On Sunday night, Emma Watson took to the stage at the United Nations Headquarters in New York to deliver a compelling speech for the United Nations’s new HeForShe campaign. Her speech went viral within hours.
Miss Watson is a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador, and she doesn’t take the role lightly. Since taking up the role six months ago, Emma says that she has realised “that fighting for women’s rights has too often become synonymous with man-hating.” The HeForShe campaign is dedicated to eradicating that stigma, and calls for men to involve themselves in the fight for gender equality.
In what is perhaps the most resonating quote from her speech, Emma invites men to take responsibility for gender inequality: “Men—I would like to take this opportunity to extend your formal invitation. Gender equality is your issue too.”
In lieu of the recently popular opinion that gender equality has been reached, Emma makes it clear that it has not: “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.”
Similarly, Julia Gillard, former Prime Minister and orator of that Misogyny Speech, said in her interview with Ray Martin last night that in the context of Australia, where women don’t face the same horrors as women in other parts of the world, people “are entitled to still say something is not right about treatment of women, even though it doesn’t in any way equal the kind of evils we see overseas.”
Though we are far far away from Emma in New York, her message is one that resonates with people all across the world, and especially in South Australia. With inspirational feminist icon, Ms Julia Gillard, living in our own backyard, we’ve got a one up on the rest of the country, and maybe even the world.
If you haven’t seen Emma’s speech yet, stop what you’re doing and watch this.
Julia Gillard’s speech is also vital viewing. For her thoughts about misogyny, skip to the 3.00 mark.
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