Pluck an email at random from the millions in the Department of Justice’s Epstein Library. It is a Saturday evening in February 2013, and Jeffrey Epstein is messaging Bill Gates’s assistant about guests for a dinner he wants to organise.

“People for Bill,” the email begins. Epstein starts listing possible candidates: the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, the film director Woody Allen, the prime minister of Qatar, a couple of Harvard academics, the billionaire CEO of Hyatt hotels, a White House communications director, a former US secretary of defence.

He names 10 powerful men, before suggesting “Anne Hathaway (really)”. Epstein has to make it clear, with the bracketed word, that he is not joking when he proposes that a woman might join them at the table. The lists ends tentatively: “victoria secret models?” Epstein wonders: “Who on the list do you think he would enjoy the most?”

The Epstein files reveal a patriarchy in action. This is a world where the men are rich and powerful, and the women are not. The emails showcase the private behaviour of a male ruling class, as they network, joke and trade information. Women exist at the periphery, tolerated because they organise the diaries of the busy men, they arrange food, they grace a table, they provide sex.

A typical email from Epstein to a man in his network will say: “Head of the Nobel Peace Prize committee Thorbjorn Jagland will be staying in ny with me. You might find him interesting.” Epstein is writing to Richard Branson in characteristic style, combining some casual showing off with an offer to share access to someone else influential.

A typical email from Epstein to a woman might say: “Take a selfie of your pussy and send.”

Spend three days rummaging through the chaotic, sprawling, sordid pit of information contained in the Epstein files, and you learn valuable lessons about how this modern global patriarchy operates: through flattery, the exchange of favours and occasional curt reminders of who owes what to whom.

For women, these files offer an unprecedented chance to eavesdrop on conversations from which they are usually excluded. They provide salutary insights into what a set of distinguished global figures think and say about women when they assume the women aren’t listening.

There are two groups of people in the Epstein files. The men: the billionaires, the tech entrepreneurs, the bankers, statespeoople, politicians, leaders, people who need to be cultivated because they offer Epstein ways to strengthen his network of influence. And the women, who exist as insignificant plus-ones, or as people to whom he doles out money because they are providing him with services. Women feature as objects to be looked at and improved – teeth seen to, weight lost, STDs treated, features fixed. (“You might want to see a doctor about reducing the nose a little before you turn 23,” Epstein suggests to an unnamed woman in July 2017.) The emails show that Epstein is often irritated by the women.

Women as organisers

The men are looked after by teams of female helpers. Lesley Groff, Epstein’s long-term executive assistant, appears to be responsible for organising schedules, snacks and sex. When Epstein has a meeting with Larry Summers in 2012, Groff reminds her female colleagues that “Larry is VIP!” and tells them: “We should be prepared with snacks for Larry.” She reminds them again later: “Can we make sure to have something snack-y for Larry.” She is on first-name terms with a global cast of female personal assistants – Elon Musk’s Mary Beth and Anne, Branson’s Helen; they consult each other about their employers’ dietary preferences (Branson likes sauvignon blanc, pinot grigio and rosé. “No chardonnay please! Likes desserts in general. As sugar-free as possible.”)

Groff provides a tireless dual-track service organising diaries and travel so her boss can meet powerful men, as they endlessly circle the world between Paris, Los Angeles, New York and London, attending summits and dinners. She smooths out the wearisome business of packing and booking helicopters with calming emails that promise: “Leave it with me,” and: “I’ll take care of it.” Groff’s lawyers have previously said their client had “never witnessed anything improper or illegal”.

When Epstein decides on a whim on a Saturday evening in 2012 that he wants to organise two seminars, one on power, and one on money, he emails Groff with a list of 20 men he thinks should attend: Jeff Bezos, Jes Staley, Bill Clinton, Peter Thiel, Gates etc (it seems no women are going to participate in the power and money seminars). Groff is unflustered by the request to start scheduling invitations to tech billionaires and some of the world’s most powerful men, and sends a chirpy reply: “Great. I will keep track.”

In parallel, she sorts out logistics for the women that Epstein likes to move around the world with him – air tickets are purchased, visas sorted, cars arranged. She handles countless requests to extract women from cities in eastern Europe: “Organise for [redacted] to come from moscow to paris arrive 2.40 sat, leave late sun night, she will send her passport.” She sends out details of the addresses that women should be picked up from (“Girls to meet at 71st Street with their IDs. Heli to East Hampton”). She reassures women that payments for tickets have been “purchased on JE’s Black Amex!!”. She gets saunas fixed, steam rooms serviced, makes sure the modem is working in the bedroom. Not much gratitude is expressed by her boss. Very occasionally the diary is double booked; Groff is duly reprimanded by Epstein: “I have depos all day? You should know that.”

Men messaging men

Without women observing their behaviour, the men are uninhibited in the way they communicate with each other, frat-boy-style tones unchecked. “By the way,” the Emirati businessman Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem messages Epstein early on a November Tuesday morning in 2013, “the Ukrainian and the Moldavian arrived. Big disappointment the Moldavian is not as attractive as the picture.” “Photo shop,” Epstein suggests. “Not only that she was too short and skinny,” Bin Sulayem replies.

Is this just standard locker-room banter? (How can women who aren’t normally allowed in these spaces possibly know the answer to that?) There are just 525 messages referencing pussy, but more often the word is coyly initialised. Men sign off messages to Epstein wishing him “lots of P”. “Happy new year with lots of P” or “Happy birthday and a year full of health, money and lots of P”. Epstein’s friends like to email him updates about the health benefits of sex. “Pussy is, indeed, low carb. Still awaiting results on gluten content, though,” the Canadian longevity doctor Peter Attia writes. Being in Epstein’s company allows distinguished elders, such as Noam Chomsky, the linguistics professor, to reveal their true thoughts about women. In 2019, months before Epstein died in prison, Chomsky was advising him on how to handle all the bad press he was getting, advising him to ignore it all, given “the hysteria that has developed about abuse of women”. It allows the married father of six, and former Harvard president, Summers, to continue messaging Epstein – a man who had pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from an underage girl a decade earlier – asking for romantic advice, up to the day before his arrest in 2019.

There are plenty of examples of sniggering disdain for women (Peter Mandelson and Epstein joking about celebrating his release from prison with strippers called Grace and Modesty). But it is the routine display of indifference that feels most chilling. Take the protracted back-and-forth between Epstein’s female assistants and Branson over travel arrangements to get Epstein to Necker Island for a lunch date in 2013. Would it be all right if Epstein brought Gates’s assistant with him, and two Russian girls (names redacted)? Branson replies himself, within a few minutes: that’s fine. Best, Richard. The next email checks whether it matters that the two Russian girls don’t have UK visas. This doesn’t seem to pose a problem. No interest is expressed in who these Russian girls are, no explanation is offered about their role, and there is no curiosity about why a convicted child sex offender is bringing them. The response is just: “Of course. Best. Richard.”

Some might be tempted to dismiss the Epstein files as just evidence of the extreme behaviour of a prolific sex offender.

But strip away the lewd and crude content, and they also reveal much about how patriarchy works day to day.

Favours and flattery

The men message each other endlessly, inquiring about each other’s locations, responding with light displays of one-upmanship, informing each other about their tight schedules. Their messages say things like: “Are you in NY? Would be great to catch up. I’m in SF/LA til Wed.” One month, Mandelson messages from Shanghai where “the entire Chinese banking fraternity is attending”; next month he messages from Centre Court at Wimbledon (“But not in royal box like Andrew”). He expresses concern that his friend is in New York and not on holiday: “Not doing mykonos?”

Once their geography is established, the men exchange titbits of knowledge. “What do u make of JPMorgan stuff?” Summers asks Epstein in 2012. The responses are not always hugely insightful; these conversations seem more about flexing their closeness to the centre of power.

Favours are swapped. Epstein is asked if he can help get someone’s son a job, let someone stay in his New York flat. Connections are traded openly. In 2019 Epstein seeks reputational advice from Steve Bannon about which journalists might give him an easy hearing, before offering as a quid pro quo an introduction to Chomsky – who is “an iconic figure and you shouldn’t pass up the chance to talk history and politics. I will connect you on email.”

Helping boost each other’s reputations is standard practice. One of Epstein’s friends tells him he has been working on editing his Wikipedia page for him. “BTW, we also took out you in the sex offender category … And, now it just reads businessman, philanthropist.”

When women intrude into this male world, it is often because they are representing philanthropic foundations. Philanthropy is used cynically by many of the men to extend their networks of influence and to distract attention from their financial dealings. In this world, mostly unpeopled by women (apart from those who are there for sex), Sarah Ferguson is something of a category error, a Bianca Castafiore figure, the lone woman in Tintin, annoying the men with her insufferable singing.

Behind the scenes, Epstein is trying to manage the women he has imported into his life. He advises one to go to the doctor for STD checks and to get a test of her hormones. “Whore moans,” he adds, and suggests she attend a tantric sex class. Another woman accuses him of mistreatment. “I dressed like u told me. I did my hair style like u asked. We had sex. I did massage for you non-stop. I took a bath with u and your girls even if I don’t like it. I danced even if I didn’t feel like to dance or wasn’t in the mood.” He expresses annoyance at the behaviour of a long-term girlfriend whom he accuses of “crying and whining” because he will not let her attend the dinners he organises with powerful men. Somehow the women have not yet learned that they cannot expect to sit at the table. The women cannot have their own preferences; the women must always be ready to dance.