Capital Dames: 10 Powerful Women in DC

Randall Slavin

Christiane Amanpour
The Globe-Trotter

"I am the kind of journalist who thinks that if women had more positions of power and influence, there would be a material difference in the way things worked out." It is this ethos that has made Amanpour, 54, such an inspiring on-air presence during her 30-plus-year career. She's been on the ground for seemingly every major international conflict of the past two decades (Iraq, Afghanistan, Rwanda, the Balkans), the ballsy woman unfazed by danger, always in that safari jacket ("It was just easy to pack, easy to look presentable"), whose reporting from within war zones has earned her practically every major broadcast award. Even after leaving her long-held post as CNN's chief international correspondent to anchor ABC's This Week, she continued to report on world events, landing exclusive interviews with Egypt's Hosni Mubarak and Libya's Muammar Gadhafi during the height of their countries' uprisings. Given the current upheaval in the Middle East, it is no surprise that Amanpour decided to leave This Week and return to the trenches, and yet this mother of a 12-year-old son is candid about the sacrifices she has had to make: "There is no such thing as a woman who can do it all. When my son was very little, I'd say, `Mummy has to go there and tell the story, otherwise the bad guys will win.' In all our countries you need passionate journalists to go out there and seek the truth. [Now] when I leave him, I say, `This is something I believe in.'"

Next: Jennifer Hing, The Doer

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