Gender Roles In The Iroquois Confederacy

Gender roles played a huge part in the Iroquois Confederacy, however, their views on the men and women in their tribe were different from the “normal” gender norms. Women have always had an honored place in the Iroquois tribes. In many societies throughout history and around the world, women have not been treated equally and given equal rights to men. However, the Iroquoian woman had a great amount of authority and power in the community. “In the Iroquois community, women were the keepers of the culture. They were responsible for defining the political, social, spiritual, and economic norms of the tribe.” (Iroquois Confederacy.) Warner (1925) states, “In the Iroquoian political system, women possessed an unusual amount of power. All the male

delegates to the ruling of councils of the Iroquois nation were designated by senior women in the clan or tribe.”Women were the clan mothers in the longhouse, while men were the chiefs. Clan mothers’ roles were to make sure everything was running smoothly in the community. They were to make sure that all the families in their clan had enough food and that the family was able to survive during the winter. “Clan mothers, the leaders of the clan, select the council members or chiefs and have veto power over the men’s decisions” (Carnegie museums.) The clan mothers were also in charge of putting together all the festivals and ceremonies for the community. Some of these festivals were the Corn-Planting festival, Strawberry festival, and Maple festival. Women also appointed men to be chiefs in the community. Chiefs took care of all the politics among the tribe and the Confederacy. Men did the traveling to other communities to talk about land claims and other political issues, and also some issues concerning the white people. Men were also the warriors of the tribe. However women were not allowed to fight for the community, they were told that they had to stay home and watch over the reserve. The people had great respect for those men that went out and fought for their community. A man who gained great respect among the tribe became the war chief. Since the women had a lot of power, the family name was passed on to them instead of the father. After a couple got married, the man moved into the wife’s family home. Once they moved in their children became members of the wife’s clan. If a couple decided that they no longer wanted to be married anymore and had a divorce, and then the children would automatically be in the mothers' full custody. In today’s time, women and men have different roles that involve the community. Women are still the clan mothers and still have some say on what goes on in the community. Although men overpower women when it comes to decision making, these days there are women who are chiefs or grand chiefs in the Iroquoian communities in Canada and the United States. In New York, their grand chief is a woman. The chiefs get voted into council by a community vote and the clans today are still passed down through the mother. In Kahnawake, there are a few warriors still living, although no one will admit that they belong to the warrior society. “It is mainly the Mohawks of the Kahnawake reserve who have become the famous Iroquois high-steel workers of the 20th century.” (Waldman p.141) The men travel great distances to go and work on bridges, tall building and many others in Canada and the United States. Today the family name is passed on through the father, and if a couple where to get divorced, depending on the situation they would be able to have joint custody of their children.

“The Iroquois were an agricultural people and it was the women who owned the land and tended the crops.” (Iroquois Confederacy) Women have always planted, cultivated, harvested, and processed the crops.

It is considered a privilege because women have a connection to the earth. The reason that the women have a connection to the earth was that of the Iroquois creation story. The creation story says that a woman fell from the sky and landed on earth. While living on earth this woman had two children, these children were not conceived by a male, they were conceived by the earth. That is why the Iroquois woman has such closeness to the earth. “Dualism was applied to labor with each gender taking a clearly defined role that complemented the work of the other. Women did all the work involving the field while men did all the work involving the forest including the manufacture of anything involving wood. The Iroquois men were responsible for hunting, trading, and fighting, while women took care of farming, food gathering, and housekeeping. ( Reference.com) Men built the longhouses so that their family and clan would be able to live and survive throughout the years. They also built the sweat lodges, which are similar to saunas, which were made out of branches from the trees. Sweat lodges were used for ceremonies or the people used them for a sort of healing. If they had troubles in their home, they would go into the sweat lodge with one or two of the same gender, to talk about how they were feeling and maybe resolve some of the problems or situations that they were having. Although men were the main gender to be working with wood, women would also go out into the forest and cut down and carry the wood back to the village so that they may have some sort of heat during the cold winters and also that they were able to cook the food that the men would catch. They would go out and cut the wood while their men were out to war or when they were gone for weeks at a time hunting and

fishing for food.

Gender roles among the Iroquoian people have changed a great deal from hundreds of years ago to today. They have changed through how women had a great deal of power and authority back then to how nowadays men have most of the power. Gender roles have also changed in the way that men and women shared the responsibilities with the way men went hunting and the way women always stayed home and did all the work that dealt with living in the community. Gender roles have helped the community change a great deal from years ago to today. These topics have made me realize that not all the general gender norms have been the same for all of history and that women actually were powerful and respected once in history. Researching and learning about the Iroquois Confederacy and their gender roles have made me proud of to be a woman and have made me realize how much of an affect women really have to give to their community and kids. They have the power to give compassion, strength, and respect and our generation really need to see that in order to have a little sense of gender equality. Gender equality is a topic I'm really passionate about so I feel like this really expresses what I value and my beliefs.