16. Joan of Arc deserved the opportunity to compete against men on a level playing field unimpeded by nonsensical social norms restricting the role of women in society
Nicknamed the Maid of Orléans, Joan of Arc has become one of the most legendary figures of the European Middle Ages. Regarded as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church, Joan was born to a peasant family in north-eastern France whereupon she claimed to experience visions of the Archangel Michael among other religious personages. Supposedly instructing her to support Charles VII in the ongoing Hundred Years’ War and recover lost France territory from the English, Joan first met her monarch at the age of seventeen. Impressing Charles, she was permitted to accompany an army to relieve the besieged Orléans in 1429.
Immediately resulting in a change of circumstances, just nine days after her arrival the beleaguered and faltering city broke the siege and Joan was hailed as a miracle. Captured at Compiègne by the rival Burgundian faction, Joan was gifted to the English and charged with heresy and cross-dressing for wearing armor. Declared guilty, Joan was burnt at the stake on May 30, 1431, at the age of only nineteen. A symbol of the powerful potential of women, and evidently a determined and capable individual, the opportunity to place such a person in an age where women have finally been granted opportunities to excel in society seems most apropos.