Answer:
The women were equal to men in the Haudenosaunee group because they were a matriarchy. That means a social organization where every or most of the powers derive from women and/or femininity.
Step-by-step explanation:
In the Haudenosaunee matriarchy, families followed a matrilineal system: children and property passed on according to their mothers, not fathers. When a couple married, the man came to live in the woman's family house, not the other way around.
It was a clan of mothers that appointed leaders and could discard leaders. Women had rights to their property and the products of their work.