Feminist
Joan as a Feminist Symbol
As a strong woman who had her own life and job, never married, and did not have children, Joan of Arc is an ideal model of feminism. Her legacy has become a rallying cry for the feminist movement in the United States.
Courtesy of Wikipedia
Riverside Park Statue
The Riverside Park Statue of Joan of Arc in New York City may not seem like a remarkable feature of feminism, but its history makes it important. Anna Hyatt Huntington created the statue, making her the first woman to create a full-scale equestrian monument in the United States.
Calling on the "Women of America"
This poster, created by the United States Treasury Department, calls on American women to do their part in the American war effort in the First World War. Although women in the United States were not allowed to vote or serve in the armed forces at this point, women were still able to do their part. Having Joan of Arc, a woman who broke gender norms of her time to fight, be the face of women's role in the homefront shows her symbolic role of the power of women within the United States.
United States Treasury Department, "Joan of Arc Poster, World War I," 1914-1918
Courtesy of The Public Medievalist
Women's Suffrage
Women's suffrage was a social and political matter. One notable figure in the fight for women's right to vote was Joan of Arc. She represented a fighting spirit and pushed the boundaries for women in her time, so it is fitting that she became a fixture in the early 20th-century fight for women's suffrage. This shows that she was culturally relevant in America to be used as a core symbol in the fight for gender equality.