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I always thought that men and women are meant to fulfill different roles in society. Men are the heads of families and communities, while women are the hearts of them. Men must work to financially support the family, while women must work in the household to care for it and nurture the children. A good example of this is the Holy Family. Men should fight in wars to defend their country if necessary, while women should not. This seems obvious since men are the physically stronger sex, and are,in general, stronger than women. These principles also seem clear, because women are the ones that bear offspring. 

There is a diabolical conspiracy these days that attempts to make men and women the same in every way. This ideology is opposed to common sense and seems to be against the teaching of the Church. I have heard many sermons in which priests spoke against it, and even remember a sermon by Fr. Roberts in which he preached against feminism said something along the lines of "Women are not meant to carry  AK-47s, and run out onto the battlefield. How disgusting!" However, the sanctity of St. Joan of Arc seems to contradict this. 
    
St. Joan of Arc was a women and was told by God to lead troops into battle, which she did several times, and is praised for this. She is the(or one of the) patron saint of soldiers, and there are many Catholic images of her wearing battle armor and leading her soldiers into battle. I think that one of the organizations for women in the U.S. military is named after St. Joan of Arc. If God created men and women different, then why did he guide a women to do a job that is obviously meant for a man? How could there be a substantial difference in the roles of men and women if this is the case? God cannot deceive, after all, and she is a saint of the Church. Is it perfectly fine for a woman to engage in military combat? Do women have just as much of a right to work outside the home as men? Are men and women not so different after all? 

I'm not going to attempt to dive into a theological discussion on St Joan of Arc, or even attempt to try to figure out why God used her to save France; however, I will say that Bp. Williamson says often, "If the man won't do it (be a man), the woman will."  There is quite a bit of truth to that....

But why would God raise up a woman to do the job, and not a man? Why would He send the message that a woman is supposed to do this? Why create the appearance that the roles of women and men are the same? Is her case merely an aberration or are women and men pretty much the same after all?

FWIW. God will often choose people powerless and completely unsuited to various tasks. This we can see for example, with the apostles, common fishermen, with David vs. Goliath, with Noah building an Ark, with Abraham in eldest age having children, and so forth.  He does this to demonstrates that it was not by the natural power of a person that one thing or another was accomplished -- In St. Joan's case, putting an end to the Hundred Years' war.

They're an example of the work of God.

Are Abraham and Sarah an example that you should wait till you're 90-100 to have children? Is Noah an example that everyone should ordinarily build giant boats in the middle of dry land? Or David an example that featherweights should go fight to the death vs. heavyweights?

No. Therefore the exceptional nature of the matter shows it's the work of God, His direct intervention. What was accomplished was by the power of God, St. Joan was the sign this was the case because she was just a young maiden, for whom leading an army to success in war was not something she could in any way accomplish, or something at all reasonable a circuмstance to place a young maiden in, save by divine fiat or one might suppose the most unusual and hard to imagine absolute necessity.

Whenever she did things that were not normally proper for her state it was with proper extenuating circuмstances, and in a way that still was not intrinsically immoral, but properly exceptional however unusual.

That modern people raised in a degenerate society take her as a role model for various immoral actions and roles for women is their own fault.

Remember that God designed the Church, government, and the family, and everything inbetween all to be patriarchies. Patriarchy is good. You'll find the natural roles more surviving in places where corrupt entertainment has not filtered in as greatly, much criticized for it Middle Eastern countries, etc.