The Bonobo Sisterhood

Foreword by Ashley Judd

Internationally recognized gender violence expert and law professor Diane L. Rosenfeld picks up where the #metoo movement leaves off, drawing on the natural world to create a roadmap that focuses on female alliances to end domestic abuse and sexual violence.

Harvard Law professor and powerhouse attorney Diane Rosenfeld has dedicated her career to ending violence against women, a battle she has waged in courtrooms, classrooms, and boardrooms. But a decade ago, when she encountered a Harvard colleague’s field work on bonobos, she discovered a game-changing model for ending gendered violence and abuse.

Why Bonobos? Male chimpanzees will kill rivals and assault fertile females. Male orangutans will force themselves on females even as they scream. Male baboons will chase females up trees, biting and harassing them until, exhausted, they give up. But our closest relatives in the animal kingdom, bonobos, are different: Founded in a broad alliance among females, bonobo culture meets any attempt at sexual violence with swift, unified collective defense. Inspired by what she learned, Rosenfeld transformed her new vision for equality into action, creating a course that has become incredibly popular and drawn praise from students and luminaries from Gloria Steinem to Reese Witherspoon to Ashley Judd.