DOSHISHA ESS

Emma Watson

 

「Gender Equality is Your Issue Too」

 

Today we are launching a campaign called “He-For-She.” 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.

 

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.”

 

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 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. We need more of those.

 

Men—I would like to take this opportunity to extend you a formal invitation. Gender equality is your issue too. 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.

 

If we stop defining each other by what we are not, and start defining ourselves by who we are—we can all be freer and this is what He-For-She is about. It’s about freedom.

 

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 believe in equality, you might be one of those inadvertent feminists that I spoke of earlier, and for this I applaud you.

 

I am inviting you to step forward, and to ask yourself, ‘If not me, who?’ ‘If not now, when?’

 

Thank you very very much.