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  • And now let's turn to a young woman who has chosen to lend her voice to this very important solidarity movement.

  • She's a leading British actor, an advocate for gender equality in her own right. She's been involved with a promotion of girl's education for several years.

  • As part of her humanitarian efforts she has visited Bangladesh, Zambia.

  • Recently returned as we just heard from Uruguay on her first mission with UN women.

  • Ladies and Gentlemen, please join me in welcoming to this stage our co-host and the UN Women's Global Goodwill Ambassador Emma Watson.

  • *clapping*

  • *handshakes*

  • *more clapping*

  • *clapping dies down*

  • 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 am reaching out to you because we need your help.

  • We want to end gender inequality, 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.

  • And we don't just want to talk about it, we want to try to make sure that its 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 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 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 fourteen, I started to be sexualized by certain elements of the media.

  • When at fifteen, my girlfriends started dropping out of their beloved sports teams because they didn't want to appear "muscle-y".

  • When at eighteen, 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-

  • *cut off by applause*

  • *lots of clapping*

  • 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 with 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 thirty percent of the audience were male.

  • How can we affect change in the world when only half of it is invited?

  • Or feel welcomed to participate in a conversation?

  • Men,

  • I would like to take this opportunity to extend your formal invitation.

  • *really loud applause*

  • *applause dies down*

  • Gender equality is your issue too.

  • Because to date, I have 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 twenty to forty-nine eclipsing road accidents, cancer, and coronary heart disease.

  • I've seen men made fragile and insecure by 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 perceived gender on a spectrum instead of two sets of opposing ideals.

  • If-

  • *gets cutoff again*

  • *clapping*

  • If we stop defining each other by what we are not and start defining ourselves by who we are we can all be free-er.

  • And this is what HeForShe 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.

  • 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 UN?" and it's 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 seen and given the chance, I feel it is my responsibility to say something.

  • Statesman Edmund Berke 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 seventy-five years or for me to be nearly one-hundred before women can expect to be paid the same as men.

  • For the same work.

  • Fifteen-point-five million girls will be married in the next sixteen 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 HeForShe.

  • 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.

  • *applause*

  • *standing ovation*

  • *claps*

  • What a beautiful beautiful speech--Ah--What a beautiful thought, Emma.

  • Pay attention.

And now let's turn to a young woman who has chosen to lend her voice to this very important solidarity movement.

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