On 29 May the distinguished journalist Jill Abramson spoke at Maison de la Paix about women in the media, exploring key female voices from 1930s war correspondent Martha Gellhorn (pictured above) through to Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey who broke the Harvey Weinstein story and launched the global #MeToo movement.

“The key way that women change the world through journalism is by bearing witness”, said Ms Abramson, who spent 17 years in senior editorial positions at The New York Times, where she was the first female Managing Editor and Executive Editor. “Bearing witness and bringing to life stories and the challenging conditions that so many people in our world are living under is the necessary precursor to change, and women have a special talent for it.”

Ms Abramson's talk was the first in a series of “Women in World Affairs” lectures organised by the Graduate Institute and the Permanent Mission of the United States to the United Nations. The next event, a lecture from Joan Donoghue, the first American woman on the International Court of Justice, will take place on 8th October; more details will appear on our events calendar.

You can watch a short video with Jill Abramson below, and read her Le Temps interview, «Les médias sont trop réactifs face à Trump».