Fresh off historic wins for American women in the 2026 Olympic Winter Games, another American woman is shining a light on hidden heroes, the women who may not be in history books. Norah O’Donnell, senior correspondent for CBS News and contributing correspondent for 60 Minutes (and Georgetown University grad!) has written “Untold Stories: The Hidden Heroes Who Shaped America.”
“What I learned writing this book is that women have been the most powerful force for positive change in the world, and that’s not what I was taught in school,” O’Donnell told The Georgetowner. “I thought one of the interesting facts we uncovered in the research was that the National Women’s History Museum found that less than 15 percent of what is taught in America’s schools highlights the achievements and history of women, so we need to change that.”
While writing, O’Donnell wondered how her own sense of self, power and courage might have been shaped differently had she learned more as a young girl about the women she researched. Storytelling is the most powerful form of communication, O’Donnell said, and the stories we tell and read shape the understanding of our country, culture and community.
O’Donnell was inspired to write the book as a celebration of America’s 250th birthday, and with a clear intention to shine a light on women’s stories.
“Anytime I felt discouraged, disappointed or worried about democracy, you only have to look at the lives of the women in this book and be reminded of their grit, resilience and determination,” O’Donnell said.
One particular story that stuck out to O’Donnell involved the Declaration of Independence. We all know the sentence in the document that reads: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” It turns out, on the first official printing of the Declaration of Independence, there was a women’s name. Her name was Mary Catherine Goddard.
“Her work was meant to be remembered, and yet she herself has largely been forgotten,” O’Donnell said. “Her story is just incredible.”
Congress decided to print the first official printing of the Declaration of Independence with all the signers’ names on it and it’s January 1777, and America’s at war. The British troops are closing in on Philadelphia, so the Continental Congress fled to Baltimore, where Goddard had a printing shop.
In just two weeks, she garnered all 56 names, printed the copies and sent them to the 13 colonies. Under John Hancock, she printed her full name—not just M.K. Goddard—which was considered treasonous at the time. O’Donnell called her signing an “act of extraordinary bravery.”
As far as the progress women have made versus how much they still have to go, O’Donnell reflected on the question. It’s only been just over 100 years since women have had the right to vote, she said.
O’Donnell’s book will be released tomorrow, February 24. Courtesy Penguin Random House.
The last section of the book is called “The Last 50 Years in America,” which O’Donnell calls her lifetime. “I talk about how hopeful I am, because the pace of change and transformation in terms of equality,” she said, citing Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, who was the first women admitted to and to graduate from medical school. Today, the majority of medical school graduates are women.
While there has not yet been a female president of the U.S., and only a quarter of Congress is female, O’Donnell believes that we are on the brink of what she calls, “a transformational breakthrough for women in power.”
As far as whether she hopes women walk away inspired by her book, O’Donnell said she hopes both men and women read the book and feel inspired by the stories in it, and also hopeful about the ability of anyone to change the course of history.
“I just think about how few rights so many of these women had, yet they were able to enact great change,” O’Donnell said. “I think that unfortunately women have not gotten their due throughout history, despite Harriet Beecher Stowe saying that ‘women are the great architects of society.’”
There are stories involving the abolitionist movement, suffrage movement, civil rights movement, the legal fight of the 1970s led by former Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and many others.
There’s Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, the second woman to graduate from medical school, wanted to be a surgeon in the Civil War, and was forbidden to do so, but she did it anyway. She ended up being the first Army female surgeon and the only woman in history to receive the Medal of Honor. Her medal was rescinded in 1917 due to her civilian status, but Walker refused to give it back, wearing it every day until her death in 1919.
“I hope that every woman who reads this book is reminded not to give up, not to give up the fight, and not to give up hope,” O’Donnell said. “You have the ability to rewrite the script and change the course of history for good.”
O’Donnell will be going on a book tour, with a stop in D.C. on March 5 at the Library of Congress. You can get tickets here.
We the Women: The Hidden Heroes Who Shaped America will be released on February 24. More information can be found here.
