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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/39301
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/39301
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Woman here. :)

I think what your female character would struggle with most is that suddenly she does need her man beside her - for safety, for being treated a certain way by other people, etc. It doesn't matter how feminine she was in the 23rd century, it doesn't matter if she liked cooking and staying at home and having doors opened for her, being suddenly deprived of the _choice_ in the 14th century is going to hurt.

So how is she going to maintain her agency when the setting actively deprives her of it? There are two elements you can consider.

First, sometimes a strong character is deprived of agency. A POW isn't suddenly made a weak character by virtue of being deprived of virtually all agency, confined and abused. After becoming a POW, the character would be faced with a question - "what next?" They'd have to make a choice, pick a goal, be it "escape" or "survive" or "lead a rebellion", and then they'd be struggling to achieve that goal.

Same for your female character: her freedom has been considerably curtailed. What next? How does she choose to respond to the new situation? Whatever active choice she makes, whatever goal she picks, as long as she gets that choice - she has agency. I'd elaborate more, but @Amadeus has said it all, better than I would.

Second, and that comes after the first point, not instead, you could do some research. There were strong independent women in medieval times. [Doña Gracia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gracia_Mendes_Nasi) is my favourite example. There are others. Find out how those women came to hold prominent positions, what they had to struggle with, and what systems were in place to allow them to rise to where they did. Doña Gracia dealt with Henri II of France, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Popes Paul III and Paul IV, and Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. All those prominent men accepted her as someone who one could, and should, have dealings with.

Armed with this knowledge, and depending on where you want to take your plot, your female character could become formidable indeed.

Original score: 41