Emma Watson's 2014 HeForShe speech: "Gender Equality is your issue too."
- The Teenage Feminist
- Aug 17
- 5 min read
Emma Watson and HeForShe
Most of you probably know Emma Watson as the girl from Harry Potter - growing up, she was a child actress, who played Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter franchise - but now she is a UN Women's Goodwill Ambassador and a Humanitarian. She is an advocate for UN Women's HeForShe campaign, and an ambassador for Camfed International, which is a movement for girls education in rural areas of Africa.
In September 2014, Watson launched the UN's HeForShe campaign. HeForShe aims to end gender equality, but their approach was new and never before seen by the United Nations - HeForShe aims to urge as many men and boys to speak out about gender equality as possible, because gender equality is not just a women's rights issue.
"If we stop defining each other by what we are not and start defining ourselves by what we are—we can all be freer and this is what HeForShe is about. It’s about freedom."
"Gender Equality is your issue too"
Emma Watson gave her speech, "Gender Equality is your issue too" on Saturday, 20th September 2014, at the HeForShe camapign event at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.
"I started questioning gender-based assumptions when at eight I was confused at being called “bossy,” because I wanted to direct the plays we would put on for our parents—but the boys were not.
When at 14 I started being sexualized by certain elements of the press.
When at 15 my girlfriends started dropping out of their sports teams because they didn’t want to appear “muscly.”
When at 18 my male friends were unable to express their feelings.
I decided I was a feminist and this seemed uncomplicated to me."
Watson shares her own experience with sexism starting with memories from as early as eight years old, when double standards meant that a boy could do something without comment, but if she did the same thing, she was bossy? These kind of unfair standards at such a young age can cause children to internalize such ideologies, which are sexist and unequal.
But Watson didn't just see the sexism faced by women in her life. According to Watson, men are unable to express their feelings for fear of being too sensitive, or not being manly enough. This proves that gender equality is not just a women's issue - it is everyone's issue. Men and women may not find the same inequalities, but they will find gender inequalities nonetheless.
"I am from Britain and think it is right that as a woman 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 decision-making of my country. 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 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 I would go less far because I might give birth to a child one day. These influencers 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. And we need more of those."
Inadvertent feminists are the feminists who don't declare the title or parade in marches - they are the parents who don't value sons over daughters, the teachers who give both genders equal oppurtunity, and they are changing the world just as much. They are important because they are the ones creating a world where gender equality isn't happening through legal documents in big fancy offices and courts, but at schools where teachers assume the same of their male and female students, in homes where daughters and sons are equally loved and appreciated.
"We don’t often talk about men being imprisoned by gender stereotypes but I can see that 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 not as two opposing sets of ideals."
Perspective is incredibly important when dealing with a socially prevelant issue. Watson is looking at a side of the issue that most people do not consider. We can do our best to make changes to how women are treated, but how can women break out of gendered roles if we don't try to help men break out of their opposing role?
"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 will be able to receive a secondary education."
It has been 11 years since this speech has been given. According to Watson it'll be another 64 years until the wage gap is closed, and it'll be another 61 years for girls in Rural African areas to recieve a secondary education. According to a study by the American Association of University Women, current statistics aren't much better, with their estimate of it being 63 years until women and men recieve equal pay for equal work.
Conclusion
"Ask yourself if not me, who? If not now, when?"
This is a question we should all be asking ourselves. If we won't do it, who will? If it isn't done now, when will it be done? Because the truth is, if we all keep waiting for the next person, the next movement, the next anything? Nothing will be done.
The United Nations claimed we would have gender equality by 2030. That is five years from now. But girls and boys, men and women? We aren't equal, and it's going to be much more than five years until we are, and even then change will only happen if all of us, men and women work together to bring us there.
Bibliography
AAUW. “The Simple Truth about the Pay Gap.” AAUW : Empowering Women since 1881, AAUW, 2022, www.aauw.org/resources/research/simple-truth/.
UN Women. “UN Women Goodwill Ambassador Emma Watson.” UN Women, 2014, www.unwomen.org/en/partnerships/goodwill-ambassadors/emma-watson.
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