On December 2-4, 2020, 275 of our attorneys across all practice areas and geographies attended the firm’s biennial Women’s Leadership Summit. With the theme “Owning Your Career,” the three-day virtual event—which included interviews and panel discussions featuring partners, clients, and alumni, as well as small-group breakout sessions—was designed to build attendees’ leadership, mentoring, and relationship skills and encourage them to think about the best strategies to grow and enhance their careers.

Day One

The summit kicked off with a welcome address from partner and board chair Katharine (Katie) Martin, who highlighted the progress women have made in advancing both within the firm and the broader legal profession since the 2018 Women’s Leadership Academy. She also commented on law firms’ limited success in retaining and promoting women attorneys—particularly minority women attorneys—and emphasized the need to remain focused on this area. Katie concluded by reinforcing the firm’s commitment to diversity and inclusion and to providing a supportive work environment where women can be themselves and thrive.

Next, international performance and mindset consultant Shona Rowan delivered “Step Up and Stand Out: Impact, Influence, and Visibility for Women,” which offered numerous tips on how to develop and refine your personal brand. Among other valuable advice, Shona encouraged attendees to:

• Learn to promote yourself and the great work you do.
• Look for opportunities to boost your profile and visibility.
• Proactively seek feedback to uncover your strengths and areas for development.
• Grow your network both online and offline.
• Sharpen your elevator pitch: Who you are, what you do, and how you help your clients.
• Speak with confidence and conviction.

One of Shona’s main takeaways was that hard work alone isn’t enough—that while we like to think our work speaks for itself, too often it doesn’t. Therefore, it’s incredibly important to make a conscious effort to raise your profile. As Shona pointed out, self-promotion will help ensure that people are aware of you, the work you do, and the value you bring. This concept would be a key theme throughout the Women’s Leadership Summit.

Clockwise from top left: Susan Creighton, Kathy Ku, and Katie Martin

The event continued with “From SCOTUS Clerk to Partner: A Conversation with Women Who Clerked for Women,” moderated by Katie Martin and featuring D.C. antitrust partner and regulatory department chair Susan Creighton and Los Angeles corporate partner Kathy H. Ku. Susan was a law clerk for Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to serve as a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, in 1986-1987. Kathy was a law clerk for Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the second-ever woman Supreme Court justice, in 2004-2005.

The session began with Susan and Kathy recalling the sense of intimidation they felt upon arriving for the first day of their clerkships. “I remember thinking, ‘Will I ever get used to working here?’ And I never really did; I never lost that sense of awe, because it is so much bigger than you,” Susan said. Kathy expressed a similar sentiment: “I’d like to say I felt up to the occasion, but it’s hard to feel that way at the Supreme Court.”

When asked about the nature of the interaction between the justices, Susan and Kathy said that while the justices didn’t casually drop by each other’s chambers—Susan likened the notion to the president of one country visiting the president of another country unannounced—they would deploy their clerks to deliver messages, or even meet beyond the confines of the imposing Supreme Court building. For instance, Susan remembered seeing ideological opposites Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justice William Brennan strolling arm-in-arm in the courtyard. “It was a place infused with such seriousness and gravity, but there was a lot of collegiality and friendship as well, not just among career staff, but among the justices and the clerks,” Kathy observed.

Kathy also had the unique, indelible experience of being among Justice Ginsburg’s dozens of former clerks to line the steps of the Supreme Court as the justice’s casket was ushered in for a private memorial service following her passing last September. “It was oddly difficult to be there, because it was so unexpected—even though it was the most natural thing in the world,” Kathy recalled. “We had been lulled into this feeling of complacency, that she’d always be there. It really was an honor.”

Despite holding clerkships at the nation’s highest court, neither Susan nor Kathy became a litigator, though both women said their experiences were instrumental in helping them determine what they didn’t want to do. Following a clerkship for Federal District Judge Pamela Ann Rymer, Susan began her career practicing corporate and tax law before clerking for Justice O’Connor. She subsequently tried both securities and IP litigation at Wilson Sonsini before transitioning to antitrust. Despite her lack of knowledge in the area, once Susan volunteered to work on a case for a small company called Netscape, she knew she had found her calling. She eventually wrote the white paper credited with triggering the Department of Justice's investigation and eventual suit against Microsoft for illegal monopolization.

Meanwhile, Kathy’s clerkships (she clerked for the Ninth Circuit prior to her SCOTUS clerkship) helped her realize she was not particularly well suited to being either a professor or an appellate lawyer. In fact, she specifically asked every firm she interviewed with if she could do six months of corporate transactional work and six months of litigation before deciding upon a practice. Once Kathy started practicing corporate law, “it felt like coming home,” she said. “I really enjoyed it in a way that was very different from my experiences working on securities litigation cases that had come up on appeal.”

When asked what advice they would impart to young attorneys, Kathy and Susan stressed the importance of being open to new opportunities and looking at the big picture. Kathy recounted a story from when she was a junior associate trying to work on every possible transaction. The most senior partner at her firm sat her down and told her to pick one or two matters and really excel at them. “He said, ‘I know you’re worried you lost time because of your clerkships, but you need to play the long game,’” Kathy remembered. And as Susan put it, “Be open to trying new things in order to find the ones you’re good at and you enjoy, because that makes all the difference.”

Susan and Kathy closed the session by speaking about their experiences as working mothers. Susan left Wilson Sonsini from 2001 to 2005 to serve as Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, and said that while she loved working there, she was often in meetings for up to 12 hours a day. When she decided to return to the firm, she negotiated a part-time schedule to spend more time with her young family. “I was really grateful that I could trust the firm to work with me on making that kind of arrangement,” Susan said, adding, “I’d encourage you not to over-pressure yourself to think you have to be doing all things all the time. There will be different seasons in your life, when you may want to do one thing more than another.”

Kathy emphasized that each individual’s situation is unique, but urged audience members to be kind to themselves as they figure out what kind of balance they need. With two sons, now 14 and 11, she and her husband have made careful decisions about how they organize their family life. “Everyone’s going to find their different hat trick they use to get through moments in life that are too crowded,” Kathy said. “Find what’s going to keep you engaged while also allowing you to have a personal life. Unless you really strive for sustainability, something will fall away that you’ll regret later.”

“One thing I found admirable about what Susan said was that she was willing to ask,” Kathy continued. “Don’t be afraid to tell people what you need to be a value-added member of the firm, or to ask for support. We can’t do everything, but we can help—and we can help best when we know what you need to be the lawyer you want to be.”

Day Two

The second day of the summit began with a session in which Delaware litigation partner Brad Sorrels interviewed his former colleague, current Delaware Supreme Court Justice Tamika Montgomery-Reeves, who practiced in the firm’s Georgetown and Wilmington offices from 2011 until 2015, when she was tapped by Delaware Governor Jack Markell to be a vice chancellor on the Delaware Court of Chancery. In 2019, she was nominated to the Delaware Supreme Court, and today is the first African American and the third woman to serve on Delaware’s highest court.

According to Justice Montgomery-Reeves, her pursuit of a legal career largely resulted from her grandmother’s influence. “When I was young, she told me about a man she believed was wrongly accused of a crime,” she said. “He was poor and illiterate, and he couldn’t navigate the criminal justice system. My grandmother told me he was railroaded into a guilty plea and spent his entire young adult life in prison. She constantly talked about the importance of knowing your rights and using whatever you have—your education, your platform, your influence—not to just better yourself, but to help others.” Consequently, Justice Montgomery-Reeves decided early on that she wanted to be a lawyer.

She initially thought she’d be a criminal attorney, but during law school at the University of Georgia, she fell in love with corporate law in a corporations class taught by one of her advisors. She proceeded to take every corporate course offered, and eventually told that advisor she wanted to pursue a career in corporate law. He encouraged her to apply for a clerkship at the Delaware Chancery Court and wrote her a letter of recommendation. Justice Montgomery-Reeves traveled to Georgetown, interviewed with then-Chancellor (and current Wilson Sonsini partner) William Chandler, and the rest was history. “It was the most amazing opportunity I’ve had,” she said. “It really shaped the trajectory of my career and is a large part of why I’m sitting here today.”

Justice Montgomery-Reeves spoke with fondness about her time at the firm, including her experience working with “lifelong mentor” Chancellor Chandler and her Delaware office colleagues, but explained that she always felt a strong pull to give back—another product of her grandmother’s influence. “I really wanted to use the skills I’d developed to help people,” she shared. “For me, there was no better way to do that than to become a judicial officer.”

In the same vein, Justice Montgomery-Reeves expressed admiration for the late Justice Ginsburg, whom she had the opportunity to interview in 2018. “I think we should try to model—to the extent we can—Justice Ginsburg’s lifetime of service,” she said. “She literally dedicated her entire career to equality, to making the world better for other people.” Justice Montgomery-Reeves encouraged those in attendance to engage in pro bono work as a meaningful way to give back, noting, “We are so lucky to be in the positions we are in. Use whatever it is you can to improve the lives of others.”

When asked what motivates her each day as a Delaware Supreme Court judge, she said, “I really enjoy studying the law, digging into the facts of cases, and trying to figure out the right answer. I love thinking about where the law is, where it should go, and how it should develop.” She added, “I like that I’m able to bring my perspectives to the various cases we hear. I think the best way to get to the best decisions is to have diversity of thought—and by that, I mean all types of diversity, whether it’s age, race, gender, means, or experience in our lives.”

Justice Montgomery-Reeves also spoke about the importance of mentors in her career, expressing gratitude for the wonderful mentors and sponsors she’s had at every turn. For instance, during her Chancery Court clerkship, Chancellor Chandler took the time to talk to her about her work product and writing, the substance of the law, and the overall importance of the position, and she in turn watched him deal with all manner of issues as Chancellor. He continued to mentor her when she was an associate at Weil, Gotshal & Manges following her clerkship, and when he left the bench to join Wilson Sonsini, he called her and asked her to join him. Later, he sponsored her partnership at the firm and served as a reference for her judicial positions.

“Whatever you want to do, wherever you want to go, someone before you has done it, and often those people are willing to help you,” Justice Montgomery-Reeves said. “It’s so important to seek out and use mentors. Think about what you’re interested in and look for people who are successful at what you want to do, both inside and outside the firm. Recognize the strengths different people have and figure out what you can learn from each person. Then, reach out and see if they want to meet. I really believe that having good mentors and sponsors is a key ingredient for success.”

Next, Justice Montgomery-Reeves shared advice for junior attorneys on navigating the law firm environment. First, she said, when someone trusts you to do something, take ownership and put everything you have into it—prove to the person who trusted you that they were right for trusting you. Second, take pride in everything you do, no matter how small the task: “Being a good team member matters—and showing people that you’re a good team member matters. Don’t wait for others to figure out what your talent is; show them.” Finally, she said, “Be open to opportunities you don’t necessarily expect. If you’re asked to do something interesting, consider it, because you could get exposure you didn’t realize. And if you need to, create opportunities for yourself.”

Justice Montgomery-Reeves ended the session by talking about the challenges of balancing her career with her family life. She again harkened back to Justice Ginsburg, recalling the icon’s famous quote, “You can’t have it all, all at once.” Justice Montgomery-Reeves agreed with the sentiment, saying, “You may have 10 matters, and one is completely taking the majority of your time. It doesn’t mean you’re not coming back to the others—it just means at that moment, one thing demands more. That’s how I look at my ability to juggle everything—it changes from week to week, day to day, hour to hour.”

After a brief break for small group discussion, Day Two continued with “Success Through Sponsorship,” a panel featuring partners Wendy Devine (patent litigation, San Francisco), Jennifer Fang (corporate, Boston), and Marty Waters (corporate, San Diego). The panel was moderated by Palo Alto-based technology transactions associate Rosalind Schonwald.

The group began with a discussion about the distinction between mentors and sponsors, with the consensus being that while mentorship tends to focus on coaching and skill development, sponsorship is more about advocacy and helping to develop and amplify an individual’s brand. “Sponsors may provide mentorship, but they’re going to go outside of your relationship to advocate for you,” Wendy said. “I like to say that mentors are like coaches, while sponsors give you opportunities,” Jen added.

As far as identifying sponsors, they pointed out that anyone who hires you or gives you an opportunity to work on a project is a potential sponsor. Additionally, they agreed that the beneficiary needs to proactively self-promote to maximize the sponsor relationship, echoing Shona Rowan’s point from the previous day. “You might assume people are seeing all your successes and the good work you’re doing, but you really have to promote yourself to grab their attention,” Marty said.

“I thought people would just notice the work I was doing, but I realized it was up to me to self-advocate and point out to people, ‘This is what I’m doing and now I want this opportunity,’” Wendy confirmed.  

Another overarching theme was that it’s incumbent upon the beneficiary to make it as straightforward as possible for the sponsor—who often has limited time—to advocate on their behalf. “A lot of your job is to make it easy for people to help you,” Jen pointed out. “Give sponsors nuggets they can share with other people. Don’t make it their responsibility to research what you have or haven’t done. Be specific about the opportunities you want, so you’ll be top of mind when those opportunities arise.”

As an example, Wendy recounted the experience of junior associates telling her they wanted to be involved in business development. “That’s a hard thing for me to push forward for them, because it’s so vague and broad. Instead, if someone comes to me and says, ‘There’s an organization in the community I want to get involved in, and what I need is permission to do X, Y, and Z,’ I will make that happen.”

Marty, Wendy, and Jen said they currently sponsor other attorneys by working with them to promote their growth and give them client-related opportunities. As sponsors themselves, they spoke about the importance of taking time to offer feedback and touting the strengths of the beneficiaries to others around the firm.

“Remember,” Jen shared, “there’s also an incentive for sponsors. The firm is made of its people—we’re the product and the service. Sponsors get a lot of value out of being good sponsors.” On the other hand, from the beneficiary perspective, “Make sure you don’t let that person down. That’s critical to cultivating sponsors. They’re expending their goodwill in advocating for you, so you want to make sure you’re doing them justice.”

Tips for Building Relationships with Sponsors

Wendy, Jen, and Marty shared the following tips for identifying and cultivating sponsor relationships:

• Remember that sponsors aren’t limited to individuals in your practice, your office, or even the firm—they can be clients or board members of your client, who can call your partner and put in a good word for you.
• Be yourself and build an authentic relationship with your sponsors. Asking them to advocate for you without that authenticity will be challenging.
• Communication is key—and should be initiated by the beneficiary. Pick up the phone or initiate a video chat; it’s difficult to connect solely through email.
• The easier you make it for the sponsor to do something for you, the more likely it is to get done. And be specific about what you need—you can even tee up an email for them to send.
• Consider running ideas by your mentor before approaching a sponsor. Your mentor can advise on how to best leverage your sponsor relationships.
• Ask for feedback and take it to heart—even (especially) if it’s about something that needs improving.
• Express gratitude when sponsors go out of their way to help you. It’s another opportunity to further build your brand.

Day Three

The third and final day of the Women’s Leadership Summit started with “From Paralegal to GC,” featuring firm alumna and Zynga Chief Legal Officer Phuong Phillips participating in an interview with Katie Martin.

After completing her undergraduate studies at UCLA—and deciding against pursuing a job in broadcast journalism—Phuong took a job as a corporate paralegal in the firm’s Palo Alto office. Though her initial decision to interview with Wilson Sonsini was influenced more by a friend in Attorney Recruiting than a burning desire to pursue a legal career, working with innovative clients like Netflix led her to “fall in love with what the firm represented—the entrepreneurship, joy, and excitement of creation.” That drove her, she said, to think Silicon Valley was the place to be, and she decided to return to school for a law degree.

Upon graduating from UCLA School of Law, Phuong came back to the Palo Alto office as a corporate associate. Though she says she was not a quiet person, she was timid when it came to fighting her own battles—but with some encouragement, she learned to advocate for herself.

“My now-husband was also at the firm, and he told me, ‘There’s this deal in your group you should look into,’” Phuong recalled. “It was the Google IPO. He said to go tell the partners that I wanted to work on it. I vouched for myself and said, ‘I may be junior, but I was a paralegal here and I know the process.’ So, I got to work on it, and that jumpstarted my interest in more IPO work.”

Several years later, after building a successful corporate and securities practice, one of Phuong’s clients, the general counsel of SolarCity, called to see whether she’d be interested in joining the company to help take them public. She declined, saying it wasn’t a good time. He called again, offering her the position—and again, she declined. “I think it was that fear of change and getting out of my comfort zone,” Phuong said. But when the GC called a third time, she agreed to hear him out—and ultimately decided to join his in-house team.

Phuong arrived at SolarCity in 2011 and helped guide the company to a successful IPO in 2012, becoming one of five women vice presidents at a company of 15,000 employees. She led the team that handled SolarCity’s $2.6 billion acquisition by Tesla in 2016, stayed on as Tesla’s associate general counsel, and then joined Zynga as chief legal officer in 2017.

Phuong admitted that being an in-house GC pushes her outside her comfort zone on a daily basis, but noted that she’s enjoyed the challenge of learning about areas she wasn’t originally as familiar with, such as litigation and privacy. At the same time, she said, “You don’t have to know everything—you just have to have a strong team and strong outside counsel. And you have to have a strong gut. I may not know the nuances of everything, but if something doesn’t feel right, I’m going to speak up.”

When asked for advice on how and when to speak up, especially as a woman, Phuong described the importance of speaking both sparingly and strategically. “My big philosophy is, don’t talk all the time, because if you do, you become background noise. I stay quiet unless I feel strongly that I need to say something. I’m very mindful about when I push an agenda—and when I do, I find I’m much more successful.”

Phuong also spoke proudly about Zynga’s willingness to give her a platform to promote diversity, particularly gender and racial diversity, which was a primary reason she decided to join the company When she took the job, Zynga’s board was already 50 percent women—an impressive statistic, particularly for a gaming company. Though there’s room for progress in the overall gender ratio of employees, it’s something Phuong and the company are working on. “It has to be 50 percent women—we really want that representation,” she said. Today, among other initiatives, Zynga offers executive coaching for women and a mentorship program that pairs executives with women employees. “Anyone can make a change, and that’s what I want to do with my platform,” Phuong explained.

Of note, Phuong’s legal department is currently 75 percent women and 50 percent people of color. She takes pride in mentoring all of the attorneys on her team. Because her goal is for all of them to become a GC someday, she is invested in their growth and makes a point of being accessible and meeting with each individual on a regular basis.

More broadly, she emphasized the importance of mentorship in developing one’s career.

“You gain confidence by having the support of a mentor,” Phuong said. “When I was starting out, you didn’t see as many women partners, but I was fortunate to have incredible male mentors. Being a mom made it more challenging at times, and I’d go around the firm and look to see which partners had family photos on their desks, because obviously family was important to those people, and those are the folks I sought out. You want a mentor you can emulate. And you don’t just need one mentor, you need many—find the attributes you want to have, seek those individuals out, and be the perfect you based on what your mentors bring to the table.”

With two daughters, now 14 and 13, Phuong has first-hand experience juggling the demands of career and family. She admitted she doesn’t have great work/life balance, but she credited a strong support system for helping her keep all her balls in the air. In addition, taking time out for herself is essential. “For me, sometimes that means waking up at 4:00 a.m. to do a 30-minute workout,” Phuong said. “I have to remind myself that I need that private time, or else everything else will fall apart around me.”

In what little spare time she has, Phuong serves on the boards of three nonprofits—the California Minority Counsel Program, the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley, and Project Glimmer. She’s especially proud of her involvement in Project Glimmer, which aims to build self-confidence in adolescent girls to help them envision and realize an empowered future.

In fact, Phuong’s final message to attendees centered around this notion of empowerment. Above all, she said, “Do not compare yourself to others. Everyone’s form of success is very different. Success is within. That’s really resonated with me as I’ve gotten older.”

Clockwise from top left: Myra Sutanto Shen, Angela Chadwick, Kiki Haar, and Cynthia Bright

The final session of the summit, “Reflections on Our Careers,” featured Palo Alto tax partner Myra Sutanto Shen moderating a panel that included Cynthia Bright, deputy general counsel and head of worldwide litigation at HP; Angela Chadwick, associate general counsel at Tesla; and Kiki Haar, general counsel at Sumo Logic. The three accomplished women spoke about the paths that have led them to their current roles, the challenges of navigating career goals, and the importance of sponsorship and self-promotion, among other topics.

Angela, a North Carolina native who holds a J.D. from Harvard Law and an M.B.A. from Wharton, kicked off the panel discussion by describing her legal career, which has included in-house positions at Motown Records, MCI Worldcom, and the Atlanta Housing Authority, as well as a judgeship in Fulton County Magistrate Court—a “life-altering two years,” she said. Angela joined Tesla as managing counsel in 2018 and currently serves as associate general counsel. “You never know where your blessings might be,” she said of the somewhat unexpected turns her journey has entailed.

Cynthia described her career path as similarly non-linear. After graduating from Georgetown Law, she practiced healthcare regulatory law in-house before switching to litigation. In 1998, she joined Wilson Sonsini as a litigation associate working on securities and IP cases. Cynthia became director of litigation at Atmel in 2003 and later moved over to HP, where her responsibilities have changed every few years, ranging from managing IP litigation to overseeing all U.S. and then global litigation and investigations, and now also encompassing employee counseling and benefits. “I have been completely willing to reinvent myself at various points,” Cynthia shared.

In contrast, Kiki’s journey has been more straightforward. Upon graduating from Berkeley Law, she joined the firm as a first-year corporate associate in 2000. One of her major clients was Informatica, and after several years of doing their corporate and M&A work, their GC persuaded her to come in-house in 2010. Kiki was at Informatica for five years before the company decided to sell itself and go private, after which she was promoted to SVP, general counsel, and chief privacy officer. She made the move to Sumo Logic in 2018, after being introduced to the company’s CEO by a former Wilson Sonsini colleague. “I was lucky, but I think I made my own luck, too. I built those relationships, which turned into great career opportunities for me,” Kiki said.

In a discussion about career goals and deciding whether to disclose them to current employers, Kiki and Angela encouraged attendees to find and build relationships with supervisors and mentors who encourage goal-sharing and are willing to support them in the pursuit of those goals, even if they don’t involve staying in their current role. “At the end of the day, I want you to be happy and fulfilled professionally,” Kiki noted. “You should work for people who want that for you, who put that above the organization’s needs. Happy and fulfilled people are inspired to do well.”

Added Angela, “I tell my teams, ‘Feel comfortable telling me what your long-term goal is, because I can help you get there.’ To me, that’s one of the major ways you can show up as a sponsor for someone else. At the same time, it’s important to recognize that not everyone’s there—some people might see that as a threat to their group. But where you find that person who opens the door to that discussion, go for it.”

All three panelists—as well as Myra—credited sponsors for helping them advance in their careers, whether by going to bat for them in challenging situations, providing them with opportunities based on past performance, or pushing them out of their comfort zones. For example, Kiki said that because Informatica’s GC thought highly of her work as outside counsel, he hired her to join his team and even expanded her portfolio of work when he left the company—and he continues to be both a sponsor and a mentor to her today.

“It’s so important for us as women to have sponsors,” reaffirmed Angela. “I have all types of special class considerations—I’m African American, I’m a woman, and I’m over 40—and those things can form a narrative if there’s an opportunity I’d like to be considered for. So, having a sponsor who will speak up for me is very, very important.”

As Cynthia explained, sponsorship can take many forms. “To me, sponsorship is about what happens when things go wrong. What’s the talent conversation the next day? Is it, ‘Oh, she’s incompetent,’ or is it, ‘She’s amazing, but that did not go well—how can we help her in this situation?’ The sponsor is the person who says the latter, who is still there for the person. To me, that is sponsorship.”

The women ended the session with a discussion centered around the art of self-promotion, with each individual offering suggestions based on her own experience. For Kiki, who admitted that self-promotion isn’t one of her strengths, the most effective approach has been to excel at her job: “For me, it’s about being on top of things, making sure I know what’s going on, and speaking up when I can. There’s an authenticity involved in self-promotion, and you need to figure out what works best for you.”

In contrast, Cynthia takes a very direct approach, maintaining an ongoing list of her team’s accomplishments to share during the executive committee review of her function. For her self-assessment, she writes down her achievements in a way that makes it easy for her supervisor to advocate on her behalf. “I write them as if I’m writing on behalf of a friend,” she explained.

Angela commented that she’s seen metrics used as a highly effective tool for self-promotion in group settings, recalling an Atlanta Housing Authority colleague’s use of numbers to inspire confidence in her work. “She’d tell you what the task was, chart out how she’d address it, and report back regularly to show that she’d hit all of her metrics.” Angela said that over time, everyone was confident that if this colleague was assigned a task, it would be handled successfully. “I aspire to do that, because it was so persuasive.”

Above all, Kiki emphasized the importance of making your voice heard. “We’re women in an industry that’s dominated by men, in technology, which is also dominated by men. What’s hard is that you’re threading the needle of self-promotion with the gender norms people are placing on you. I make sure to speak up when I can. You cannot not speak up. When I’m agitated, I force myself to speak up about it. People need to know that my voice matters, that I’m entitled to have a voice in this room. Push yourself to speak up and get into the habit of sharing your story.”