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Desiree Davidson
Were they afraid we were planning a coup d'etat?

I spent my first summer during Columbia Law School at a firm in Philadelphia described as one of the best places in the city for black lawyers. I believed that if there was any place where I would have an equal chance at opportunities, be treated fairly and succeed, this would be it. There were three black female summer associates out of sixty that year but any time all three of us were in an office talking, one of the partners would knock on the door to see how we were doing. It happened too often to be a coincidence that sometimes we would purposely agree to meet in so-and-so's office to test our theory that we were being monitored. Like clock work, ten minutes after we would get together a partner would stop by.

Should she stay or go?

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It was just a wonderful job

Wendy Craft

Mine is a complicated story. I had been a math teacher for 5 years, got into high tech next, at a financial software company which was #2 in the market, great company. The industry was booming, every year I would get a promotion and get more money, I was climbing and initially I was a programmer but pretty soon I realized that I was "too extroverted" to sit at a computer. Then briefly I was doing customer service and then international customer service and then I was running it. It was just a wonderful job.