Women's Equality Day

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woman behind the man

This little known American commemoration (August 26) was created back in the 70's by Bella Abzug, a colorful, out-spoken member of the House of Representatives (1971-77). She was a labor attorney, a graduate of Columbia (Harvard, which she was qualified for, refused to admit her because she was female). She was always an activist, a force in the peace movement, the antinuclear movement and the civil rights movement too. Later, Bella became a leader of the women's movement. How well I remember her rousing speeches!

The test for whether or not you can hold a job should not be the arrangement of your chromosomes.

 Women's Equality Day is meant to be a celebration of the 19th Amendment to our Constitution, the one which gave American women the right to vote. Before that, women obeyed the laws and paid their taxes, but, never mind--taxation without representation for people of the "wrong" gender remained the law of the land.

I've always loved research, so digging around in the past comes naturally. I often write novels with female protagonists, and the social/cultural conditions which affect my heroines are always a big part of the background. 

I've just participated in a local celebration of Equality Day, so it's fresh in mind, and I think American women ought to know more about their own history. As I started reading,  I stumbled into a whole world of forgotten, not-in-the-textbooks people and fantastic facts. I thought that this month, I'd share a random few.

All Americans know the Paul Revere story, but who has heard of Sybil Luddington? When the message "The British are coming" arrived at her father's house--he was a colonel in the Colonial Militia--his 400 men were 40 miles away on some other task. The original rider/horse was too exhausted to continue, so Sybil, aged 14, mounted the family steed and rode all night--a distance of 40 miles--to call the men back to battle. We may not have heard much about Sybil, but still, at half Revere's age, she rode twice as far to deliver the same important message. General George Washington knew her, though, and later came to the Luddington house to say his personal thank-you. Now, Sybil was news to me, and I thought I knew a thing or two about the American Revolution.

Or, much later, how about Claudette Colvin? In 1955, on her way home from High School, fifteen year old Claudette refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, AL bus to a white passenger. This was some daring, as it would be 15 months before Rosa Parks did the same thing. Here's what she told Newsweek:

 “I felt like Sojourner Truth was pushing down on one shoulder and Harriet Tubman was pushing down on the other—saying, ‘Sit down girl!’ I was glued to my seat.”

Truth is powerful, and it prevails

Claudette was arrested for violating the segregation laws and the entire family was threatened with mayhem and death by white supremacists. Fortunately, the judge gave this brave young woman probation instead of a jail sentence, and, to my knowledge, the family escaped unharmed. 

And here are some fantastic facts concerning voting rights in the US. I've just learned that women actually  possessed the right to vote in several of the original 13 states, but lost it under the brand new "revolutionary" governments. 

In 1777, New York revoked women's right to vote, followed by, in 1780, Massachusetts. In 1784, New Hampshire did the same. When our present Constitution was adopted in 1787, the allocation of voting rights was left to the states. All states, except New Jersey, promptly put an end to a woman's right to vote. In 1807, New Jersey stepped backwards with the rest of the country, effectively leaving American women without the right to vote until, post Civil War, a few western states (Wyoming, Utah and Montana), began to do things differently. 

Women have still got a lot of work to do on the equality front all over the world. Here in the west, we're fortunate not to be considered chattel property, which is the case in many of today's Third world nations. However, things aren't perfect for us, either. Here are a few (not so) fantastic facts about the economic costs of being female in the US:

According to statistics released in 2015 by the U.S. Census Bureau, year-round, full-time working women in 2014 earned a real median income of $39,621 and full-time, year-round working men earned a real median income of $50,383. The U.S. Census Bureau’s 2014 Current Population Survey found progress in closing the wage gap so slim as to be “statistically insignificant."

According to the National Committee on Pay Equity, over a working lifetime, wage 
disparities cost the average American woman and her family $700,000 to $2 million in lost wages, impacting Social Security benefits and pensions.

Four in ten mothers are primary breadwinners in their households and nearly two-thirds are primary or significant earners, making pay equity critical to many families’ economic 
security.

So sisters, let's go! Get to the polls and exercise that hard won right to vote. Get familiar 
with local issues and engage in off year elections too. If you've got ideas--speak at the town hall meeting or better yet, run for office! Inequality will continue to negatively affect you, your daughters, and your grand-girls unless we in this generation fix it, once and for all. 

"...I’ve been female for a long time now. I’d be stupid not to be on my own side."

--Maya Angelou

~~Juliet Waldron

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Iroquois Women

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There are a host of powerful women in the Iroquois mythic system: sky woman, the creatrix, grandmother moon—and the three sisters—who fed the tribes with their bodies: corn, beans, squash. Many societies have powerful goddesses, but for the Iroquois, this also translated into a tradition of strong and respected women in every village. The Iroquois had a matrilineal descent system, and this raises the status of women. The tribes that made up the Iroquois confederation were divided into clans.

A simple illustration: if your mother was of the turtle clan, then so are you. If you are female, your children will also belong to turtle clan. If you are male, your children will belong to the clan of their mother—who might be wolf, deer, beaver, etc.--but never turtle, as these are considered to be your relatives. The leading woman of each clan was called clan mother. For governance, clan mothers were entitled to appt. A certain number of chiefs. The clan mothers could also depose their appointees, if they disapproved of his choices. Culturally significant white wampum belts indicating hereditary titles of chiefs were kept by women—titles passed not father to son but to brothers or to sister’s sons. The clan mothers, through a man they chose, could always make themselves known in council.

We might think of these women as female chiefs, because their power over decisions and treaties made in council was genuine. These women held greater status and had more control over national affairs than European women of the time. In fact, when early Europeans attended councils to discuss treaties or trade, they were frequently asked by the chiefs “where are your women?”

The Indians found it odd that the whites did not consult their women about decisions which would affect the entire community. The Iroquois had a complex system of chiefs. There were war chiefs, who were, as the name implies, generally young men of demonstrated valor--winners of battles. There were sachems, who were the older men—representing the wisdom that comes with years. There were only a few hereditary chiefs, whose appointment was in the hands of the clan mothers. On more than one occasion the clan mothers are known to have cast the deciding vote, blocking treaties or warparties.

There are many stories about Iroquois women refusing to supply warparties with the moccasins and pemican (charred corn and maple sugar)—that was needed for a successful expedition. Then as now, you can’t wage war without supplies. The clan mothers often sided with the old men, the sachems, laying a restraining hand on the enthusiasm for adventure of the young chiefs.

There are examples from historic times of strong Iroquois women acting as the tribes’ decision makers. Mary brant was a clan mother, and also widow of Sir William Johnson, the British emissary to the Iroquois during the late colonial period. She held her tribe to the British side during the revolution. Sir William was not the only well known historical figure to have made an important alliance with a powerful native woman…major general Philip Schuyler also had a native “wife,” Mary Hill, a Mohawk. Through her, he spread rumors about the activities of the American army. Schuyler’s “terrifiers” are mentioned several times by his British opposite, Sir Guy Johnson, in letters detailing various anti-Tory stories that were causing great fear among the pro-British tribes. Mary Brant herself soon took care of this problem, by removing the younger woman from Schuyler’s influence. She apparently persuaded Mary Hill that she was a Mohawk first, and therefore must obey the pro-British clan mothers.

Perhaps an even better indicator of the high status of women among the Indians are the cases where an esteemed white woman living in Indian Territory could exercise unusual prerogatives. Because she feared the effect upon the British war effort, the Tory Sarah Mcginnis prevented a wampum belt bearing news of an American victory from leaving the village where she lived. 

Women held power in their villages, too. When captives were brought home, the women decided who would live, who would be adopted, who would be made a slave, and who would be offered to the fire gods. Women took active roles in torture alongside their men. Although it happened rarely, women could also be accepted as warriors, if this proved to be the calling of their heart. 

Even long after Iroquois power was broken, their influence was felt in interesting ways. In the 19th century, Lucretia Mott, one of the leaders of the Women’s Movement, (born in MA) spent a month with the Seneca tribe before attending the first Woman’s Rights Conference soon to be held in Seneca Falls, 1848. Native women today claim their influence can be seen in the tenets of early feminists.

It has been noted by modern day activist Iroquois women that they didn’t need western woman’s lib until all their rights were obliterated by outsiders. Christianity in particular was sanctioned—probably a better word would be “enforced” on reservations by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. In the old days a woman could pack up and leave her husband if she was abused. In a matrilineal society, there a safe haven for a woman and her children always exists among the members of her clan.

Holland C. Holling/Claws of the Thunderbird, 1930's

Oneidas, Mary Cornelius Winder and her sister Delia Waterman saved their tribe’s identity by beginning to argue the modern day Oneida land claims, instituting a suit against the U.S. government in the 1920’s that is still being litigated. Some years ago, modern day struggles within the Oneida tribe have led to suspension of Delia Waterman’s membership. Delia was a centenarian without whom there would be no Oneida nation today. "This suspension was done by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, backed by a ‘Men’s Council’—which never historically existed—in defiance of traditional Oneida law of gender equality."  (Joanne Shenendoah, a noted 21st speaker for her sisters and her Tribe).

Juliet Waldron

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Diane Scott Lewis, the flummoxed author-on early women's rights!

On Women’s Rights, gasp, prior to the 20th century:

Back in my naïve days as a fledgling author, I joined critique groups to better polish my historical novels. My story, which took place in 1815, had a young woman who tried to stand up for herself in a typical male-dominated environment. I researched, and was surprised how many women advocated for "women’s rights" in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

But the man in my group objected, saying women never asked for rights until the twentieth century. What did he think we were doing all those centuries when most of us had minds of our own?

I found many people shared this narrow view.

When I came across an actual treatise on a female who sought her due in the seventeenth century, a woman now forgotten by time, I had to blog about her.

Mary Astell, a school teacher from Newcastle upon Tyne, England, published Serious Proposal to the Ladies for the Advancement of their True and Greatest Interest, in 1694.

She was born in in 1666 to an upper middle-class family. Her father was a royalist Anglican who managed a coal company. As a woman, she received no formal education, as the culture of the time felt girls didn’t require any learning outside of the domestic realm. Fortunately for Mary, starting at the age of eight, she received an informal education from her uncle. Her uncle, an ex-clergyman, was affiliated with the Cambridge based philosophical school which based its teachings around radical philosophers such as Aristotle, Plato, and Pythagoras. Heady stuff for what was called, the feeble brains of women.

Mary’s father died when she was twelve, leaving her without a dowry. Her family’s limited finances were invested in her brother’s higher education and Mary and her mother were forced to move in with her aunt. After the death of her mother and aunt, Mary moved to Chelsea, London in 1688 where she was lucky enough to make the acquaintance of a circle of influential and literary women. These women helped Mary with the development and publication of her treatise.
Mary Astell was one of the first Englishwomen to advocate that women were as rational as men, and just as deserving of education. Her Serious Proposal presented a plan for an all-female college where women could pursue a life of the mind. In 1700, Mary published another work: Some Reflections upon Marriage. She warned, in witty prose, of the dangers to females "...of an ill Education and unequal Marriage." She urged women to make better matrimonial choices because a disparity in intelligence and character may lead to misery. Marriage should be based on lasting friendship rather than short-lived attraction.

She was known to debate freely with both men and women, and particularly for her groundbreaking methods of negotiating the position of women in society by engaging in philosophical debate rather than basing her arguments in historical evidence as had previously been attempted. One of her famous quotes stated: "If all Men are born Free, why are all Women born Slaves?"

Mary withdrew from public life in 1709 and founded a charity school for girls in Chelsea. She died in 1731, a few months after a mastectomy to remove a cancerous breast.
So when reviewers—or readers—criticize a novel for promoting a heroine who acts "before her time" remember that women have been seeking liberation for centuries.

Resources: "Astell, Mary." Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2011.

My current release, Ring of Stone, called a "true historical epic" depicts strong women in the eighteenth century, one who strives to become a physician before women were allowed, and uncovers shocking secrets in a small Cornish village.

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