Andrea Mitchell and Judy Woodruff fought their way through what they described as “a sea of men” to become television news icons.

Mitchell is NBC News’ chief foreign affairs correspondent and host of her own show on MSNBC. Woodruff is the host of PBS Newshour. With a combined 80 years in journalism — and counting — the pair shared stories and thoughts on the state of the nation at St. John’s College in Annapolis last weekend.

The crowd of about 500 at the college’s Great Conversations event was treated to what was at times war stories between best friends and and an intimate look into today’s political and journalistic world. Woodruff and Mitchell discussed the recent firing of FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, U.S. relations with Russia and North and South Korea and the changing state of news.

But another main topic was the rise of female journalists.

“In the early days, there were so few women ... it was a sea of men,” Woodruff told the crowd. “In a way, they kind of pitted us against each other.

“Management thought there was some advantage to be had comparing us to other women,” Mitchell said.

Added Woodruff: “The way women have fought back is that we’ve had each others’ backs and supported each other.”

Woodruff and Mitchell said seeing more women in journalism is exciting — but there is work to be done.

“We’ve come a long way, getting more women in front of the camera and behind the camera, but there still aren’t enough women in management, in my opinion,” Woodruff said. “We need more women in print and television making decisions about what stories get covered and the placement of those stories.”

The pair discussed how the news cycle has changed, even molding itself around President Donald Trump’s tweets. The news cycle as we knew it is gone, Mitchell said.

“There’s what we call, ‘executive time,’ which is anything before 11 [o’clock] ... when he’s normally watching ‘Fox and Friends,’ and he’s usually responding to ‘Fox and Friends,’ ” Mitchell said.

They two said 2016 wasn’t just a game changer for politics but for journalism. Facebook was exploited, they said, and journalists had to cover elections in a way they never had before.

“We weren’t prepared to understand social media,” Mitchell said.

“Social media hit us like a truck,” Woodruff said.

In the last two years, creating a TV news show has become a juggling act, Woodruff said. Her show, ‘PBS Newshour,’ is constantly zooming in and out of the news scope.

“We are always trying to look ahead so we’re not a show that is not going to be responding to every last bit of news, but we don’t want to be behind the news either,” she said. “We’re walking that line between telling you about important things that are happening that will be important into the rest of this year and decades to come, while we also reflect on what’s happened that day.”

Mitchell said the investigation into Russian meddling in the election will change the way journalists do their jobs and will be “dissected endlessly.”

Added to the changing news scope, both women said in the last two years television reporters have also had to become fact checkers.

“I’ve always viewed my role as to report what’s going on and give context, but now there’s an added element of fact-checking. From day one when Sean Spicer was speaking to the White House briefing room about the size of the crowd, there has been an obligation to viewers of a respectful fact-check. That includes the president and his press secretary.”

Proceeds from the event went to the St. John’s scholarship fund and EveryoneOn.org, a nonprofit involved in closing the digital divide.

ssanfelice@capgaznews.com