Bonobo

Bonobos are presented in the book as a model of collective female response, not as characters in the human story. In a Harvard course, research on their social behavior offered Ashley Judd a way to connect observations from her own life with a broader argument: women could recognize shared experiences and support one another against sexual coercion.

A Research Example in the Classroom

In 2009, Ashley Judd enrolled in the midcareer master’s program at Harvard Kennedy School. Her favorite course, Gender Violence, Law and Social Justice, was taught by law professor Diane Rosenfeld. Rosenfeld contrasted a legal system she argued had been built to protect men more than women with research on the egalitarian behavior of bonobos.

As Rosenfeld described the research, male sexual coercion had been eliminated in bonobo communities over the course of evolution. If a male became aggressive toward a female, she gave a particular call, and other females came to her aid, descending from the trees and driving off the attacker. The example made collective response—not isolated resistance—the salient feature of the comparison.

From Animal Behavior to a Human Proposal

For Judd, the course supplied an intellectual framework for experiences she had encountered over her life, including in Hollywood and during trips abroad. She drew on the bonobo example in her final paper, proposing a model based on alliances among women. The paper urged women to become less separate and secretive, join together, and confront overly aggressive men.

The paper won a Dean’s Scholar Award. Judd also argued that change would be difficult because bias was embedded in formal institutions, the economy, and daily life. Her proposed alliance was therefore not a claim that solidarity would be effortless; it was a response to the structures that made isolation seem normal. She described taking the first step as an act of trust.

A Conceptual Model, Not a Literal Parallel

The book places the bonobo research beside accounts of human workplaces whose conditions differed sharply. In restaurants, alcohol could loosen inhibitions while managers hesitated to confront customers; in Silicon Valley, some young men felt accountable to no one; and in traditionally male workplaces, women could be put in physical danger. These examples locate harassment in specific social and organizational settings. The bonobo account functions differently: it offers an image of collective support, rather than an explanation of those varied human circumstances.

Echoes in the Later Gathering

Later, women with different economic, professional, and cultural positions gathered to share accounts of harassment and speaking out. The group included Kim Lawson, a fast-food worker who had recently experienced homelessness, and Zelda Perkins, a former producer who had challenged confidentiality agreements. Their experiences were not interchangeable, and the gathering did not erase the differences among them. Yet the women listened, and their accounts showed how taking action could lead to new forms of authority and solidarity.

The narrative does not state that the gathering was organized around the bonobo research. Rather, the earlier classroom example gives a clear conceptual shape to a recurring question in the book: whether women who have been isolated can find support by acting together. Bonobos matter here as the starting point of Judd’s written proposal and as a compact image of mutual response.