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We are nearly at the end of our talk with CFO Tracy Curley when she mentions her two adult children.

\u201cI\u2019m really blessed that they knew how important my career was to me when I was raising them,\u201d remarks Curley, who recalls that during their younger years, it was not unusual for the children to find their mother in bed late at night answering emails on her laptop.

Suddenly, the questions populating the margins of our handwritten notes no longer seem to nag at us.

Why did she work for KPMG as long as she did (6 years)? Why did she move to Honolulu? Why did she not arrive in the CFO office sooner?

Certainly, Curley is not the only finance leader and parent who has confessed to us a woeful email habit. However, she may be the first to allow us to witness the habit through the eyes of children.  With one stray comment, the career path that we\u2019ve been discussing for 40 minutes comes more sharply into view.

Like many of the women finance leaders with whom we\u2019ve spoken, Curley has taken longer to reach the CFO office than our average CFO guest (21 years), and indeed her path has clearly been punctuated by more than her own professional priorities.

During the early years of her career, Curley was married to a military officer\u2014a match that she says placed her in a life where \u201cthe spouse followed along.\u201d  At once, her stints with KPMG in Kansas City, Honolulu, and Boston make better sense to us.

Still, it\u2019s worth mentioning that marriage was not Curley\u2019s only experience with the military. It turns out that she was among the third class of women admitted to the U.S. Military Academy and attended West Point from 1979 to 1981.  When she left West Point without graduating, she was not alone. The high attrition rate for West Point\u2019s female cadets among its early classes\u2014particularly their 3rd year\u2014was alarmingly high. Besides the rigors of a military educational program, women cadets often faced the wrath of certain male cadets who wanted to see the women fail.

\u201cThey now have more than 100 women who have graduated from Ranger School\u2014to me, this is just phenomenal,\u201d says Curley, referencing The Airborne and Ranger training program at Fort Benning, Georgia, known to be one of the most grueling courses in the Army. 

As is the case with most women finance leaders, it\u2019s not always what appears on their CFO resume that\u2019s most important, but what doesn\u2019t.

Comments Curley: \u201cMy son decided to become a CPA and is now a partner at KPMG, and my daughter is now an elementary art teacher.\u201d \u2013Jack Sweeney