NEWBURGH — Long before white settlers arrived in the New World, the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) women enjoyed status in their society which would be envied by American women, even today. The Haudenosaunee society is a matriarchal Mother Clan system. Individuals do not own land, but it is believed that the Creator appointed women as stewards of the land. Traditionally, they are held to a higher regard, and with that status, Clan Mothers appoint leaders, and also have the power to remove such leaders if they are deemed not sound, have not listened to the people, or have become corrupt.
On Monday, April 13, Sally Roesch Wagner, PhD, will speak on the enlightened vision that the Haudenosaunee contributed to the early struggle for women’s rights and gender balance. The lecture, The Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) Influence on Women’s Rights, will take place at 7 p.m. in the Orange County Trust Company Great Room of Kaplan Hall on SUNY Orange’s Newburgh campus.
Both Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Matilda Joslyn Gage, important theoreticians in the early women’s movement in 19th century America, were familiar with and influenced by the customs and philosophy of the Haudenosaunee whereby women enjoyed economic, religious, social, and political parity with their male peers in the Iroquois nations. Wagner, the founding director of the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation in Fayetteville, N.Y., will explain how Gage and Stanton and their followers were so inspired by the Haudenosaunee that they forged their way through the difficult times of the women’s rights movement.
Wagner is one of the first women in the United States to attain a PhD in women’s studies, which she received at the University of California at Santa Cruz. She has been a professor of women’s studies for 44 years, and was a founder of one of the first such programs at California State University at Sacramento. She is now on the adjunct faculty of the Renée Crown University Honors Program at Syracuse University. Women’s eNews (womensenews.org) selected her as one of its honorees in “21 Leaders of the 21st Century 2015.”
Wagner appeared in the Ken Burns documentary, "Not for Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony." In addition, she has written several books on the topic.
Her lecture, which is free and open to the public.
Kaplan Hall is located at the corner of First and Grand Streets, Newburgh. Free and secure parking is available in the Kaplan Hall garage accessible via 81 First Street.
For more information, email cultural@sunyorange.edu, call 845-341-9386/4891 or visit the Cultural Affairs website at www.sunyorange.edu/culturalaffairs.