I've been thinking about three very different things recently: Gisèle Pélicot’s memoir, an event with our charity partner, the Rosa Foundation, and the ongoing fall out from the Epstein files. What connects them all in my mind is an uncomfortable question about power: who gets protection and who has to fight for it.
Pélicot’s account is an undeniably hard read. Aside from her courage, what strikes me most is her determination for her story to be heard, despite the personal cost. Rather than retreat, she has chosen to pursue exposure. Standing up not just for herself, but for every woman trapped in a similar impossible position, selflessly using her experience to show that reclaiming agency is possible even when the odds are stacked against you.
The stories I heard at the Rosa Foundation's annual showcase were equally striking. Jasvinder Sanghera, who founded Karma Nirvana, a charity supporting victims of forced marriage and 'honour'-based abuse, told us the personal cost of escaping forced marriage and the loss of her aunt - forced into an arranged marriage - at 24.
The charity exists because this kind of abuse of women and girls is pervasive and barely visible. The figures in the UK show that a staggering 3,000 cases of violence against women are reported daily. Despite this, charities supporting women receive less than 2% of charitable giving. When you compare the scale of harm to the scale of attention it gets, something is wrong. And we have to remember those figures are only the ones where women and girls come forward and report.
Meanwhile, the reckoning from the Epstein files still bubbles away. The framing in the media is infuriating with most coverage focusing on which powerful man will face the biggest fall from grace. The files themselves carelessly exposed victims' identities while carefully protecting other names in the constellation of power which enabled abuse. Bar the exceptions like Marina Hyde in the Guardian, a story that should be about systemic enablement has become a spectacle focused on individual accountability and gotchas.
"Careless People" - the book about working at Facebook which I also picked up recently - crystallises the pattern. The title evokes Fitzgerald's Daisy and Tom, characters who "smashed things up and retreated back into their money." Working in the inner circle of the company, Sarah Wynn-Williams shows power insulated from consequence and protected from scrutiny. The tech titans make decisions and create systems where others bear the costs. It's not limited to one industry or one form of harm.
The asymmetry of power is obvious in each of these accounts. So too is the way systems determine who is heard, believed and protected. Together they present a damning picture of where we are today: the cost and difficulty in calling out those who abuse power and position, enabled by those who look away.
We seem to think we are doing better by focusing on individual accountability - who falls, who faces consequences – and by outrage at the crimes themselves: who knew what, who should have acted, who must face justice.
This is no measure of progress.
Without examining the systems that repeatedly enable these patterns, and without asking harder questions about structures rather than personalities – what would prevent recurrence, how can we properly support current victims – we fail to take the most important step towards changing the story for the future.
News
Women’s leadership and political participation – UN Women
Women remain under-represented worldwide
AI halluciations haunt users more than job losses – Financial Times
Insight from 80,000 Anthropic users
Working mothers uncomfortable requesting flexibility – HR Magazine
New research from Working Families
Could working from home solve the global fertility crisis – Financial Times
Flexibility to fit around jobs could enable more people to have children
Opinion
Fairness should be based on need, not race – The Times
The most effective policies raise standards for everyone
Gisèle Pélicot and the language of rape culture – The Observer
The way men talk about women matters
The death of millennial feminism – The Atlantic
An unwitting obituary for the era?
Insight
How women CEOs build leadership that endures - McKinsey
Five common principles that sustain excellence
Inside the mental health crisis among Gen X women – The Guardian
A deep look at the challenges facing this generation
Reverse mentoring – what Gen Z can teach senior leaders – People Management
Junior employees have valuable skills and experience to share