Critical Reading Assignment - Speech - EW

Critical Reading Assignment 3: Emma Watson: Gender equality is your issue too, 2014
Today we are launching a campaign called “HeForShe.”
I am reaching out to you because I need your help. We want to end gender inequality—and to do that we
need everyone to be 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 gender equality. And we don’t just want to talk about it, but make sure it is
tangible.
I was appointed six months ago and the more I have 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 the political, economic and social equality of the sexes.”
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. But my recent research has shown me
that feminism has become an unpopular word.
Apparently I am among the ranks of women whose expressions are seen as too strong, too aggressive,
isolating, anti-men and, unattractive.
Why is the word such an uncomfortable one?
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.
And if you still hate the word—it is not the word that is important but the idea and the ambition behind
it. Because not all women have been afforded the same rights that I have. In fact, statistically, very few
have been.
In 1995, Hilary Clinton made a famous speech in Beijing about women’s rights. Sadly many of the things
she wanted to change are still a reality today.
But what stood out for me the most was that only 30 per cent of her 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
look less “macho”—in fact in the UK suicide is the biggest killer of men between 20-49 years of age;
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 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.
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.
I want men to take up this mantle. So their daughters, sisters and mothers can be free from prejudice but
also so that their sons have permission to be vulnerable and human too—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 up on stage at the UN. It’s a
good question and trust me, I have been asking myself the same thing. I don’t know if I am qualified to
be here. 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 duty to say something. English
Statesman Edmund Burke said: “All that is needed for the forces of evil to triumph is for enough 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 those words
might be helpful.
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.
If you believe in equality, you might be one of those inadvertent feminists I spoke of earlier.
And for this I applaud you.

We are struggling for a uniting word but the good news is we have a uniting movement. It is called
HeForShe. I am inviting you to step forward, to be seen to speak up, to be the "he" for "she". And to ask
yourself if not me, who? If not now, when?
Thank you.

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Critical Reading Assignment 3: Emma Watson: Gender equality is your issue too, 2014

Today we are launching a campaign called “HeForShe.”

When at 14 I started being sexualized by certain elements of the press.

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

Why is the word such an uncomfortable one?

And for this I applaud you.

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