WE WANT EQUAL RIGHTS! The influence of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Six Nation Confederacy on the women suffrage movement. by Dr. Sally Wagner

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 was 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, Haudenosaunee 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 Indigenous neighbors.
Ages 12-16, Young Adult Nonfiction, published 2020, 43 pages, paper

Dr. Rosesch Wagner was awarded one of the first doctorates in the country for work in women’s studies (UC Santa Cruz) and a founder of one of the first college-level women’s studies programs in the United States (CSU Sacramento), Dr. Roesch Wagner has taught women’s studies courses for fifty years. She currently serves as an adjunct faculty member in the Syracuse University Renée Crown University Honors Program.