welcome to amanpour on pbs. tonight megastar matt damon on surprising location in indonesia where he is trying to solve the global clean water crisis one micro loan at a time. he joins me with his co-founder of water.org gary white. plus, from the wellspring of hollywood, the me too movement has swept the globe. but the ivory tower of finance has been relatively unscathed. is this its moment? i speak to lauren boner who is suing her very own wall street firm. ♪ ♪

welcome to the program, everyone. i'm christiane amanpour in london. listen to this shocking statistic. as many as 100 million people in india won't have adequate access to groundwater in just two years' time. that shocker comes from a recent government sponsored study and it is just one sign of a growing global crisis. in iran protests have recently broken out over water shortages. in argentina, a drought has caused the economy to shrink rt first time in more than a year. in south africa, a severe water shortage has led to rationing in the picturesque city of cape town the hollywood megastar matt damon has been dedicated to this vital matter since 2009, working with the long-time water policy pioneer gary white, and together

they started water.org. it's no typical charity as damon and white explain from jakarta in indonesia where much of their efforts are concentrated now. matt damon, gary white, welcome to the program. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> so, we're reaching you all the way over in jakarta, in indonesia. matt, just start out by telling me what a hollywood megastar is doing on location with water in jakarta? >> well, we're here checking up on some of our, of our programs. and actually, when you talked to us about our work in 2011, i think it was, we -- actually we were at about -- i think we had reached -- we hadn't reached our first million people at that point in new york when we sat down and talked. and as of last month we're at 12 1/2 million people that we've reached. and oddly enough, at that same event that you came to in new york and where we all sat down

and talked, we got a check that night from the caterpillar foundation to expand our work into indonesia. so it's kind of wonderfully ironic that we were talking to you from there as we talk about it again and revisit this 6 1/2 years later. >> listen, it's great to hear some good news. progress is being made. just sum up for me what you're trying to do. you're reaching 12 1/2 million people. matt, what is it you're trying to do? >> well, what we've been trying to do for the last decade or so is a model that involves loaning -- giving small loans to people who are living in poverty. and gary had this incredible insight from having done this for 30 years, and he had this hypothesis that living in these -- being in these communities, he knew people were paying for water and he speculate that had if we could just get people access to a

micro loan to connect to an existing infrastructure, they could actually pay that loan back and buy their time back, essentially. so rather than have to spend this time collecting water away from perhaps a paying job, they could actually have a water connection directly to their house. and what actually came to pass was it's something better than we could have hoped. these loans payoff more than 99% and it's just really a success story. >> so, gary, these are micro loans. we've heard a lot about micro credit really since the early days of muhammad and the grommine bank. is it like that, you're not giving charity, you're encouraging investment, in a way equity? >> that's it exactly. the challenge with micro finance it wasn't making loans for water and sanitation. it was making loans for somebody to start a business, but the micro finance institutions would

not lend for water and toilet construction. and so what we did was kind of give them a nudge and de-risked it for them. we'll cover your cost to start up these types of loans. if you find the market, then you can go to scale with this and that's exactly what's happened. we have 90 partners around the world now that are delivering these micro loans to people in need of water and sanitation. more than 90% of them are women and they pay back at this 99% rate. >> i think the way to drive it home was a woman who i met in manila not long ago and she was going to water vendors and sending her kids to these water vendors to buy their water and carry it back home. they were paying about $60 each month for that water. she got a small loan. she got connected to the water utility. so she couldn't afford the $200 it cost to connect to the utility, but when she got the loan, she could do that. her loan payment and her water bill are only $10 a month. you can see there there's

another $50 in her pocket every month for her kids to go to school, to pay for medicine they need. and the kids aren't spending this time so they can be in school learning instead of continuing on the cycle of poverty. >> according to the u.n., 27 million indonesians lack access to safe drinking water. so, just explain, both of you, how you internalize that, how you observe that affecting the everyday man, woman and child. >> so, we just saw it firsthand, right? we saw the villages that we're in where people, before they were able to get access to these loans, they were spending hours every day trying to secure their water. >> there are some situations that are even more dire than that where girls aren't in school because their job for the family is to collect the water. and so they're completely robbed of -- leaving aside the fact that a million children die a year totally unnecessarily because of lack of access to safe water and sanitation.

you've got this whole other swath of millions upon millions of girls whose, whose lives are just kind of stamped out, they're just not allowed to live to their full potential because their daily grind is just finding the water for their family. i mean, we just went to this school here in indonesia and there were 150 girls there, and we had the best afternoon with them and talking to them. you just see that -- how their when you see that kind of transformational effect, getting this access has, it really does -- it just really lights a fire under us to kind of keep this going and to get out and to try to talk about this and the success that this model has because the world bank has identified 500 million people around the world who could be, who could be reached with this model. that is a real chunk of the problem right there that can be fixed if we can get the capital

into the right places. >> and i wonder what you both think about the -- when we introduced this segment, we talked about protests in iran over water. afghanistan that could get ght worse. we talked about cape town, south africa where people are lining up in this tourist city just to get water. the environment. in the united states you see the epa, there are big crises with protections for clean water being rolled back under the current administration, and there are those who believe that the water crisis could be the progenitor for war and the like. i wonder your reflections on the bigger issue of water, matt, and then gary. >> as you say, this is a massive kind of geopolitical issue. but the poorest of the poor are always affected the most by these things. and so if you imagine -- if you extrapolate that out the next 20, the next 40 years, what does that look like for them if this

kind of distopia you're talking about, that's what i take way from your question. >> gary? >> most of the world that's going to be facing that type of issue is going to have the resources to deal with it. and that's going to happen. it won't be easy, but it will happen. but what we look at is we had conversations with dr. jim kim in the world bank. he's saying we have a really hard time finding how to reach those last 10 to 15% of the poor, and that's why we're working with the bank and the ifc to bring these types of solutions that help us get to some of the poorest people. >> so, it is really important. i just want to ask a hollywood question to you, matt, because you are the face of this and you are able to bring so much to it to gary's work. and obviously, you know, the whole me too women's empowerment started with hollywood, to an extent. and obviously your career took off with support from harvey

weinstein. i just wonder, in the six or so months, eight months since all of this broke, how do you think hollywood is coping, reacting, and stepping up when it comes to women's rights and equal treatment under, you know, fair play in hollywood? >> yeah, i mean, yes, i am all for women's empowerment, you know, in hollywood and at the village level in indonesia. that's a big part of this work that we do. you know, i mean, i've certainly learned that, you know, just because somebody asked me a question and gives me a microphone, it doesn't mean that it's my turn to talk. so i've been trying to listen a lot. i support those movements and think they're doing wonderful things. but in terms of, you know, this is what -- we talk about our work at water.org. that is something that i do want to talk about and i'm deeply -- you know, we've been doing this

for -- i've been doing it for over a decade, he's been doing it for over three. and it's a really -- and it's a great story because it's about -- it's about women who really have less than we can imagine in the west who are doing these really amazing and heroic things. >> what was it that caused you all the way over in hollywood to be energized by this water crisis? what is it that's made you think this is where you wanted to put your philanthropy and your social entrepreneurship? >> we saw this in the west 100 years ago. imagine if we cured cancer tomorrow, and in 100 years people were still dying by the millions of this thing that was totally preventable. so i think that's what gets us energized and then also the success we're having. >> the poor are the root of the solution. this problem contains its own solution. if we can just nudge the system a little bit so people can get access to these affordable loans, then that can be the

first step in lifting themselves out of poverty. >> i think that is a really important message for this time, particularly when people seem not to want to deal with the poor and resent charity. so i think this is a really good message. and i'm glad i've been on this journey at least for the last several years with you. thank you so much for joining us from jakarta. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> now to a different crisis facing women. the me too movement has toppled once untouchable hollywood stars, journalists and business moguls. no industry seems immune, no individual too big to fall. yet amid all the public accusations, the finance sector has managed to maintain a fairly low profile. that changed earlier this year. after lauren bohner, an associate director at one of wall street's most prominent firms filed a claim against her company, alleging widespread sexual discrimination. the case has earned her the nickname, the face of me too on wall street.

but her firm, .72, has vehemently denied any accusation of wrongdoing. i spoke to lauren bohner about her lawsuit from new york. lauren bohner, welcome to the program. >> thank you so much for having me. >> so, let's start, if you can, by summing up the nature of your lawsuit. >> i filed because .72 is engaging in systemic gender discrimination and harassment, and it's not just me. i'm being paid 35 cents on the dollar, colleagues are being paid other pennies on the dollar. i felt a real obligation to stand up and say something. >> so, how did you find this out? i mean, are salaries public? did you know what your other, you know, male colleagues were being paid? >> salaries are not public. i have access to the data as part of my role. so i see, i see data both about

some of the salaries on my team as well as things like female candidates coming right out of college have to have 20 to 25% higher gpas and s.a.t. scores than their male colleagues to get exactly the same job. after seeing that kind of data and seeing that it was just so pervasive and institutional, i really felt like i had to say something. >> and when you started to say something, what was the reaction? who did you take your complaints to? >> i took it to virtually everyone. i took it to hr, i took it to my manager, i took it to our coo and president. i tried to present the data more holistically to the leadership team, but our general counsel prevented me from doing so. >> on what grounds? >> they just didn't feel comfortable with my presenting the data. from my perspective, you know, you start wherever you are. you look at the data.

i tend to be a very data-driven person. i like to just understand where we are and make progress from there. their view was to shield leadership from the data. >> let's just put it quite clearly. you were rejected for a promotion as you have complained, and this, on the back of your building this rather innovative piece of technology for the company to use. >> that's exactly right. i also think i was subject to what so many women on wall street are subject to, which is a kind of catch-22, where to build an innovative technology platform, you can't -- yeah, you have to be assertive and make things happen. but on the flipside, being assertive is really -- you get penalized for that in a way that men do not. >> and is that the basis of the harassment claims? were there any other claims? you talked about the

institutionalized discrimination in terms of pay, et cetera. but you've also talked about other attitudes. describe what you encountered at .72. >> absolutely. having a male colleague offer up his assistance for sex as if she is his property. and no one thinks to say, that's not okay. and he obviously believes that that's something that he can offer. >> lauren, i'm horrified. i've never heard such a thing. what does that mean, offering up an assistant for sex, to who, with whose permission? >> in my presence he turned to another male colleague, pointed at his assistant and said, do you want to f her? you can. she works for me. >> oh, my god. did this assistant hear that? >> she did. she was standing right there. >> did she say anything? >> no. what can a woman say? i mean, it's so degrading.

>> did you? >> degrading for her, it's degrading for me. i wish i had at the moment. i obviously stood there with my mouth on the floor. >> wow. and you've also talked about unseemly words being, you know, attached to whiteboards in various high-level offices. >> sure, the president's office. he had the word pussy written on his whiteboard. you sat there in meetings with the president with the word pussy floating above him. it's a glass office, anyone can see it walking by. many people had mooetings eetint office. it went on for weeks. no one thought to tell him that was not okay. i for one reported some of these things, but it's intimidating. >> is it designed to intimidate or is it just, you know, old boy network culture? >> it's hard for me to say what

their mental state is in terms of why something would be on the board like that. it's confounding to me why someone would put that on the board. >> it sounds just unbelievable. i believe you. it sounds incredible. so, let me just ask you this as well, then. before accepting your job at point-72, you obviously knew who steve cohen was, right? he was quite controversial. he had had a fall at his previous venture, sac capital. i guess what made you take a job with him? and are you aware of his power, and what is -- are you worried about taking him on now through the legal system? >> well, i don't think it's -- i, of course, knew his history. that said, i don't think it's naive to believe that in 2018 a high-performing premiere firm

can respect women. that doesn't seem crazy to me. it's terrifying to take on a kind of intimidating bully, but i really feel like i have no choice. i don't think i could live with myself if i didn't come forward. there is this great moment right now. and if we don't say anything, who will? >> and you are still there. that's an amazing thing in and of itself. i mean, you haven't resigned. you haven't quit. obviously they presumably can't fire you while you're filing this lawsuit. why are you still there? and are you getting lots of support from inside the four walls of your company, particularly from the women? >> well, look, i keep showing up, i'll keep showing up until they tell me otherwise. i am getting quite a bit of support. i feel like i'm living a little bit of a double life during the day. at work i feel pretty isolated and it's obviously quite an icy environment.

but in the evenings i then tend to hear from a lot of women offering support, sharing their stories, thanking me for what i'm doing. so it's an interesting kind of two lives that i'm living. >> and tell me something, beyond point-72 for all your colleagues and friends you must have in the world of finance, is this sort of industrywide? is it a problem in the wall street culture? >> it's a good question. it's certainly an issue that plagues wall street. that being said, i don't think it's universal. i've certainly been at other premiere institutions where leaders operate with integrity and respect and this kind of thing doesn't happen. i think that's part of why i felt empowered to be able to come forward because i have seen other places. i have seen it doesn't have to be this way. >> so, let me ask you, then, a general question about women in

finance. the famous saying goes, in fact, it was the leader of the imf, herself a woman, christine lagarde, who suggested, what might have been the result at lehman brothers had it been called lehman sisters? in other words, if there were big companies run by women or at least many more women equally represented in the highest echelons of power? what can you say about that? >> well, studies have shown that women manage and think about risks very differently, so i agree that we may not have seen the same kind of crisis that we did because i do think women bring a different kind of view of risk. and that's why gender parity is not charity. it's good business. study after study shows that women are equally as good if not better investors as men. >> women who are professionals in this business and many others, and then who decide to

have children, many, many instances and there's recently been a big expose by "the new york times," after having a child, even if women and men were paid equally, the woman's salary takes a major dent and almost never recovers. do you find that in your business? and again, what sort of effect does that have on women wanting to stay, wanting to climb up the ladder and getting to the very top? >> absolutely i see it. "the new york times" did a beautiful job with that piece. it's a story that definitely needs to be told. women come back from maternity leave with their responsibilities cut, being sidelined, being marginalized. i see it all the time. it's particularly extreme at point-72, and it doesn't have to be that way. but i see it all the time. >> you've taken this very bold stance and you've talked about the me too moment and if not now when.

are you planning to help more women? in other words, are you going to expand your area of activism in this regard? what are your plans for the future? >> yes, definitely. i've been inspired and empowered and have gotten so much renewed coure from the leaders of time's up who have been really generous in helping me start to think about how do we bring this movement to wall street in a meaningful way. i think women in finance are, are now seeing that there is a real moment, that we can't wait for the cavalry, we need to be the cavalry for ourselves. i'm very hopeful that we can kind of stand up, speak out, and support each other, and bring some of that incredible meaningful impact that you've seen in other industries to wall street. >> and just finally, what is the status of your case? does it go to trial?

is there a time line? do we know what the whole legal procedure is going to look like? >> i'm awaiting the judge's decision on point-72's motion to compel arbitration. arbitration, as you well know, is just another way of silencing women. >> so, obviously point-72 has already reacted to your charges. what is your reaction to their reaction? >> i'm in no way surprised. i think it's a page right out of harvey weinstein's play book to deny, discredit, shame and blame me. and i think it speaks to how antiquated and out of touch this boy's club is. >> lauren bohner, thank you so much indeed for joining us. >> thank you so much. >> now, since our interview, a judge has granted point-72 its motion to have the case heard in arbitration. and we, of course, asked the hedge fund to respond to

bohner's allegations. they said that bohner's claims were, quote, false or based on unsubstantiated hearsay and that ms. bohner never brought her claim to the attention of her management until she demanded a $13 million pay out after only 18 months of employment. that was rejected. we went back to bohner and her lawyer to ask about that allegation, and they charged in return that point-72 made a, quote, seven-figure offer to resolve bohner's claim and indicated it would pay millions more before attempting to discredit ms. bohner's allegations with boilerplate defenses used to attack female employees who assert gender discrimination claims, end of quote. point-72 then admitted to us that they did offer bohner a million dollars to end the matter, but said bohner rejected the offer. the firm went on to say that bohner is trying to denigrate their firm in the media, and is

making, quote, outrageous claims without providing any evidence to back them up. point-72 said that it was well aware women are under represented in finance, a problem the firm has long tried to address with, quote, a series of comprehensive initiatives. the firm said that bohner worked on a diversity initiative as part of her role but, quote, instead of working with us constructively to advance the goals of diversity and inclusion, she chose to file this self-serving lawsuit. and so the case continues. and that is it for our program tonight. thanks for watching amanpour on pbs and join us again tomorrow night. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> announcer: you're watching

christian: you're watching "beyond 100 days" on pbs. boris johnson has resigned as british foreign secretary. becoming the third minister in 24 hours to walk out of government. katty: it's not only a fight over the prime minister's brexit proposal. it could soonen -- soon be a concerted to move unsee the her. with boris johnson taking the -- unseat her with boris johnson taking the lead. christian: teresa may says she's confident it is the right plan. >> this is the brexit that is in our national interest. it is the brexit that will deliver on the democratic decision of the british people. it is the right brexit deal for britain and i commend this statement to the house. christian: the prime minister has just left a meeting at the