I earned every concession, or repaid it if I had not earned it. I also had help from other women. My extended family of sisters and aunts and cousins and friends filled the gaps when I was desperate. Women I hardly knew helped me, in ways that may have seemed insignificant to them, but that made all the difference to me. The kindness, encouragement, help and support of other women kept me going forward, and sustained me when I wanted to give up or give in.
Many women do their best and still fail, because it is just too hard.
The challenges of raising children while sustaining a career may actually be harder now than they were for me. Women have been coping for so long that we now are expected to be successful doing both. It is a crushing, intolerable, impossible expectation that falls almost exclusively on women. If you are a woman in business who does not have children, do not be so scornful of those who do. These women could have been your mother, or are your sister, or may be your daughter.