this gave them essential control over the economic organization of their tribe." The older women of the tribe were matrons whose duties were to appoint the council of elders and unseat chiefs. "When the council met, the matrons would lobby the elders to make their views known. Though women did not sit in formal or public positions of power, as heads of households they were empowered as a group." (Evans 11-12).
In every European society, women were considered inferior to men and held no positions of power. This relates to Christianity, and goes back to the stories of Eve. It was the woman who was created from man, and it was the woman who gave in to temptation, going against the will of the creator. Besides religion and one's family, gender is also constructed by society and those who are in power, which in this social order was men. Unfortunately, this way of thinking became the dominant paradigm in North America.
Many of the first European settlers to come to America in the early 1600's came to escape religious persecution and the corruption of the established church. These Protestants wanted the religious freedom to purify the church. Although they were here to escape persecution, they still "insisted on women's proper subordination within the family" (Evans 22). John Calvin, who was a major Protestant reformer said, "Let woman be satisfied with her state of subjection, and not take it amiss that she is made inferior to the more distinguished sex." (Evan's 22) .
The European women in early America virtually had no legal identity, especially those under English common law (Kerber and De Hart 49). This really did not change until the women's suffrage movement in the late 19th century and even into the 20th century when women were finally able to vote in 1920. .
When a woman married, all that she owned or inherited became her husband's, this included her very body. This was the legal concept of coverture, and there were few exceptions to it.