Interviewed by POLITICO’s Andrea Drusch – Andrea Mitchell,Host, MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports

There are a lot of challenges for women. It was really brought home recently by the online controversy over the new CEO at Yahoo. People were so surprised that, my god, she’s pregnant.  In 2012, we are finding people worried about whether a woman can be both pregnant and a CEO at the same time? This when more women than men are getting doctoral degrees, women are making up more of the work force, yet women in politics, women in journalism still face real challenges in terms of competing for the best jobs. It’s particularly interesting that while we’ve had a woman speaker and women are elected to the Senate, that women still don’t play key roles in political campaigns and in the White House staff in proportion to their representation.

I think that the media do play a role – there are generalizations. For instance, the articles about Marissa Mayer being pregnant. That would be a normal fact of biology: she’s 37 years old and she’s pregnant. Women raise children and do jobs inside and outside the home, women can multitask and do extraordinary things, so can men, but women seem to be judged in the media, and sometimes in the hierarchy of the male establishment differently. I remember even when Hillary Clinton was running, there was actually an article about whether something she was wearing on the Senate floor was too revealing. All the attention on clothes and hair, the superficial qualities that are never brought up when in reference to male candidates.

I think women journalists often have to point out to some of our colleagues when they are being less sensitive or stereotyping women candidates.

When I was starting out, women were not acceptable as reporters. It has been a struggle every step of the way for many women in my field, especially for those of us who started back in the 1970s when there were very few women mentors and very few role models.

What many women did was take entry level jobs, work longer hours, volunteer for every crumby job that came up, be available to work weekends, holidays, don’t take vacations, just try to overcome stereotypes and be available whenever news was breaking.

I do see it getting better. But at the same time, covering politics, and certainly covering the business community is really tough, and will be for a while until there are more women in the upper level in both politics and finance. Having more women in journalism, covering important beats, and also having more women in all political parties in key positions, in key positions in the White House and in cabinet roles will make a difference. It’s important for boys and girls and children and young adults to become used to seeing women in major decision-making roles in business in finance and politics and government and academia.

To read more of the POLITICO article, click here.