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Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) women fired the revolutionary vision of early American feminists by providing them with a model of freedom at a time women experienced so few rights.
That was the basis of a lecture Sally Roesch Wagner, executive director of the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation and author of “Sisters in Spirit,” delivered to Herkimer County Community College’s Gender Studies program on Thursday. During her presentation, she recounted the struggle for freedom and equality waged by women in the United States and documented the influence and inspiration Native American women gave to their social movement.
Wagner began her lecture by acknowledging sexist racism in America’s past and present. “We live in an environment so deeply imbued with racism, and I am part of the struggle to end racism in this country,” she said to students gathered in the college’s McLaughlin College Center.
Not only were early American women prevented from voting or sitting on a jury, but Wagner said they had to follow many other unfair laws put in place by the United States government.
In 1870 birth control was outlawed and if a woman tried to use any form of contraception she would be arrested, said Wagner. She also said women had no right to guardianship and if her husband died it was up to him who he would leave his kin too. During the 1800s, Wagner said a husband had the right to beat his wife with a stick as long as the stick was no bigger than the size of his thumb.
According to Wagner, “When a women married a man the two became one and one was the man.”
Family law was based on church law, and due to Eve’s sin committed in the Old Testament of the Bible, Wagner said women had to suffer the consequences. Shockingly, she told students marital rape was not outlawed until the 1970s. Wagner made it clear during her lecture, “there was a higher status for women on this soil before the white man came to the new land.”
Matilda Joslyn Gage was an original abolitionist and a women’s rights activist. When she moved to upstate New York she saw her vision of what society could look like when she met the Haudenosaunee. “The native women had rights, personhood and status,” said Wagner.
She said Haudenosaunee women were empowered to have their own thoughts and opinions within their tribe. The women were also given the opportunity to choose their chief. Additionally, she said Haudenosaunee men could not have committed an act of theft, murder or have abused a woman.
Based on this Wagner said Gage believed a culture could not be civilized or peaceful unless women had an equal voice. In 1893, after watching the way of life of the Haudenosaunee, Wagner said Gage was adopted into the Wolf Clan of the Mohawk Tribe.
Gage also belongs in the historical record with Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton as one of the major leaders of the National Woman Suffrage Association.
For more information about Gage, contact The Matilda Joslyn Gage Center at 637-9511 or visit the center at 210 E. Genesee St., Fayetteville.
Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) women fired the revolutionary vision of early American feminists by providing them with a model of freedom at a time women experienced so few rights.
That was the basis of a lecture Sally Roesch Wagner, executive director of the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation and author of “Sisters in Spirit,” delivered to Herkimer County Community College’s Gender Studies program on Thursday. During her presentation, she recounted the struggle for freedom and equality waged by women in the United States and documented the influence and inspiration Native American women gave to their social movement.
Wagner began her lecture by acknowledging sexist racism in America’s past and present. “We live in an environment so deeply imbued with racism, and I am part of the struggle to end racism in this country,” she said to students gathered in the college’s McLaughlin College Center.
Not only were early American women prevented from voting or sitting on a jury, but Wagner said they had to follow many other unfair laws put in place by the United States government.
In 1870 birth control was outlawed and if a woman tried to use any form of contraception she would be arrested, said Wagner. She also said women had no right to guardianship and if her husband died it was up to him who he would leave his kin too. During the 1800s, Wagner said a husband had the right to beat his wife with a stick as long as the stick was no bigger than the size of his thumb.
According to Wagner, “When a women married a man the two became one and one was the man.”
Family law was based on church law, and due to Eve’s sin committed in the Old Testament of the Bible, Wagner said women had to suffer the consequences. Shockingly, she told students marital rape was not outlawed until the 1970s. Wagner made it clear during her lecture, “there was a higher status for women on this soil before the white man came to the new land.”
Matilda Joslyn Gage was an original abolitionist and a women’s rights activist. When she moved to upstate New York she saw her vision of what society could look like when she met the Haudenosaunee. “The native women had rights, personhood and status,” said Wagner.
She said Haudenosaunee women were empowered to have their own thoughts and opinions within their tribe. The women were also given the opportunity to choose their chief. Additionally, she said Haudenosaunee men could not have committed an act of theft, murder or have abused a woman.
Based on this Wagner said Gage believed a culture could not be civilized or peaceful unless women had an equal voice. In 1893, after watching the way of life of the Haudenosaunee, Wagner said Gage was adopted into the Wolf Clan of the Mohawk Tribe.
Gage also belongs in the historical record with Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton as one of the major leaders of the National Woman Suffrage Association.
For more information about Gage, contact The Matilda Joslyn Gage Center at 637-9511 or visit the center at 210 E. Genesee St., Fayetteville.
