The Biggest Danger Women Pose to the Status Quo

Professional women are often encouraged to find a mentor, to be a sponsor, and to lift each other up. What is the power of women connecting with other women? Pat Mitchell is a serial ceiling smasher, groundbreaking media icon, and the co-founder of TEDWomen. She says her many mentees are part of her legacy, and that the biggest danger women pose to the status quo is working together. She shares what she’s learned about effectively mentoring and coaching and the transformative impact of gathering women.

This Month’s Guest:

PAT MITCHELL is a lifelong advocate for women and girls, is the co-founder, curator and host of TEDWomen. At every step of her career, Mitchell has broken new ground for women, leveraging the power of media first as a journalist, then as an Emmy award-winning and Oscar-nominated producer to tell women’s stories and increase the representation of women onscreen and off. Transitioning to an executive role, she became the president of CNN Productions, then the first woman president and CEO of PBS, and the Paley Center for Media. She is chair of the Sundance Institute and the Women’s Media Center boards and a trustee of the VDAY movement, the Skoll Foundation and the Acumen Fund. She is an advisor to Participant Media and served as a congressional appointment to The American Museum of Women’s History Advisory Council. In 2014, the Women’s Media Center honored Mitchell with its first-annual Lifetime Achievement Award, now named in her honor to commend other women whose media careers advance the representation of women. Mitchell is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Georgia and earned a master’s degree in English literature and several honorary doctorate degrees. She is the author of Becoming a Dangerous Woman: Embracing Risk to Change the World. @patmitchell

Our Host:

CELESTE HEADLEE is a communication and human nature expert, and an award-winning journalist. She is a professional speaker, and also the author of Heard Mentality and We Need to Talk: How to Have Conversations that Matter. In her twenty-year career in public radio, she has been the executive producer of On Second Thought at Georgia Public Radio, and anchored programs including Tell Me More, Talk of the Nation, All Things Considered, and Weekend Edition. She also served as cohost of the national morning news show The Takeaway from PRI and WNYC, and anchored presidential coverage in 2012 for PBS World Channel. Headlee’s TEDx talk sharing ten ways to have a better conversation has over twenty million total views to date. @celesteheadlee