Gender Equality and HeFORShe Campaign

Recently Emma Watson, the Harry Potter actress and the U. N. Women Goodwill Ambassador delivered a powerful and remarkable speech on feminism and gender equality at the U.N. headquarters in New York to promote the HeForShe campaign. The purpose of the campaign is to get men and boys as advocates for gender equality. In the past years gender movement was conceived as the struggles led by women to achieve equal rights for women. The HeForShe campaign creates a new dimension by including men and boys to take action against gender inequality.

In her passionate and important speech Watson not only called for action from male counterparts but also clarified a typical misconception about feminism in general. She said, “The more I spoke about feminism, the more I 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.” 

She rightly mentioned that gender equality is not only a women issue, it is a men issue too. There are many men in the world who do not have the benefits of equality.Without men’s support the goal of gender equality would not be achieved. She hopes that by including male allies in this movement, the ‘us” vs “them” mentality would be abolished one day.

 

Watson's speech catches the media attention and her HeForShe campaign is spreading rapidly through social media.I hope her speech will work as the magic wand as U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon joked, “She’s been waving a magic wand. I hope you use your magic wand to end violence against women!”