Author: Pat Mitchell

Pat Mitchell is the editorial director of TEDWomen. Throughout her career as a journalist, Emmy-winning producer and pioneering executive, she has focused on sharing women’s stories. She is chair of the Sundance Institute Board, the chair emerita of the Women’s Media Center board, and a trustee of the VDAY movement, the Skoll Foundation and The Woodruff Arts Center. She is an advisor to Participant Media and served as a congressional appointment to the American Museum of Women’s History Advisory Council.

Rest in Power: Barbara Walters—Legend, Inspiration and Friend

The death of Barbara Walters is such a loss. We were professional colleagues and towards the end of our sometimes overlapping journeys as women in media, we became friends … not the kind of ‘share everything with’ friend, but a friendship based on the recognition that we had faced similar challenges and learned along the way the importance of showing up for other women.

I never aspired to ‘be’ Barbara, but like every woman in media then and now, I benefited from the battles she took on, the challenges she met and overcame, and the sacrifices she made to do the work she loved. I miss her on television and in my world.

“We’re Reclaiming Valentine’s Day!”: The Global Movement Rising for the Bodies of All Women, Girls and the Earth

One Billion Rising, a mass action to end violence against women, launched on Valentine’s Day 2012. It’s based on the staggering statistic that one in three women on the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime.

Every Valentine’s Day is a reminder of how much more is needed to free women to fulfill their potential and live without fear of violence. I’m writing a valentine to V, to the V-Day team and the One Billion Rising global coordinators, who are committed to creating a new kind of consciousness—one where violence will be resisted until it is unthinkable.

Billions Pledged to Accelerate Gender Equity at Generation Equality Forum

Billions Pledged to Accelerate Gender Equity at Generation Equality Forum

The Generation Equality Forum—held in Paris from June 30–July 2, 2021 and livestreamed to participants around the world—was a monumental event that set a new and unprecedented level of funding to prioritize and implement gender equality programs and commitments.

A quarter century after the U.N. Women’s Conference, at which 189 countries pledged to adopt the ambitious Beijing “Platform for Action” to achieve gender equity, once again political leaders, feminist movement leaders, corporate executives and activists gathered to address the disproportionate impact the pandemic has had on women and girls, and to commit to action that will accelerate global progress over the next five years, by 2026.

Isabel Guzman, Small Business Administrator

Table For 12, Please: Isabel Guzman, Small Business Administrator, Will Manage $1 Trillion in Relief

On March 16, the Senate confirmed Isabella Casillas Guzman, President Biden’s pick to lead the Small Business Administration (SBA), an agency that has seen its profile grow enormously in response to the pandemic. She is the first Latina to lead the agency and the only Latina in Biden’s diverse Cabinet.

“Now more than ever, our small businesses need us,” Guzman said.