Pat Mitchell Discusses “Becoming a Dangerous Woman”

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Can anybody be a dangerous woman or do you have to have lived a bit?

PAT MITCHELL: Well, I think anyone can be. But I must say declaring myself a dangerous woman even at nearly 77 still feels a bit dangerous. But It also feels right. I feel that we are maybe, especially women over 50, but not exclusively, we are well prepared for this. We are better resourced, better connected, we’re living longer and healthier, we’re not retiring, we’re rewiring. And look at what we are going in the world, we’re literally redefining what age, leadership and risk-taking can look like.

So, I wrote the book, not only to recall the struggles and the challenges that still exist, but to point to the rollbacks on the rights and freedoms that many of us spent our lives fighting for. And to change that, to shift the direction, to change the power paradigm that got us into these dangerous times, I believe we do have to be braver, bolder with, take bigger risk, and, yes, be dangerous.

AMANPOUR: So, how did it even come to you? I mean, where did that line come from? What were you — what was happening?

MITCHELL: You know, I’m really not sure about that. I was sitting in a circle of very impressive leaders and everyone was introducing themselves.

Have you been in that moment where they say, you’ve got 30 seconds or three lines to say who you are? And I had no title, for the first time in my life. I wasn’t running anything. I didn’t have an organization. And I kept thinking, how am I going to explain why I’m here in this circle of activists and leaders.

And suddenly, when it came my turn, I heard myself standing and say, I’m Pat Mitchell and I’m a dangerous woman.

I think, though, it came from the way I have been feeling watching your program today and every day, which is, there’s so much affirmation around us that we are living in dangerous times. And how do we get beyond them? How do we shift this direction to better times? We can’t do it the way we have done it before. We can’t be complacent. We can’t feel safe. We can’t accept the status quo.

AMANPOUR: And why women?

I’m interested in this, because you’re not just saying this as a throwaway line or as just a nice title for the book. You obviously have a view from all your activism, being, as I said, the president of CNN Productions, the first female president, CEO of PBS and the Paley Media Center. I mean, you have walked the walk, plus all your activism around the world. What do you think that dangerous women bring that dangerous men might not?

MITCHELL: Along with using media, as you have done, in every way I could elevate women’s stories and ideas and challenges, I have also worked all over the world with women.

And, recently, I have really observed a phenomenon that I do believe will lead us out of these dangerous times.