Name: Emma Watson HeForShe Speech
Uploaded: 2014-09-24T05:36:02.000Z
Duration: 11 min 48 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Your Excellencies, UN secretary general, president of the general assembly,

executive director of UN Women, and distinguished guests.

Today, we are launching a campaign called HeForShe.

I'm reaching out to you because we need your help.

and to do this, we need everyone involved.

This is the first campaign of its kind at the UN.

We want to try and galvanize as many men and boys as possible to be advocates for change

We want to try and make sure that it's tangible.

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

the fighting for women's rights has too often become synonymous with man-hating.

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 8, I was confused being called "bossy"

because I wanted to direct the plays that we would put on for our parents.

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 "muscley".

When at 18, my male friends were unable to express their feelings.

But my recent research has shown me that feminism has become an unpopular word.

Women are choosing not to identify as feminists.

Apparently, I'm among the ranks of women whose expressions are seen as too strong

Why has the word become such an uncomfortable one?

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 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 achieve gender equality.

These rights I consider to be human rights.

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 will 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, that they are the inadvertent   feminists who are changing the world today.

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.

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 U.K., 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 HeForShe is about.

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

We claim 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 U.N.?"

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.

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

If you have similar doubts when opportunities are presented to you

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Emma Watson HeForShe Speech

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