Sally Roesch Wagner: South Dakota's Reincarnator of Suffragists

[niyad]

21 Leaders 2015: Seven Who Give Life to Movements

Sally Roesch Wagner: South Dakota's Reincarnator of Suffragists



"I fell in love with a dead woman and my whole life changed," said Sally Roesch Wagner, speaking about radical first wave feminist Matilda Joslyn Gage. Today Wagner is the founding director of the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation, which both educates the community about the quintessential yet underrepresented 19th century feminist activist and encourages the application of her work to the issues that women are facing today.

Wagner grew up in Aberdeen, S.D., and in her 20s found herself a single mother on welfare. Despite the difficulties of her situation, she was able to enroll in California State University, Sacramento. There, she helped start one of the country's first women's studies programs. She also began teaching women's studies classes in 1970 and became one of the first women in the country to receive a doctorate in the discipline.

In 1973, Matilda Jewell Gage, the granddaughter of the ground-breaking activist, showed Wagner her forebearers' historical documents. Wagner was surprised and intrigued to see Gage's writings about her conflict with Susan B. Anthony over whether to take the women's movement in a more conservative direction. It was then she realized Gage, along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, constituted the brain trust of the National Woman Suffrage Association. "Clearly there's a whole other story to tell," she said.

A few years after seeing the documents, Wagner visited the Gage house in upstate New York. Moved, she decided it needed to be open to the public. Despite having no experience in starting her own nonprofit, Wagner raised funds, bought the house, put together a board and created the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation.

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http://womensenews.org/story/21-leaders-the-21st-century/141220/21-leaders-2015-seven-who-give-life-movements