Maybe this should go in feminism theory, but I'm not sure how many people read that. Anyway, this is for the good, the bad and the ugly - so long as it sheds light on women's rights.
So I'm going to start with the good - a nice article from the Washington Post on the political power of women in traditional Iroquois culture and the impact it had on the early US suffragists among the European settlers. (Hope it's not behind a paywall).