Norah O'Donnell spotlights overlooked women who shaped U.S. history in 'We the Women'

Transcript

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Amna Nawaz: America’s 250-year history features prominent men who built and shaped the nation, but less is known about the women whose contributions were just as important.

In her new book, “We the Women: The Hidden Heroes Who Shaped America,” Norah O’Donnell writes about 35 remarkable women, each of whom played pivotal roles in influencing the country we live in today.

I spoke with Norah recently, and I began by asking her why these stories needed to be told.

Norah O’Donnell, Author, “We the Women: The Hidden Heroes Who Shaped America”: The truth is, a lot of women’s stories have been lost to history because historians and others didn’t think they were important enough to save, quite frankly.

So in uncovering and excavating these great stories, I found myself to be sort of inspired by these women, because they were brave, courageous, gutsy, patriotic. And I also wonder how much my own sense of self would have changed as a young girl had I learned about these stories.

And, look, that’s not just my impression. In researching this book, the National Women’s History Museum says 15 percent of what we learn in school focuses on the achievements and accomplishments of women.

Amna Nawaz: Wow.

Norah O’Donnell: That has to change. It’s not that women weren’t doing stuff. They were doing plenty. It’s just we haven’t highlighted their stories.

Amna Nawaz: Well, the book is a good place to start for some ideas we should be learning more about.

I want to touch on just a few so the folks get a sampling of what’s in here. There are some familiar names obviously people will recognize, Eleanor Roosevelt and Patsy Mink, a lot of names I was learning about for the first time as well.

Mercy Otis Warren, you write about her, the intellectual, a writer, historian. She spent decades crafting a multi-volume history about the American Revolution. And then John Adams dismissed her, saying: “History is not the province of the ladies.”

Why is her story important to know?

Norah O’Donnell: Mercy Otis Warren is called the first lady of the American Revolution. And she looks at the Constitution, what John Adams is doing, and she’s an anti-federalist.

She says too much power in the federal government. We need to focus more on individual liberties, Mercy Otis Warren, a Jeffersonian Republican, and hence becomes the secret muse of the Bill of Rights. I mean, she was praised by all of the leading men of that era, and yet John Adams didn’t like that she criticized him for having too much power in the federal government, the Constitution.

So he said, by the way, history is not the province of ladies. But I think her story is so important because it’s not that she didn’t matter in the time period she did. It’s that those of us in the past 250 years didn’t think that her story was important enough to be in our textbooks.

Amna Nawaz: You write about Charlotte Forten, the abolitionist whose journals, as you write, offer a rare glimpse into the life of a free Black woman in the antebellum North.

What should we know about her?

Norah O’Donnell: Well, the Forten family of Philadelphia is one of the most important families of all time in Philadelphia, free family, owned a sail-making company, very wealthy.

But what’s really noteworthy about Charlotte is she kept a diary. And so historians today said, this is really the only recording of we have of a free Black woman in the antebellum North. She was writing during the Civil War, and then she went south to teach. And so her writings are considered so important to know what that period was like in time.

And why her story is important is because it’s emblematic of all things. Women’s letters weren’t kept, women’s diaries weren’t kept, things that they wrote about, because they weren’t considered important. And that’s why the study of women’s history also, I think, has been neglected because a lot of the material has literally been lost to history. It’s been burned or discarded.

Amna Nawaz: There was a story of a woman, I have literally never heard her name before, and it fascinated me, partly because the image you include in the story is so striking.

She’s the very first Native American woman to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery after her death in 1938 Zitkala-Sa, a member of the Yankton Sioux Nation, tell us about her.

Norah O’Donnell: Well, Zitkala-Sa as a young girl was taken from her reservation, educated in these boarding schools, well-known writer, composer, great intellectual, won these oratory contests.

But what’s notable about Zitkala-Sa is that she was advocating for the rights of indigenous people, for their citizenship in America, and she tied the Declaration of Independence and the very ideals that all men are created equal and said, why does this not apply to indigenous people?

And I think, Amna, that is — her story is so important because that is the story of America. All throughout history, groups have been saying, let’s live up to the ideals that are in the Declaration of Independence, those important words, we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.

Abolitionists said, why doesn’t that apply to Black people or African American people? Suffragists said, why isn’t it all men and women that are created equal? And that’s really why the study of history is so important, I think, and also remembering how much these women have been at the center of every great moral and political struggle in American history.

Amna Nawaz: While I have you here, I do have to ask about your current journalism home at CBS. I’d be remiss if I didn’t, because you know it’s been the subject of a lot of questions and scrutiny, under new leadership.

You have seen some headlines about departures and producers expressing concerns about a culture of fear and uncertainty. How should people on the outside, reading all of this, look at this? Do you think those concerns are overblown? Do you share any of those concerns?

Norah O’Donnell: I mean, look, it is a very tough time in the media industry, and it’s a tough time, I think, for journalists.

Do I think that some of what is written is overblown? I do, actually. I do. I mean, you can — what I do is, I focus on my work. I can’t control what’s happening at the corporate level at all, but I can control what I do every day. I recently did an interview with President Trump for “60 Minutes.”

I felt no pressure journalistically. That didn’t exist for me. So — and that was the same “60 Minutes” team that I worked on with the pope and with my interviews with Joe Biden. So things have not changed for me personally in terms of my work, and I just focus on building trust, my own personal integrity, and doing the hard work that needs to be done, because, believe me, our job is more important than ever.

Amna Nawaz: Well, the new book is out now. It’s called “We the Women: The Hidden Heroes Who Shaped America.” The author is Norah O’Donnell.

Norah, great to see you. Thanks for being here.

Norah O’Donnell: Thank you. Thank you.