Learn English Meghan Markles Fight Speech For Feminism

I am tremendously honored to be UN

women’s advocate for political

participation and leadership I am proud

to be a woman and a feminist and this

evening I am extremely proud to stand

before you on this significant day which

serves as a reminder to all of us of how

far we’ve come but also amid celebration

a reminder of the road ahead I want to

tell you a story that’ll sort of give

context to my being here and my work

with you and women when I was just 11

years old I unknowingly and somehow

accidentally became a female advocate I

was around the same time as the Beijing

conference so a little over 20 years ago

we’re in my hometown of Los Angeles a

pivotal moment reshape my notion of what

is possible see I had been in school

watching a TV show in elementary school

and this commercial came on with the

tagline for this dishwashing liquid and

the tagline said women all over America

are fighting greasy pots and pans two

boys from my class said yeah that’s her

women belong in the kitchen I remember

feeling shocked and angry and also just

feeling so hurt it just wasn’t right and

something needed to be done so I went

home and I told my dad what had happened

and he encouraged me to write letters so

I did to the most powerful people I

could think of now my 11 year old self

were

doubt that if I really wanted someone to

hear me well then I should write a

letter to the first lady so off I went

scribbling away to our first lady at the

time Hillary Clinton I also put pen to

paper and I wrote a letter to my news

source at the time Linda Ellerbee who

hosted a Kids news program and then to

powerhouse attorney Gloria Allred

because even at 11 I wanted to cover all

my bases

finally I wrote to the soap manufacturer

and a few weeks went by and to my

surprise I received letters of

encouragement from Hillary Clinton from

Linda Ellerbee and from Gloria Allred it

was amazing the kids new show

they sent a camera crew to my home to

cover the story and it was roughly a

month later when the soap manufacturer

Procter & Gamble changed the commercial

for their ivory clear dishwashing liquid

they changed it from women all over

America are fighting greasy pots and

pans to people all over America

it was at that moment that I realized

the magnitude of my actions at the age

of eleven I had created my small level

of impact by standing up for equality

now equality means that president Paul

Kagame of Rwanda whose country I

recently visited as part of my learning

mission with UN Women

it means that he is equal to the little

girl the djembe refugee camp who is

dreaming about being president one day

equality means that un secretary-general

ban ki-moon is equal to the young intern

at the UN who is dreaming about shaking

his hand it means that a wife it means

that a wife is equal to her husband a

sister to her brother not better not

worse they are equal you and women as

you guys know has defined the year 2030

as the expiration date for gender

inequality and here’s what’s staggering

the studies show that at the current

rate the elimination of gender

inequality won’t be possible until 2095

that’s another 80 years from now and

when it comes to women’s political

participation and leadership the

percentage of female parliamentarians

globally has only increased by 11

percent since 1995 11 percent in 20

years

come on this has to change women

[Applause]

women make up more than half of the

world’s population and potential so it

is neither just nor practical for their

voices for our voices to go unheard at

the highest levels of decision-making

the way that we change that in my

opinion is to mobilize girls and women

to see their value as leaders and to

support them in these efforts to have

leaders such as President Kagame of

Rwanda continue to be a role model of a

country which has a parliamentary system

comprised of 64% female leaders I mean

it’s the highest of any government in

the world and it’s unbelievable we need

more men like that just as we need more

men like my father who championed my 11

year old self to stand up for what is

right in doing this we remind girls that

their small voices are in fact not small

at all and that they can affect change

in doing this we remind women that their

involvement matters that they need to

become active in their communities in

their local governments as well as in

the highest parliamentary positions it

is just imperative women need a seat at

the table they need an invitation to be

seated there and in some cases where

this isn’t available well then you know

what then they need to create their own

table

we need we need a global understanding

that we cannot implement change

effectively without women’s political

participation it is said that girls with

dreams become women with vision may we

empower each other to carry out such

vision because it isn’t enough to simply

talk about equality one must believe in

it and it isn’t enough to simply believe

in it one must work at it

let us work at it together

starting now thank you so much

[Applause]