Most Weinstein Accusers Are White Women. Only 2 Will Be on His Jury.

Half of the 12 jurors selected in the rape trial of Harvey Weinstein share something with him: They are white men. A seventh is a black man. The remaining five are women.

But prosecutors had raised one problem. For a while, the panel had no white women, even though the majority of Mr. Weinstein’s accusers are white women. In the end, only two white women were selected as jurors.

Over the last two days, Mr. Weinstein’s lawyers were successful in their efforts to ensure the jury includes several white men and people of color, using their challenges to limit the number of young white women, prosecutors said.

“They are systematically eliminating every young white woman on this jury,” the lead prosecutor, Joan Illuzzi, said in court on Thursday afternoon. She continued to vigorously protest the issue on Friday morning, just before the two white women were selected as the final two jurors.

Ms. Illuzzi did not specifically say in court why having few white women on the jury would be problematic for the prosecution, nor did defense lawyers fully explain their resistance to seating those jurors. One possibility is the theory that white women might be especially sympathetic to Mr. Weinstein’s accusers.

Trials are often won or lost in jury selection, with lawyers for both sides weeding out anyone who might show favor toward the prosecution or the defense.

The trial of Mr. Weinstein, the disgraced Hollywood producer, is one of the most anticipated proceedings in recent years. Allegations against him helped ignite the global #MeToo movement, a reckoning over sexual assault and harassment by powerful and influential men in the workplace.

The defense also sought to disqualify anyone who had been a victim of sexual assault or who knew someone who had been, greatly reducing the pool of women who might sit in judgment of Mr. Weinstein.

Mr. Weinstein, 67, is charged with raping one woman in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013 and forcing oral sex on a second woman in his Manhattan apartment in 2006.

Four other women will be called to testify about their allegations that Mr. Weinstein also sexually assaulted them. Those incidents are too old to be charged as separate crimes, but prosecutors have won permission to bring them up in an effort to prove a pattern of behavior.

Mr. Weinstein has said all the encounters were consensual.

Jury selection has been full of drama since it began last week. Hundreds of panelists said right away they could not be fair and were dismissed. A flash mob protested Mr. Weinstein outside the courthouse. The supermodel Gigi Hadid popped up in the jury pool and was eventually dismissed. One potential juror was excused after she said she knew a woman who had “an encounter” with the producer.

Despite what Mr. Weinstein has called a “carnival-like atmosphere” in court papers, the entire jury was seated by 1 p.m. on Friday, along with three alternates. The alternate jurors, who will serve only if one of the first 12 jurors must withdraw, include a white man, a Hispanic woman and black woman.

As both sides started picking jurors on Thursday, the judge overseeing the case, James M. Burke, acknowledged that many of the potential jurors had likely read about Mr. Weinstein. Still, he said, the goal was to find people who could set aside what they had read, be fair and judge the case solely on the evidence in the courtroom.

“This trial is not a referendum on the #MeToo movement. It is not a referendum on sexual harassment. It is not a referendum on women’s rights,” Justice Burke said. “The sole issue is for you to decide whether or not the defendant committed certain acts which constitute a particular crime and decide whether or not the facts have been proven.”

The jurors selected so far include a public housing worker, an Upper East Side businessman, an East Harlem security guard, the managing partner of an investment firm and a banking executive. One of the white women on the jury is a writer with an upcoming novel about predatory older men.

The lawyers and the judge narrowed a panel of more than 650 potential jurors down to 146, who returned on Thursday for additional questioning, called voir dire — inquiries focused on a person’s relationship to crime, whether he or she has ever been a victim and whether he or she can serve on a lengthy trial.

On Thursday, Mr. Weinstein’s lawyers eliminated several white women from the pool, including one who had friends in college who had been sexually assaulted. Another said her mother had been physically and sexually abused; a third had written a book about women in the workplace and had friends in the entertainment industry; and a fourth had also written a book on women’s issues.

“We’re here to try to win a fair jury,” said Donna Rotunno, one of Mr. Weinstein’s lawyers, adding that there was not a conspiracy to exclude certain people.