From Awareness to Action:
Join the Movement
Together, We Rise
The Bonobo Sisterhood Alliance is about stepping into our collective power. We offer real tools: self-defense training that teaches us to protect one another, outreach that brings this message to campuses and communities, and partnerships that grow the impact. This work is rooted in connection. If you're ready to stand with others and declare the BONOBO PRINCIPLE: Nobody has the right to harm my sister AND Everyone is my sister, then you belong here.
“A sisterhood to whom I owe my justice, success, and healing today,” Amanda once said of Diane Rosenfeld and the Bonobo Sisterhood. In her work—creating Rise, drafting the first U.S. Sexual Assault Survivors’ Rights Act, and flying to space—Amanda draws strength from Diane’s model of collective self‑defense. She sees in Diane’s vision a blueprint for mutual protection, coalition-building, and transformative allyship that has grounded and propelled her own journey.
Amanda Nguyen
Founder & CEO of Rise, Nobel Peace Prize nominee, and 2022 TIME Woman of the Year, Amanda Nguyen is as renowned for her advocacy as she is for her historic spaceflight—becoming the first woman of Vietnamese descent to journey beyond Earth in April 2025
Diane L. Rosenfeld
Diane is a legal scholar, fierce advocate, and the founder of the Bonobo Sisterhood Alliance. Diane is the founding Director of the Gender Violence program at Harvard Law School where she is a lecturer on law. Her groundbreaking book, The Bonobo Sisterhood: Revolution Through Female Alliance, offers both a vision and a strategy for disrupting patriarchal violence. Drawing inspiration from bonobo primates—who organize to protect one another and maintain peace—Diane lays out a bold, actionable model for collective self-defense.
Women and girls are socialized to depend on males for protection and to compete against one another for this protection. But the fallacy of this protection racket is that what we need protection from is other men!
Fatima Goss Graves
Fatima is the President and CEO of the National Women’s Law Center and co-founder of the TIME’S UP Legal Defense Fund. A longtime civil rights advocate, she has led national efforts to advance gender justice, workplace fairness, and educational equity—always centering women and girls of color. A graduate of UCLA and Yale Law School, Fatima is a trusted voice in the media and in policy circles, pushing for systemic change to ensure equality and opportunity for all.
“Equality in my mind really is that vision for women and girls to live and learn and work and really be who they want to be.”
— Fatima Goss Graves
Daniela Andrade
Daniela Andrade (she/her) is a recent Harvard Neuroscience and Philosophy graduate and now a Fulbright Scholar in the Netherlands, studying online censorship of women’s health at the University of Amsterdam. As Co-Founder of WWV Labs and Co-President of Harvard Women in Entrepreneurship, she has built thriving communities that connect and empower thousands of young women in the startup ecosystem. Named to Her Campus Media’s 22 Under 22, Daniela is dedicated to bridging the gap between female students and entrepreneurship—creating opportunities, amplifying voices, and driving systemic change in how women are represented in business and innovation.
“When women are given real opportunities to lead and build, we don’t just change startups—we change entire systems.” – Daniela Andrade
Lia Bassanini
Lia is a French-Italian student leader and advocate for human rights and migration justice. Currently completing her degree in International Politics and Government at Bocconi University, she’s set to pursue a Master’s in International and Development Studies at the Graduate Institute in Geneva. Through her work as Immigration Commissioner at VOYCE and her leadership on Bocconi’s Inclusion and Well-Being Committee, Lia passionately builds safer, more inclusive communities.
What began as a roar of voices saying me too must now become a coordinated force to say no more. The Bonobo Sisterhood Alliance is the next step—it’s the how. The principles behind the Bonobo Sisterhood offers a road map for action, protection, and solidarity.
Ashley Judd
Ashley Judd is an acclaimed actor, humanitarian, and activist with a master’s degree from Harvard Kennedy School. She is also a long‑time advocate for gender justice and animal rights, particularly focused on the bonobos—our closest living relatives—which she has visited in the Democratic Republic of Congo as part of bonobo conservation efforts
Since 2008, Ashley has made several trips to bonobo habitats in the DRC, working alongside the Kokolopori Bonobo Research Project and local conservation teams. She’s spoken candidly about how Diane’s model—which draws from the bonobos’ evolutionary example—has shaped her own understanding of solidarity, survivors’ healing, and feminist resistance.
In her advocacy and storytelling, Ashley embodies the bond between human collective action and nature’s proof that female alliances can dismantle male dominance—and sustain a more peaceful, cooperative future.
Heed the Call
Understand the Vision
Explore the foundations of the Bonobo Sisterhood—why collective self-defense matters, and how we can move from isolation to shared power. Buy the book here.
Self Worth Defending
Learn how systems of harm are upheld—and what it takes to disrupt them through coordinated, courageous action. Learn more about self defense classes and resources here.
Step Into Solidarity
See what it means to show up for each other in real time and start building a safer, more connected world.