Norman earned a Ph.D. and M.A. from
New York University and a B.S. from
Rutgers University. She is a registered nurse. Norman has served as director of the doctoral program at New York University's Division of Nursing in the School of Education. As an author, Norman has made significant contributions to the field of women's military history. Her work brings to light the often-neglected experiences of women during wartime. Her first book,
Women at War, examines the previously untold experience of fifty women who served as nurses during the
Vietnam War. Her second book,
We Band of Angels, is based on interviews with female nurses who were held captive by the Japanese for three years in
Bataan, Philippines during
World War II. Norman was the first to speak to these women, known as the
Angels of Bataan, about the tragedy they endured. She described the experience of conducting these interviews as, "women talking candidly about women swept up in a lethal enterprise of men." Her third book,
Tears in the Darkness, is a history of the
Bataan Death March and the American, Filipino, and Japanese combatants who were involved. Her inspiration to write about military nurses came from her experience as a nurse as well as the fact that both her mother and husband have served in the U.S. military. == Works ==