Having recently heard that the tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy supposedly practiced a matriarchal society, I was wondering about how much power women actually did wield in their society/societies, since the "chiefs" we know of still were male. Was there any formalized division of domains (e.g. external vs. internal) or were women privy to political decisions as well? Was their power limited to the tribe or did it extend into the Confederacy? Or is it all a hoax anyway and I've just fallen for another piece of "common knowledge, duh"?
Iroquoian culture is a Matrilineal, Matrilocal society in which ultimate political power still lies in the hands of males. "Patriarchal" and "Matriarchal" aren't terms commonly used in anthropology, because they are too broad.
Matrilineal means group membership is derived through the mother's family line.
Matrilocal means that men move to join their wives' families.
Despite the societal influence and freedom of women in this type of society (women were free to divorce their husbands at will, for example), ultimate political power still remained in the hands of men. Only men could be a Chief (political leader) or a Sachem (military leader). The prominent women in a community were traditionally involved in choosing these leaders, however.
It is certainly not a hoax that women held more soft power and freedom in the Iroquois Confederacy in the late 18th and early 19th centuries than their contemporaries in Anglo-American culture. As mentioned above, Iroquoian women of this era had more sexual freedom and agency than Anglo-American women. That does not mean that women had the same status or privileges as men. Compared to their early Anglo-American counterparts, Iroquoian women had more freedom. But it was still a far cry from a female-dominated "matriarchy" or even a society in which the sexes shared power roughly equally.
Gender roles were also different in many ways from that of Anglo-American culture. There is a fantastic story of an Oneida woman named "Two Kettles Together" who, along with her husband and son, fought with the Americans at the Battle of Oriskany during the Revolutionary War. She reported fought on horseback with two pistols for the entirety of the 6-hour battle.
Sources on Iroquoian Culture:
League of the Hodenosaunee by William Henry Morgan
Death and Rebirth of the Seneca by Anthony Wallace
A biography of a prominent Iroquoian woman during the early republic era:
A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison by James E. Seaver
My source for the "Two Kettles Together" story:
Forgotten Allies: The Oneida Indians and the American Revolution, By Joseph T. Glatthaar & James Kirby Martin