I didn't learn about this extraordinary day in school or from the many history books I've read. It took following my curiosity about America's Independence Day through the years, and a lot of research, to uncover this story. That led me to wonder: Why is this moment a mere footnote to our country's story rather than a centerpiece of our lessons? Most of the history I learned in school was, well, pretty boring—or should I say more politely, difficult to relate to! But I can relate to these bold and brilliant women who had not been given a seat at the table or an equal opportunity and had to force their way to the stage. Many of their voices have been silenced and their contributions overshadowed by the privileged white men, who...well, wrote the history books.

As I learned more about these prominent suffragists, I began to wonder what else was missing from my understanding of our nation's founding document and the centuries-long struggle for civil rights and women's rights. I was curious about other women who helped change the course of history in America who we know little about; the hidden heroines who against all odds fought for the freedoms outlined in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. How did their actions lead to my freedoms today? Most important, I can vote. I can also own my own property and have my own bank account. I can work as a journalist and ask tough questions to people in positions of power.

Those rights were not afforded to women at our country's founding. They had to be hard-won over the past 250 years.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." Those very words created this country and are the spark that lit every revolution in American history. Yet for the women at America's centennial, more than half of the population were still denied the inalienable rights of "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness." Susan, Elizabeth, and their fellow suffragists were not equal. In their declaration, they affirmed a belief in human rights for all, which they called the "corner stones of a republic."

As you'll learn in this book, women have never given up the fight to realize a more perfect union. The heroes in this book powerfully illustrate the 250-year struggle they have fought to achieve that better version of America. Their persistent defense of this country's ideals at home and abroad has forced our nation to live up to its promises.

Women have bled for their country during every war in our nation's history. Some women took a bullet for America when they didn't even have the right to vote. Women also built this country—from bridges to banks to hospitals—and they birthed movements, not just suffrage but also the Civil Rights Movement. As Harriet Beecher Stowe famously put it, "Women are the real architects of society." Many of these great early female reformers were abolitionist leaders. Again and again, women have demanded their place, their rights, and rights for others. Yet they were imperfect, and their mission to achieve greater equality came with its own fissures and flaws.

"We the People" is the phrase that begins the U.S. Constitution, and it is meant to remind us all that the authority of our government comes directly from all of its citizens; that our government is by and for the people. This book is titled We the Women as a reminder of the shared struggle, the collective fight, by women and for women, to make sure that our government recognizes all of its citizens.

It's a story often missing from our history books. 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. We want to change that. This retelling of the American narrative puts women in their rightful place on the pages of history.

On a more personal note, I wonder how my own sense of self, power, and courage might have been shaped if I had learned more about these women as a young girl.

* * *

As America celebrates its 250th birthday, a more perfect union is still a work in progress. Even still, the United States of America's democratic ideals are the envy of the world. The promise of the American dream is what brought my grandmother to the United States in the 1930s.

Mary Teresa Monaghan O'Kane was the oldest girl of nine children, a Catholic living in Protestant-controlled Northern Ireland. My grandmother started working at age twelve in a linen factory in Belfast, traveling through barbed wire and barricades every day, not to school but to a job to support her family. She never made it past the eighth grade, but she was smart enough to know she had to leave Northern Ireland.

So she did what so many young Irish women did in the early twentieth century: She gathered her courage, boarded a boat, all alone, and set sail for America inspired by a dream for a new life. The weeklong transatlantic voyage on a steamship was notorious. James Joyce, the renowned Irish author, once described the Atlantic Ocean as a "bowl of bitter tears," to capture the sorrow of immigrants leaving their homeland.