I saw more of Valerie than I did of Susan, but I took careful noteof everything each of them did, similarly to how I‘d observed Czerny,
my college mentor. These were women who knew their own voices andwere unafraid to use them. They could be humorous and humble whenthe moment called for it, but they were unfazed by blowhards and didn‘tsecond-guess the powerin their own points of view. Also, importantly, they were working moms. I watched them closely in this regard as well,
knowing that I wanted someday to be one myself. Valerie never hesitatedto step out of a big meeting when a call came in from her daughter‘sschool. Susan, likewise, dashed out in the middle of the day if one of hersons spiked a fever or was performing in a preschool music show. Theywere unapologetic about prioritizing the needs of their children, even ifit meant occasionally disrupting the flow at work, and didn‘t try to com-partmentalize work and home the way I‘d noticed male partners at Sidleyseemed to do. I‘m not sure compartmentalization was even a choice forValerie and Susan, given that they were juggling the expectations uniqueto mothers and were also both divorced, which came with its own emo-tional and financial challenges. They weren‘t striving for perfect, butmanaged somehow to be always excellent, the two of them bound in a - P168
deep and mutually helpful friendship, which also made a real impressionon me. They‘d dropped any masquerade and were just wonderfully, powerfully, and instructively themselves. - P169