We Want Equal Rights: How Suffragists Were Influenced by Haudenosaunee Women

Book excerpt: We Want Equal Rights! Is the story of remarkable women who laid the foundation for the modern women's movement and the American Indian nation that proved equality as possible. In 1850, these brave women challenged a culture that believed they were inferior to men. How did they envision such a world? They looked to their neighbors the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) and saw how women were held in high regard, with even greater rights than men. At that time in the United States, a woman was considered subservient to her husband, who gained all his wife's wealth upon marriage. Women had no claim to their children and were considered runaway slaves if they left an abusive man. In contrast, Iroquois society provided a shining example of what is possible when women are treated with respect. Read how early activists forged a path to women's equal rights using the ideals of their Indian neighbors.