My local paper, The New York Times, Yahoo News, CBS, and The Washington Post, all agreed to stop using the word 'mistress.' The big one was the Associated Press. They made a style change, and it's the gold standard that sets the guide for news outlets around the world. That's a small step for the American language, a medium step for feminism, and a huge step for me personally.

Paula Broadwell

Categorized in : New York Style Mistress

We have to raise our young boys to respect women and our young girls to demand respect and to get their values from something other than their physicality.

Paula Broadwell

demand girl boys

I'm not in love with David Petraeus. But I think he does present a terrific role model.

Paula Broadwell

role-models doe thinking

Having a bunch of medals and badges doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve achieved anything, you’ve got to do something beyond yourself to make a difference in life. Seek to be consequential in whatever you do.

Paula Broadwell

making-a-difference differences mean

While I fully recognize I had made a mistake in the whole relationship, and I'll call it a human error, I hesitate to call myself a victim because I strongly believe one should take responsibility for their actions.

Paula Broadwell

responsibility mistake believe

My husband and I each had careers and two babies at home. They just demand everything from you. All the domestic duties fell to me and this resentment builds, as I think happens to a lot of young parents who have competing careers.

Paula Broadwell

husband home baby

We had to communicate through our lawyers a couple of times over the years, and [David Petraeus] told me that people have been like, "Good job, Dave." Congratulating him. That's the double standard. I've concluded that sharing it won't change anything.

Paula Broadwell

couple jobs years

When I fell, some people were in such shock that they didn't reach out. They were so mad at me, rather than having compassion for what happened. I lost a lot of friends.

Paula Broadwell

mad compassion people

I was in such a state of mental shock and quickly spiraled into a depression at the multitude of loss. My husband, I thought, was going to leave me. I was cut off from this mentor and someone I cared for very much, David Petraeus, who also did nothing to stand up for me and in fact, empowered his surrogates to throw me under the bus, and that was devastating.

Paula Broadwell

cutting husband loss

The story is framed around [avid Petraeus] resignation. So many headlines that followed talked about his ruined career. They completely ignore the fact that my career was ruined, other peoples' careers were ruined. They focus on him as the victim.

Paula Broadwell

avid focus careers

I just figured, for the most part, mainstream networks stopped using [mistress word]. Those are small brush fires. The election made me realize we've got forest fires that we collectively need to be focused on.

Paula Broadwell

mistress fire needs

It's the fact that you can reduce my whole life to one word, whatever it is, my entire career, my service to my country, my academic rigor, my courage in going to interview terrorists, and refugee camps, and third-world prisons.

Paula Broadwell

careers country world

I haven't had senators advocating for me.

Paula Broadwell

advocating senators havens

A lot of women were betting on me because there were so few role models and I let them down. They had put me on a pedestal. I maybe enjoyed being in that limelight, but I couldn't reverse what I had done.

Paula Broadwell

pedestal role-models done

[My kids] were very young at the time and didn't realize what was going on. We told them that mom made a mistake and people want to talk about it in the news so they're outside our house.

Paula Broadwell

mom mistake kids

I'm really happy for [David Petraeus]. He's exceptionally talented.

Paula Broadwell

really-happy

Sometime ago, I teamed up with a former Marine attack helicopter pilot. We were both frustrated by biased coverage of women in the military and said, let's form some kind of nonprofit entity where we can start highlighting the prevalence of bias in the media.

Paula Broadwell

marine media military

I just genuinely believe in the concept of redemption and renewal, so I was happy. When I get beyond my feelings, I had my own family and friends and so many women across America come to me and say their blood was boiling, asking me how this could happen.

Paula Broadwell

believe blood america

It's part of the reason I decided to speak out now. This was the tipping point for me. If it's O.K. for [David Petraeus ] to campaign for a job in the administration, then I'm going to campaign to get back out there, too.

Paula Broadwell

tipping speaks-out jobs

I've moved on with my life and I'm trying to find a path to re-establish my career.

Paula Broadwell

careers path trying

I had been sort of a rising star - an athlete, a scholar, a leader. My dream was to become a high-level national security adviser.

Paula Broadwell

stars athlete dream