WASHINGTON, D.C., September 9, 2011 — Close your eyes. Today is 9/11. You're fleeing from a building just struck by a hijacked plane. You've fallen and you begin to feel the rubble from the World Trade Center or Pentagon fall on you.

You're scared when someone begins to unearth you from the dust and debris. When you look at your rescuer's face, what do you see?

For many on that September afternoon, the person who came to their aid, firefighters or rescue workers, military personnel, bystanders, or trained first responders, were women.

But our collective memory and social constructs almost inevitably have erased these brave women from the picture. In our imagined world, strong men were the ones who dove in and, in too many cases, died doing so, in order to save people from the devastation of the greatest attack on our soil in the nation’s history.

It doesn't help that the memorial dedicated to firefighters who lost their lives at Ground Zero includes only men. Nor does it help that another statue reminding us of that day's horrors is of a woman falling, or jumping, from the building. Media commentators are often caught using gendered words such as “firemen” or “policemen” to describe those who assisted on scene or were lost that day. Less frequently, if at all, do they acknowledge the role of women in these professions.

The unspoken reality of the day, as seen through our public rhetoric and collective memory, suggests that women were weak in the moment, they were scared, they gave in. While some did, there were women, too, like Sandy Bradshaw, a flight attendant aboard Flight 93 who originally was alleged to have cowered in the plane's galley as passengers were being held hostage.

President and Mrs. Bush at Flight 93 Memorial

While we will never be able to prove the real story, weeks after that fateful day, an article by reporters of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette told a different version. This one was pieced together from narratives of relatives and friends contacted by the passengers aboard Flight 93, and it conveyed a very different reality of feminine response to terror.

Bradshaw, the reports said, began filling pitchers with boiling water, which most suspect she used to throw on the terrorists who had taken charge of the back of the plane so other passengers could force their way into the hijacked cockpit.

Among them, was most likely flight attendant CeeCee Lyles, a former police officer.

Casting women as heroes outside the home rather than damsels in distress is something our culture still has not become comfortable with. The idea that women cannot face the pressure of real-world disasters in the same tough or courageous way as men is engrained in our worldview from the time we are young children. It’s not a hard argument to make when we’ve never quite made it through an entire Disney movie with a strong female lead who didn’t require some male protection or rescue.

The women who responded as agents or officers aren’t alone in that void. Female carpenters and those women who worked in other professions not typically considered lady-like were also lost that day.

Their stories, irrespective of the tales told by family members and friends, however, are mostly untold and unremembered.

September 11 is not unlike other events where the memories of women performing heroically have been lost to the sands of time. Wars, natural disasters, and other attacks have all claimed the lives of women who often fought to save others, went back, dug in, did their jobs, or followed their instincts.

The female officers of the various police, fire and medical units who arrived at the sites of the 9/11 disaster took on roles that their male colleagues often did not.

Brenda Berkman, a New York City firefighter, was quoted in an article that appeared in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, saying, “Women became the grief counselors and funeral directors, the family liaisons.”

As we remember 9/11 this week and beyond, it is only right that we recall the bravery of both genders, the losses, and the scars that remain.

On this September 11, the story of heroic women will be told at the eleventh hour by CNN in a special called “Beyond Bravery: The Women of 9/11.” This special is based on the book, “Women at Ground Zero: Stories of Courage and Compassion” by Susan Hagen and Mary Carouba.

Maybe it’s time we all give this a read. Until then, this column is dedicated to Sandy Bradshaw and Brenda Berkman, as well as military personnel, police officers, paramedics and firefighters like Sgt. Tamara Thurman, Lt. Col. Karen Wagner, Terri Tobin, Carey Policastro, Kathy Mazza, Moira Smith, Yamel Merino, Regina Wilson, and the countless other women who lived and died on that day of horror, September 11, 2001.

Read more of Amanda Leigh Brozana's work at betweenxandy.blogspot.com. She can be reached via email at betweenxandy.brozana@gmail.com. Her work appears in Smart Living in the Communities at the Washington Times.

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