The night before leaving, I wrote out a page of instructions that I posted on my wall. Everyone caring for my two daughters knew them pretty well and had spent a lot of time with them, so I’m not even sure if they read it. My older daughter did, and added “Mia takes gummy vitamins” at the bottom.

At the conference, a woman asked me who was caring for my daughters back home. “I assembled a small team of caretakers,” I said in all seriousness. Most of the other women relied on their partners and an additional family member along with regular child care facilities to take over the regular day-to-day domestic duties they fulfilled. Mine was a little different. Some might argue extensive.