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view of government. funded by these television companies and more, including buckeye broadband. ♪ buckeye broadband supports c-span as a public service, along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. hr table this morning, the author of "untold power: the fascinating rise in complex legacy of edith wilson." she's also the event deputy director for the library of congress here to talk about women's history. but let's begin with the significance of making martial women's history month. guest: keep trying to convince

people they connection talk about women's history all 12 months of the year but it is nice to shine a ligh t-- i think that it gives organizations like yours and museums and anything that is public facing a chance to highlight different stories and an excuse to promote the narratives that might not be in the mainstream. in the mainstream. what i find so fascinating about it women-centric view of history is not that it is just saying women were there too, it is actually that women make history differently. we effect social change differently. so when you look at these great moments in american history, you can't pretend that there were women at the signing of the declaration of independence or something like that. you can't force some there are two that isn't true, but you can say hey, maybe the declaration is not the full story. maybe that is not actually the only way we can tell the story

of how america came to be, and that if we broaden the story and talk about affecting social change in a way that is not just about these kind of hall of fame moments, then suddenly you are telling the whole american story. host: and how do you do that? guest: at the library, we have such an incredibly vast collection and we have so many fingers in so many different pies that we need to narrow down our story. everyone who works in a place like the library of congress and everyone who has worked in all of the constitutional positions is so enthusiastic that we are like golden retriever's. come see this, this, that. this one is also cool. at the library of congress we are very aware that we are americans library, that we are this institution that was founded to showcase the innovation and knowledge of our nation, and we are patriotic about that.

we also do have collections that are global, so it gives us the chance to tie-in all of these stories and even go broader about story that might affect each other and interesting connections. post: talking about women's history month, you've course have to talk about women's suffrage. the 19th amendment was ratified while woodrow wilson was president. how did edith wilson feel about the movement? guest: this kills me. she was anti-suffrage and the is and is because she was this fierce, independent, business- toning, car driving -- she was the first woman in washington to get a drivers license. time after time she proved herself to be this very innovative, aggressive independent. she wouldn't have used the word feminist, but i will.

not interested in exercising her full rights as a citizen and not interested in other women exercising their full rights as a citizen i actually got interested in her because of suffrage. i was talking a lot about it especially around the centennial of the 19th amendment, and people kept asking the did woodrow wilson come who dragged his feet on suffrage, he finally changes mind because she told him to? and i wish that were the case, that would make a pretty good story he changed his mind for reasons like politicians do all the times. he was worried all the new voters would become republicans if the democrats didn't suddenly do something about suffrage. and i don't know why she was anti. i wish that she made more definitive statement about it. i think some of it was especially with the last part of the movement, the more radical branch of the movement, they were taking the white house,

they were directly criticizing belton, she really hated that come the nastiness about her husband. but i think that there was just kind of a lot of women who were anti-suffrage, and what they said was we race the families and we run the household and that is vitally important, and if we insist on mucking around in the public sphere, the men's sphere, we not only feed our moral high ground by getting our hands dirty, but we somehow imply that our world is less important and not more. and we start to see echoes of that generations later against the e.r.a. and so i think she was raised in reconstruction era virginia and she was getting this cult of true women suffrage and i think there is something a little not nice about being out there. host: you've written two books about the suffrage movement. what are some takeaways from your research and from your

books that people need to know and understand about that movement? guest: i think the essential thing, and i think this is true of all history, because what makes it turn the corner from being interesting to being relevant is what can you personally take away from it? the suffrage movement in particular is a really great blueprint for becoming an activist. they were really, really good at what they did. now, it took a long time, but that is instructive to understand that there are smaller congressmen along the way to the big bowl. and if you look at women in washington, the shadow of the capital right now, how many times have you sat and been sort of annoyed that there is a march on pennsylvania avenue and it is just kind of a traffic headache. no one has marched on washington before the suffrage is did it. if you go to the white house, i promise you there are picketers there. those are the people who i think lived in lafayette square with

picket signs. nobody picketing at the white house you start seeing these tactics that they invented when they sit in front of the white house with emblems in -- embroidered on banners, those were tweets. that with a 1970 way of making things go viral. make sure someone gets a picture to put in the paper. so it is incredibly interesting to me to see what they were able to do 100 years ago and i think no matter the cause, if you want to be an activist, and i hope all young people do, look to the suffrage movement lessons, no question. post: some move us into the e.r.a., and how did it move to that and where does that stand today? guest: there's a direct line. in the suffrage movement, by the end of it, by the ratification, it was sort major organizations. the larger, mainstream group,

they became the league of women voters. they decided one for 19th amendment was ratified that their role was to educate this generation and future generations of women voters to make sure that they were participating. the national women's party, the more radical wing decided to stay a political party in order to write the first version of the e.r.a. and so the e.r.a. absolutely was considered unfinished business i the activists. -- by the activists. they were a little naive at the time. they didn't quite understand some of the class distinctions and have some of the rights that working women had achieved in terms of workweeks that enforce breaks would actually be hurt by the e.r.a. because men didn't have those traits at the time, but as the labor movement has progressed and as the e.r.a. became more of a unifying factor and less of a divisive factor,

they kept being introduced and introduced. now it is in an interesting situation. i'm not going to speculate on where it goes from here. it is interesting to me that it is not dead, that people are still talking about it. it is interesting to me that in 2024 women still feel that we need it, that in quad -- equality is not enshrined. host: it will be interesting to talk to our viewers about the equal rights amendment marking women's history month by talking about women's history. you can join the conversation. here is how you can do so this morning. start dialing in. remember, you can also join us on social media, you could text us, include your first name, city and state when you do so. rebecca roberts as our guest, the author of the book open but untold power: the fascinating rise and legacy of edith.

she is also the events director at the library of congress. caller: hello, good morning. i have a question. i'm a democrat. i was listening to call her this morning talking about abortion and the rights of abortion, but my question to you is i'm seeing women's rights fading. i'm seeing women that now have men enter exports with women, which diminishes the women. i see men being able to go in women's bathrooms, locker rooms, the whole bit. how is this helping women? to me it looks like it is taking down women. i think they're losing a notch or two. new yorkers, they are getting

punched in the face by men. it is going viral. women are not doing well under this administration. they are fading, and i don't get it. you should be fighting everything here for women. women should be stood up, not taken down. host: rebecca roberts? guest: i think this is an interesting aspect of a movement maturing. when you look at pictures of the suffrage march 8, 1913, for instance, they had a huge banner that said we demand a constitutional amendment to franchising women. they have is very clear goal. it wasn't we hope and pray, it was we demand. they were organized behind one thing. and they had to be, because they didn't have anything. the fact that the contemporary women's movement can say we demand abortion be safe and legal, we demand equal pay for equal work, we demand freedom

from sexual a precedent, it is actually a maturing of the moment because we don't need to force this very basic right. we can, as women, move on 12 of these different causes that add to greater equality. >> alexis, independent. caller: good morning, i'm sorry, i haven't read your book but i'm going to get it. as far as the abortion issue, nobody ever hears that with parenting. i think that women know themselves well. some people can't parent. unfortunately, contraception isn't 100% effective, and therefore people have to have that. they might make good neighbors,

they might make good aunties, but just because you have a uterus doesn't mean that you can parent. i would love to see people admit that and not think just because you can get pregnant, you can parent. that's why we have so many people in our foster home and running away. if you could speak to that i would love to hear it. guest: thanks, alexis. i think all the women standing up and say i don't want children is also still heavily judged. and i hope women who don't want children don't have them. but i think if you are on any social media and you start getting sent memes from people

who are proudly child free, they seem a little aggressive. they seem a little judgey. but it is hard. it is still hard to say i don't want to be a mom. that, i think if this legacy of gender roles and what we are supposed to do and what is expected of us, and i absolutely agree with alexis. if you are not going to make a good parent, please don't be one. host: the suffragist movement is associated with wearing white. we've seen when it came up on the centennial that women in congress were wearing white on big occasions. explain why. >> this is another topic the suffragists were really good at. they understood how a visual element could make their message go far. and so white, think of it at the time, pictures were black-and-white. a whole lot of women in white is a very striking image. this also is of symbolism behind

the color. the colors of the movement were purple, gold and white. purple often associated with royalty, gold had its roots in the sunflowers of kansas where there were early suffrage movements, but actually began about black-and-white. purple visibly saturated color, white is not, gold is somewhere in between. it contrasts beautifully in pictures. and so this imagery was designed , again, the 1913 equivalent of instagram. a white down on a white horse because she was beautiful. she was a labor lawyer, she was totally accomplished, but everyone kept calling her the most beautiful suffragist and talking about how pretty she was. if you are going to talk about her looks instead of her brains, i am going to put her on a white horse and she will never leave my parade. so i love that it is still a

symbol. when you see the state of the union or another era where women are the minority and men tend to wear dark suits, it still contrasts really strikingly on television. you see that scene of the senate floor and suddenly there is this isolated bundle of light. the suffragist knew what they were doing. this time around, women are in congress and the house women decided to wear white to associate with reproductive rights. talked about taking that and the suffrage movement and applying it to the reproductive rights. guest: it's interesting. one of the antiabortion rights groups is called the susan b. anthony and, trying to draw a line between suffrage and antiabortion. there is not a clear through line from suffrage to abortion lights -- right the way there is with the e.r.a.

but the tactics again are things that were successful ban and are successful now regardless of cause. there is a messaging around abortion rights that is about women's empowerment and women's control of their own bodies and they are trying to limit abortion rights to be misogynistic and that is the through line for people who chose that symbol. but it does go directly back to the suffragist in the early part of the 20th century. host: pat, democratic caller. caller: good morning, thank you. i would like to tell my story. i wanted to be a truck driver when i was a small child. i grew up, went into the army to learn how to drive a truck, came out of the army, got a job and i've been retired for eight years now.

my husband and i both retired at 2 million miles, accident free drivers, and we hold everything from campbell's soup and nabisco and we were hazmat endorsed, called explosives, poisons, chemicals. we were out for a month at a time and worked for 23 years for warner enterprises out of omaha. and when we retired, it was because they finally gave a raise, what it was for everyone under the one million mark, and we had 1, 2, 3, 4 and one 5 million miles driver, and they didn't give us a raise, so he got angry and quit. but for women that don't believe