society. But Rosalind is not like that at all. She constantly breaks free of narrow bounds, constructing a new identity for herself that allows her to explore the nuances of gender roles.
She is also in complete control throughout Orlando's courtship of her, dispensing advice to him on how to woo a lady. Crucially, she needs to disguise herself as a man in order to do this. This is an oblique commentary on established social conventions, for Orlando would never allow himself to receive such advice from a woman.
But there are limits to Rosalind's freedom. The society of which she is a part depends for its stability on men and women assuming their socially allocated roles. So Rosalind ultimately needs to throw off her disguise and stand revealed as the woman she really is. Yet when she does, she remains both fully human and fully female. In other words, she is absolutely nothing like a conventional romantic heroine.