You're listening to an Airwave Media podcast.

Hello, and welcome to Ben Franklin's World Revisited, a series of classic episodes to bring fresh

perspective to our latest episodes and add deeper connections to our understanding

of early American history. And I'm your host, Liz Covart. Each September, Americans mark

Constitution Day to commemorate the signing of the United States Constitution on September 17, 1787.

But Constitution Day offers us more than just a chance to celebrate the Constitution, it invites

us to ask deeper questions about the Constitution. Questions like, whose ideas help shape the

Constitution? And how did Americans in 1787 envision who should be included in this new political

experiment? In honor of Constitution Day, we're

revisiting an important conversation about women, political possibility, and the constitutional

moment of 1787. This conversation is essential on its own, but it's also important because next

week, we'll be exploring how Americans took the Constitution of 1787 and began the complex

work of building the federal government that the Constitution outlined. Now, to guide us through

this broader constitutional landscape, we're returning to episode 339, where we spoke with

Mary Sarah Builder, an award-winning constitutional historian and law professor at Boston College.

In this episode, Mary introduces us to Eliza Harriet O'Connor, a writer, educator and public

speaker whose life challenges our traditional historical stories about the founders by highlighting

how women engaged with political ideas in their own public ways.

Now, during our conversation, Mary reveals how Eliza Harriet Chapin in the concept of female genius

and women's intellectual equality? Why the Constitution's gender-neutral language left room

for broader political inclusion. And how early Americans debated the very nature of representation, education, and citizenship

informing their new republic.

...