Author Mary Carouba discussed how she and co-author Susan Hagen published the untold stories and efforts of female rescue workers of 9/11 in “Women of Ground Zero” at the Hinson Campus Center conference room Nov. 5.
Carouba expressed her frustrations with the gender-imbalanced reporting at the time of the 9/11 attack and afterwards.
“Not even Oprah interviewed a woman from Ground Zero on her show,” she said.
With Carouba being a former investigative social worker for child abuse and Hagen being not only a journalist, but also a firefighter and emergency medical technician, both knew women in the public safety sector who served during the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York.
Carouba said they were inspired to write the book after seeing the media’s failure to seek and tell the stories of the women who made noteworthy sacrifices and contributions at Ground Zero.
Carouba showed pictures of the women who lost their lives, and footage of the twin towers falling.
She cited statistics to help the audience understand women’s role in the Fire Department of the City of New York.
“Out of 11,500 firefighters in the FDNY, only 25 are women,” she said. “Of the nearly 1,000 probationary firefighters hired since Sept. 11, only one was a woman.”
At the end, she thanked the students, staff and locals who attended.
