Your excellencies, UN secretary general, president of the general assembly, executive director
of UN Women, and distinguished guests, 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.
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 change.
And we don't just want to talk about it - we want to try and make sure it is tangible.
I was appointed as goodwill ambassador for UN women six months ago, and the more I've
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 a long time ago.
When I was eight, I was confused about being called bossy, because I wanted to direct the
plays that we would put on for our parents, but the boys were not.
When at fourteen, I started to be sexualized by certain elements of the media.
When at fifteen, my girlfriends started dropping out of their beloved sports teams, because
they didn't want to appear muscle-ey.
When at eighteen, my male friends were unable to express their feelings.
I decided that I was a feminist, and this seemed uncomplicated to me.
But my recent research has shown me that feminism has become an unpopular word.
Women are choosing not to identify as feminists.
Apparently, I am among the ranks of women whose expressions are seen as too strong,
too aggressive, isolating, and anti-men.
Unattractive, even.
Why has the word become such an uncomfortable one?
I am from Britain, and I think it is right that 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 the decisions
that will affect my life.
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 those rights.
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 didn't limit me, because I was a girl.
My mentors didn't assume I'd go less far, because I might give birth to a child one
day.
These influences, 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.
And if you still hate the word, it is not the word that is important.
It's the idea and the ambition behind it.
Because not all women have received the same rights that I have.
In fact, statistically, very few have been.
In 1997, Hillary Clinton made a famous speech in Beijing about women's rights.
Sadly, many of the things that she wanted to change are still true today.
But what stood out for me the most is that less than 30% of the 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
that it would make them less of men - or less of a man.
In fact, in the UK, suicide is the biggest killer of men between 20 to 49, 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
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 be free
to be strong.
It is time that we all perceive gender on a spectrum, instead of two sets of opposing
ideals.
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.
I want men to take up this mantle, so that 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've 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 speaking at the
UN?
And it's a really good question.
I've been asking myself the same thing.
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 responsibility
to say something.
Statesman Edmund Burke said: “All that is needed for the forces of evil to triumph,
is for 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 that those words
will be helpful.
Because the reality is that if we do nothing, it will take 75 years, or for me to be nearly
100 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 sixteen years, as children.
And at current rates, it won't be until 2086 before all rural African girls can have a
secondary education.
If you believe in inequality, you might be one of those inadvertent feminists that I
spoke of earlier, and for this I applaud you.
We are struggling for a uniting world, but the good news is that we have a uniting movement.
It is called He For She.
I am inviting you to step forward, to be seen, and to ask yourself - If not me, who?
If not now, when?
Thank you very very much.