In the aftermath of the article, the director, who is a mother of two and a longtime advocate for the rights of women, minorities, and members of the LBGTQ community, has become a leading voice in the #MeToo movement. Before arriving at Harvard she took part in the Women in the World Summit on April 12 in New York City. Last month, she addressed the European Parliament in Brussels ahead of International Women’s Day.

At Harvard, she continued to call for change in how women are treated. Power structures that enable abusers must be dismantled, said Argento, and sexual predators who commit crimes should be sent to jail, not to a spa, as she said Weinstein was, to be “cured for sex addiction” in Arizona.

“He belongs in jail.”

In the months since stories broke in The New York Times and The New Yorker, dozens of women have come forward with allegations against Weinstein, ranging from rape to sexual harassment, and criminal investigations into several complaints are ongoing.

Argento also wants to see change in her native country. More women need to be in positions of power in Italy, she said, instead of men like former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who is better known for corruption allegations, sexual scandals, and objectifying women than for reform. In addition, harmful laws, such as the six-month statute of limitations for sex crimes, need to be changed, she said.

Despite the backlash at home, the director said she refuses to remain silent, and she encouraged women who may be suffering in silence to share their experiences.

“I have to be a part of this movement,” said Argento, “especially in Italy where the situation is so difficult, and to bring the word outside. Because talking to you gives me strength to continue, and I hope you will do the same after this — and if you are suffering the same, to share it. This movement, I can’t see it stopping … I see it becoming bigger and bigger.”

Alex Moore, a postdoctoral fellow in Harvard’s history department who helped organize the event, captured Argento’s hope in his opening remarks. Quoting the American cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead, Moore told the crowd,  “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful and committed people can change the world.”

Argento’s talk was sponsored by sponsored by the Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard, the Women and Public Policy Program at the Harvard Kennedy School, the Office of Sexual Assault Prevention and Response at Harvard, One Queer Harvard, and by the Committee on Degrees in Studies of Women, Gender and Sexuality.