Connie Chung, an icon in broadcast journalism who became the first woman and person of Asian descent to anchor a major American news program, broke genre boundaries and reflected on the sexism she faced early in her career.

In an upcoming CBS Sunday Morning In an interview with Jane Pauley set to air this weekend, Chung, 78, recalls a moment with John Mitchell, then attorney general under Richard Nixon, on Capitol Hill for an interview circa 1974, in which he tells a young Chung that she looks “more beautiful than ever.”

“John Mitchell seems to know who Connie is,” Pauley says after watching an archive clip of the meeting.

“Whew,” says an exasperated Chung. “I remember that, Jane. He looks at me and says, ‘You look so beautiful.’ And I think to myself, ‘What?’ I’m not a lollipop. I’m not an ice cream cone. Can you please treat me like the other male reporters?”

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The veteran journalist will be joining Pauley on Sunday to talk about the obstacles she faced as a young reporter in male-dominated news, as well as the racism she experienced. She’s also gearing up for the release of her upcoming memoir Connie (to be released on September 17) and tells all about her forty-year career.

In an excerpt published by CBS News ahead of her interview, she elaborated on her encounter with Mitchell and the men in politics and government, writing that they “looked her up and down and greeted her with a look as if” she were a “little china doll.”

“Did he expect me to smile and thank him?” Chung writes of Mitchell. “I was there to do my job and I continued with my questions. The same was true of Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. As I approached him with my microphone in hand, he began to flirt. There was little I could do or say to avoid those creepy old men.”

In an interview with Harvard Business Review published this month, Chung said she was “determined to succeed” in a field dominated by white men. “I couldn’t be as spoiled as they were, but I mustered the same confidence I thought I needed as a journalist to get ahead,” she said. “It was a tricky line to walk, making sure I was never called the B-word.”

“But I had a great sense of humor and I talked like a sailor, and the guys really didn’t know what to do with that, because here I was, this delicate little flower, talking just like them,” Chung added. “I think they were really surprised that I had taken on their persona. It was a time when sexism and racism were rampant, but I found a way to get them before they could get me.”

For more from Chung, listen to her interview with Pauley on Sunday.