Learn English Emma Watson Gender equality is your issue too with BIG subtitles
i was appointed as goodwill ambassador
for un women six months ago
and the more i’ve spoken about feminism
the more i have realized
that fighting for women’s rights has too
often become synonymous
with man-hating
if there is one thing i know for certain
it is that this has to stop
for the record feminism by definition
is the belief that men and women should
have equal rights
and opportunities it is the theory
of the political economic and social
equality of the sexes
i started questioning gender-based
assumptions a long time ago
when i was eight i was confused
being called bossy because i wanted
to direct the plays that we would put on
for our parents
but the boys were not when at 14
i started to be sexualized by certain
elements of the media
when at 15 my girlfriends started
dropping out of their beloved sports
teams
because they didn’t want to appear
muscly
one at 18 my male friends
were unable to express their feelings
i decided that i was a feminist
and this seemed uncomplicated to me
but my recent research has shown me
that feminism has become an unpopular
word
women are choosing not
to identify as feminist
apparently i am among the ranks of women
whose expressions are seen as too strong
too aggressive isolating
and anti-men unattractive
even why
has the word become such an
uncomfortable one
i am from britain and i think it is
right
that i am paid the same as my male
counterparts
i think it is right that i should be
able to make decisions
about my own body i think
i think it is right that women be
involved
on my behalf in the policies and the
decisions that will affect my life
i think it is right that socially
i am afforded the same respect as men
but sadly i can say
that there is no one country in the
world
where all women can expect to receive
these rights
no country in the world can yet say
that they have achieved gender equality
these rights i consider to be human
rights
but i am one of the lucky ones
my life is a sheer privilege
because my parents didn’t love me less
because i was born a daughter
my school did not limit me because i was
a girl
my mentors didn’t assume that i would go
less far because i might give birth to a
child one day
these influences were the gender
equality ambassadors
that made me who i am today
they may not know it but they are the
inadvertent feminists who are changing
the world today
we need more of those and if you still
hate the word
it is not the word that is important
it’s the idea and the ambition behind
it because not all women have received
the same rights that i have in fact
statistically very few have been
in 1997 hillary clinton made a famous
speech in beijing about women’s rights
sadly many of the things that she wanted
to change
are still true today
but what stood out for me the most was
that less than 30 percent
of the audience were male
how can we affect change in the world
when only half of it
is invited or feel welcome to
participate
in the conversation
men i would like to take this
opportunity
to extend your formal invitation
gender equality is your issue
too because to date
i’ve seen my father’s role as a parent
being valued less
by society despite my needing his
presence as a child
as much as my mother’s i’ve seen young
men
suffering from mental illness unable to
ask for help
for fear it would make them less
of a men or less of a man
in fact in the uk suicide
is the biggest killer of men between 20
to 49
eclipsing road accidents cancer
and coronary heart disease
i’ve seen men made fragile and insecure
by a distorted sense of what constitutes
male success men
don’t have the benefits of equality
either
we don’t often talk about men being
imprisoned by gender stereotypes
but i can see that they are
and that when they are free things will
change for women
as a natural consequence
if men don’t have to be aggressive in
order to be accepted
women won’t feel compelled to be
submissive
if men don’t have to control women won’t
have to be
controlled both men and women should
feel
free to be sensitive both men and women
should feel free
to be strong it is time that we all
perceive gender
on a spectrum instead of two sets
of opposing ideals
if
we stop defining each other by what we
are not
and start defining ourselves by who we
are
we can all be freer and this
is what he she is about
it’s about freedom
i want men to take up this mantle so
that their daughters
sisters and mothers can be free from
prejudice
but also so that their sons have
permission to be vulnerable and human
too
reclaim those parts themselves they
abandoned
and in doing so be a more true
and complete version of themselves
you might be thinking who is this harry
potter girl
and what is she doing speaking at the un
and it’s a really good question i’ve
been asking myself
the same thing all i know
is that i care about this problem and i
want to make it better
and having seen what i’ve seen and given
the chance
i feel it is my responsibility to say
something statesman edmund burke
said all that is needed for the forces
of evil to triumph is for good men and
women
to do nothing
in my nervousness for this speech
and in my moments of doubt
i’ve told myself firmly
if not me who
if not now when
if you have similar doubts when
opportunities are presented to you
i hope that those words will be helpful
because the reality is
that if we do nothing it will take
75 years or for me to be nearly a
hundred
before women can expect to be paid the
same as men
for the same work 15.5 million
girls will be married in the next 16
years
as children and at current rates
it won’t be until 2086
before all rural african girls can have
a secondary education
if you believe in equality
you might be one of those inadvertent
feminists that i spoke of earlier
and for this i applaud you
we are struggling for a uniting word
but the good news is that we have a
uniting movement
it is called he for she
i am inviting you to step forward
to be seen and to ask yourself
if not me who
if not now when
thank you very very much