Roundtable: Who Pays the Price? Gender and Institutional Power

When institutions fail or protect themselves, the consequences are rarely shared equally. In this extended roundtable, Ainslie Harvey, Tracey Holmes, Ee Ling Quah, and Diana Thorp examine how power operates inside major organisations, and why the costs of speaking out so often fall along lines of gender, race and migration. Drawing on journalism, leadership, academic research and lived experience, the panel explores how institutional cultures are built and defended; how silence, loyalty and retaliation are enforced; and how progressive systems can reproduce inequality even as they claim reform. From media and universities to governance and public life, this is a searching conversation about accountability, complicity and what genuine structural change demands.