Imagine that women have the right to choose all political representatives, removing from office anyone who doesn’t make wise decisions for the future. Living in a world free from violence against them, women will not allow a man to hold office if he has violated a woman. Economically independent, they have the final say in matters of war and peace and the absolute right to their own bodies.
This is not a dream. Haudenosaunee (traditional Iroquois) women have had this authority – and more -- since long before Christopher Columbus.
While white women were the property of their husbands and considered dead in the law, Haudenosaunee women had more authority and status before Columbus than United States women have today.
Women of the Six Nation Iroquois Confederacy (the Haudenosaunee) had the responsibility for putting in place the male leaders. They had control of their own bodies and were economically independent. Rape and wife beating were rare and dealt with harshly; committing violence against a woman kept a man from becoming Chief in this egalitarian, gender-balanced society.
When women in New York State began to organize for their rights in 1848, they took their cue from the nearby Haudenosaunee communities, where women lived in the world that non-native women dreamed.
Amazingly, despite the assimilation policy of the United States, Haudenosaunee women still maintain much of this authority today.
Awarded one of the first doctorates in the country for work in women’s studies (UC Santa Cruz) and a founder of one the first college-level women’s studies programs in the United States (CSU Sacramento), Dr. Sally Roesch Wagner has taught women’s studies courses for 50 years. She currently serves as an adjunct faculty member in the Syracuse University Renée Crown University Honors Program. Dr. Wagner is the Founder and Executive Director of the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation and Center for Social Justice Dialogue in Fayetteville, New York
A major historian of the suffrage movement, Dr. Wagner has been active on the national scene during this suffrage centennial year. She appeared on the CNN Special Report: Women Represented and has been quoted in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time Magazine, The Smithsonian and Nation, among others. Her articles have appeared in the New York Daily Post, Ms. Magazine, and the National Women’s History Alliance newsletter and National Suffrage Centennial Commission blog.
A prolific author, Dr. Wagner’s anthology The Women's Suffrage Movement, with a Forward by Gloria Steinem (Penguin Classics, 2019), unfolds a new intersectional look at the 19th century woman’s rights movement. Sisters in Spirit: Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Influence on Early American Feminists (Native Voices, 2001) documents the surprisingly unrecognized authority of Native women, who inspired the suffrage movement. It was followed by her young reader’s book, We Want Equal Rights: How Suffragists Were Influence by Native American Women (Native Voices, 2020).
This lecture is part of our 2020 Women’s Suffrage Speaker series.
In order to ensure the health and safety of our staff, speaker, and visitors, we have decided to host this talk virtually using Zoom. After you pre-register, you will receive an automated email containing the link required to access the talk, along with instructions on how to use Zoom if you are unfamiliar with the program.
General admission: $10
Discounted admission: $8 (HHS members, seniors, students, active military members, and veterans)
All ticket purchases are final and nonrefundable.
Sponsored by the New York State Council on the Arts, Ulster Savings Bank, and Devine Insurance.