AN INTELLIGENT TIMES EVENT

Intelligent Times is a live event series collaboration between The New York Times and Intelligence Squared, bringing together leading New York Times journalists and thought leaders to discuss the key issues facing the globe today.

Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey may not be household names, but the impact they have had on relations between men and women in the workplace has dominated conversations for the past two years. On October 5th 2017, the two New York Times investigative reporters broke the story of Harvey Weinstein’s alleged sexual misconduct with dozens of Hollywood’s most elite actresses. Within days, more women were coming forward with their own stories of harassment and abuse and the #MeToo movement was born.

During the months leading up to publication, Kantor and Twohey had been holding confidential discussions with top actresses and former Weinstein employees, learning of disturbing, long-buried allegations. They meticulously picked their way through a web of decades-old secret payouts and nondisclosure agreements, facing down Weinstein and his team of high-priced lawyers and private investigators who were determined to thwart their investigation. Kantor and Twohey were finally able to convince some of the most famous women in the world to go on the record, and a dramatic showdown between Weinstein and the New York Times was set in motion.

Nothing could have prepared these two reporters for what happened next. Women who had suffered in silence for decades at the hands of other men began coming forward, trusting that the world would understand their stories. Over the next year, hundreds of men from every walk of life and industry were outed for mistreating their colleagues. But what has changed in the two years since Kantor and Twohey’s original story was published? Has the work environment become a safer space for both women and men to speak up?

In October 2019 Kantor and Twohey came to London for the launch of our new series, “Intelligent Times” – a partnership between Intelligence Squared and The New York Times. In this exclusive event, they talked about their new book, She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement, which reveals the extraordinary story behind one of the most important newspaper investigations in recent years. In conversation with the BBC’s Carrie Gracie, they looked beyond the headlines to ask, has change gone too far – or not far enough?

They were joined on stage by three of the women who broke their long-buried silence over the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse allegations: Rowena Chiu, Laura Madden and Zelda Perkins, who all worked for Weinstein in the 1990s. While many of the women who went on the record for Kantor and Twohey were Hollywood stars accustomed to being in the spotlight, these three accusers showed extraordinary courage in giving up their anonymity in order to pursue justice and try to change a system that many argue is still rigged in favour of sexual aggressors.

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Main image © Craig Gibson.