E. Jean Carroll took on former President Donald Trump and won, and now she wants other women to know they have the strength to do the same.
Speaking to attendees at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Dinner Tuesday in New York, Carroll, who won $83.3 million in damages for defamation against Trump in Januarysaid the outcome of the next presidential election could depend on women’s votes.
“Women could actually win this election,” she told Fortune’s Emma Hinchliffe. “Black women, especially in the 2020 elections, have mobilized. And now I think suburban mothers and women should step up in this election.
Carroll, a journalist and author, sued Trump for defamation after calling him a liar in 2019 when she publicly accused him of sexually assaulting her in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman in 1996. A jury found that the statements by Trump had significantly damaged Carroll’s reputation. It was the second time Carroll had beaten the former president in a courtroom. The previous May, a separate jury found Trump not responsible for rape but guilty of sexually assaulting Carroll and then defaming her by claiming she made up the story. The verdict saw Carroll awarded $5 million, bringing the total amount owed to him by Trump to $88.3 million.
Buoyed by these victories, Carroll, who was joined on stage by her lawyer Roberta Kaplan, told the audience that she felt “very, very positive” about the power of women to bring about social change, despite setbacks. important in women’s rights, including the overthrow of the law. Roe v. Wade and the recent dismissal of Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction by New York’s highest court.
“I don’t think we’re going to be stopped, I really don’t,” Carroll said. “We just have to work really hard to help our sisters in the South and reclaim their rights to their own bodies. »
Carroll hasn’t received her money from Trump yet, but that hasn’t stopped her from making big plans for how to spend it. “I’m going to give it to everything Donald Trump hates,” she said. “He is filling the Supreme Court with conservative judges who strip women of their rights over their own bodies. I will do everything I can to restore women’s rights to our own bodies. I’m going to donate it for women to become lawyers, especially mothers who would like to have a scholarship… Since he doesn’t have a dog, I want to donate it to the ASPCA.
When asked how she coped with being the target of online vitriol among Trump supporters, Carroll said her experience was representative of what many women encounter on social media. “Every woman in this room has people saying terrible things (about them) on Xon Instagram. We all hear, “You’re ugly, you’re old, you’re shriveled, you don’t deserve this, you’re pathetic, you’re hideous.” We all understand. I’m not unusual.
The conclusions of his trials, however, make the abuses easier to bear. And Carroll said she felt emotional being in the same room with so many influential women.
“A serious woman is an extremely powerful entity,” she warns. “We must never despair, never despair. Always stay positive so that we can achieve what we need to achieve.
