#canonarya

George R. R. Martin created Arya specifically as a feminist character:

I can’t say there’s any one specific model, but a lot of the women I’ve known over the years have had aspects of Arya with them. Especially some of the women I knew when I was a young man back in the ’60s and ’70s, you know — the decade of the sexual revolution and the feminist movement. I knew a lot of young women who weren’t buying into the, “Oh, I have to find a husband and be a housewife.”

That’s certainly part of Arya’s thing. There’s that scene where Ned is telling her, “Well, one day you’ll grow up and you’ll marry a great lord and you’ll be the lady of the castle.” And she says, “No, I won’t. I don’t want that. That’s Sansa, that’s not me.” I knew women who were saying things like that: “I don’t wanna be Mrs. Smith, I wanna be my own person.” – GRRM, Rolling Stone 2019

This is illustrated in her first chapter where she argues the value of women with Jon and insists she should have the same opportunities to learn as her little brother, Bran:

She watched her little brother whack at Tommen. “I could do just as good as Bran,” she said. “He’s only seven. I’m nine.”

—

“The Lannisters are proud,” Jon observed. “You’d think the royal sigil would be sufficient, but no. He makes his mother’s House equal in honor to the king’s.”
“The woman is important too!” Arya protested. – Arya I, AGOT

Later in the novel, she asks her father about three different careers she aspires to, all of which involve power and influence in her own right rather than through a husband or male relations:

“Yet someday he may be the lord of a great holdfast and sit on the king’s council. He might raise castles like Brandon the Builder, or sail a ship across the Sunset Sea, or enter your mother’s Faith and become the High Septon.” But he will never run beside his wolf again, he thought with a sadness too deep for words, or lie with a woman, or hold his own son in his arms.
Arya cocked her head to one side. “Can I be a king’s councillor and build castles and become the High Septon?” – Eddard V, AGOT

It’s interesting to note that while Arya and Ned are talking about how Bran’s aspirations to be a knight are over and Ned mentions sailing a ship across the Narrow Sea for his son, Arya doesn’t latch onto knighthood or sailing. She focuses on being a king’s councillor, architect, and high septon.

The historical figures Arya admires are progressive and assertive women who led others:

Nymeria nipped eagerly at her hand as Arya untied her. She had yellow eyes. When they caught the sunlight, they gleamed like two golden coins. Arya had named her after the warrior queen of the Rhoyne, who had led her people across the narrow sea. – Arya I, AGOT

Anguy would teach her to use a bow, and she could ride with Gendry and be an outlaw, like Wenda the White Fawn in the songs. – Arya XII, ASOS

In addition to admiring historical women, Arya defends other women by executing two rapists for their crime against another girl she never met, Layna. First she uses one of her death wishes on Chiswyck right after he tells the story of what he did. Raff the Sweetling’s execution was also due to his murder of Lommy, but he admitted to participating in the gang rape. Not only does she trick Raff into repeating Lommy’s last words, she presents herself as a young girl he can rape, only to turn the situation around on him.

Arya also has multiple positive female relationships and helps drive business to the Happy Port:

“The best whores are at the Happy Port, down by where the mummers’ Ship is moored.” She pointed. Some of the dockside whores were vicious, and sailors fresh from the sea never knew which ones. S'vrone was the worst. Everyone said she had robbed and killed a dozen men, rolling the bodies into the canals to feed the eels. The Drunken Daughter could be sweet when sober, but not with wine in her. And Canker Jeyne was really a man. “Ask for Merry. Meralyn is her true name, but everyone calls her Merry, and she is.” Merry bought a dozen oysters every time Cat came by the brothel and shared them with her girls. She had a good heart, everyone agreed. “That, and the biggest pair of teats in all of Braavos,” Merry herself was fond of boasting.
Her girls were nice as well; Blushing Bethany and the Sailor’s Wife, one-eyed Yna who could tell your fortune from a drop of blood, pretty little Lanna, even Assadora, the Ibbenese woman with the mustache. They might not be beautiful, but they were kind to her. “The Happy Port is where all the porters go,” Cat assured the men of the Brazen Monkey. “‘The boys unload the ships,’ Merry says, 'and my girls unload the lads who sail them.’” – Arya III, AFFC