All this week we're talking to women and mothers who have harnessed smarts, spirit, and self-awareness to break into male-dominated careers and rise to the top.

Judy Woodruff has covered news and politics as a broadcast journalist for more than three decades for PBS, CNN, and NBC. She served as an anchor and senior corresponded at CNN for 12 years and was the White House Correspondent for NBC News from 1977 to 1982. 

Woodruff is also a wife and mother of three, including a son with spina bifida. Her children are now grown but she hasn't forgotten the feelings of guilt and sacrifice that accompanied juggling a demanding career with a busy home life. "I had this crazy idea you could pursue your career with abandon, and you could get married and have a family and it would all work out happily ever after and there wouldn't be any complications when it came to juggling...that wasn't even a word in my vocabulary. I just had this naive idea that you could do it all."