‘She Said’ by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey

“She Said” is more than an inside look into the outstanding investigative reporting by two Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists, which is fascinating in its own right. What Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey have presented in this best-seller is a birds-eye perspective on the #MeToo movement and a commentary on one of the most painful issues of our generation.

They have mapped out the disturbing patterns of sexual harassment and its enablers, using the Harvey Weinstein chronicle of systemic and egregious abuse of women as a starting point for a much larger conversation.

What becomes clear in the pages of “She Said” is that we are locked in a legal system that silences women by offering payouts and non-disclosure agreements as the best recourse for sexual abuse in the workplace.

A whole cottage industry of attorneys have benefitted from secret corporate settlements that make it nearly impossible for the women to speak about their cases.

Kantor and Twohey describe their tenacious investigative work to get around the obstacles of long-buried cases and the threatening tactics of the powerful men involved.

The book includes a detailed account of Christine Blasey Ford’s path to Senate testimony in which she describes being assaulted by Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh when they were both in high school. We get to know Ford and her motivations to speak out in a way that was entirely missed in the hullabaloo of the proceedings.

“She Said” offers a voice to countless women whose stories of objectifying and dehumanizing sexual abuse have not been heard. Their mocking caricature as opportunists begins to fall away, giving us better understanding and deeper empathy for the women’s courageous decisions to come forward.

The book is a necessary reckoning that breaks silence and sheds light on a possible way forward. It is a must read for men and women alike.

The book will be featured at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 5 in conversation with Kim Severson, Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times bureau chief in Atlanta.