Vonda N. McIntyre, a science-fiction writer whose tales featured female protagonists — among them the healer in a post-apocalyptic earth who cures the ill with snake venom — and who also wrote five “Star Trek” novels, died on Monday at her home in Seattle. She was 70.

Frances Collin, her agent, said the cause was pancreatic cancer.

When Ms. McIntyre began reading science fiction as a young girl, male writers dominated the genre. By her 30s, she was one of the category’s leading women, following a path established by Ursula K. Le Guin, Kate Wilhelm and Anne McCaffrey. She then became an inspiring mentor to many younger female writers.

“The modern feminist movement was just gaining steam,” Ms. McIntyre recalled in 2010 in an interview with Gizmodo. “And there was a lot of controversy in science fiction about whether women should have anything to do with science fiction at all, which I actually found quite hurtful.”

Ms. McIntyre graduated from the University of Washington with a bachelor’s degree in biology in 1970 and studied genetics there as a postgraduate until ending her studies in 1971. Using her education to illuminate her science fiction proved more alluring than being a research scientist.