Learn English with Emma Watsons Speech on the HeForShe Campaign English Subtitle
women are choosing not to identify as
feminists 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
[Applause]
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’s 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 with agenda 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
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 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 to
reclaim those parts of 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
it to be nearly a hundred before women
connect
Specht to be paid the same as men for
the same work fifteen point five million
girls will be married in the next 16
years as children and at current rates
it won’t be until two thousand and
eighty six 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
[Music]