The Haudenosaunee Matriarchy and Their Influence on Women’s Suffrage

By Maura Reilly

As we celebrate the suffrage centennial this year and remember the many women leaders and suffragists who helped to get us to where we are today, it is important to remember the women who inspired the women’s suffrage movement. While many point to the great work done by suffragists like Susan B. Anthony, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the other organizers of the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention, Dr. Sally Roesch Wagner (PhD), author of Sisters in Spirit, points to their source of inspiration for gender equality, the Haudenosaunee matriarchy.

The early suffragists had many formal and informal connections and interactions with the people of the Six Nations Confederacy, often referred to as the Iroquois but who self-identity as the Haudenosaunee or “The People of the Longhouse.” Dr. Roesch Wagner (PhD) illustrates the similarities between the Triumvirate’s idea of a matriarchate and the structure of Haudenosaunee social organization, in which women chose the Chief, were able to hold political office, had a say in forming a consensus, controlled property, had spiritual authority and responsibility, and children belonged to their mother’s clan.

In her book Sisters in Spirit, Roesch Wagner suggests the early suffragists “believed women’s liberation was possible because they knew liberated women, women who possessed rights beyond their wildest imagination: Haudenosaunee women.” In the U.S. women can now own property, vote, run for office, and maintain custody of their children in the case of divorce. All successes made possible by both the famed suffragists and their inspiration the Haudenosaunee women, who are often forgotten in our narrative on women’s suffrage.

Despite the many victories suffragists and feminists have won for women in the U.S., success has been uneven and incomplete especially for women of color, and the Native women who inspired the goals of the suffragists. In 2018, Deb Haaland (NM-01) and Sharice Davids (KS-03) became the first Native American women elected to Congress. Although nearly five million Native women living in the U.S. only two have ever served in the House of Representatives and none have served in the Senate.

Native women and all women of color continued to face a disproportionate number of obstacles, but the first female Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, Wilma Mankiller provides us with a good start to correct these seemingly insurmountable disadvantages, “look forward, turn what has been done into a better path.” A better path forward includes Native women in leadership positions, be it at the local, tribal or national level.

As we celebrate the achievements of the women leaders who have come before us, it remains important we address the continued inequalities and disadvantages women face. The Seneca Falls Revisited virtual conference, hosted by Civically Re-Engaged Women (CREW), will address the significance of the many women who have come before us and the work still to be done to achieve equal opportunity for women. If you are interested in joining the celebration and movement visit Crewomen.com to register for this summer’s virtual conference.

Maura is a RepresentWomen Research Fellow from the Washington, D.C. area. She graduated from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland in May 2019 with an honors degree in Social Anthropology. Follow Maura on Twitter, @further_maura.