The speech Emma Watson, UN Global Goodwill Ambassador, delivered at the #HeForShe launch in September of last year garnered over 11 million views and sparked 1.2 billion conversations on social media, calling for men to be involved in the fight for gender equality.
Today, the Harry Potter star spoke up once again for equal rights for men and women. At the press conference held in Davos, Switzerland, she announced her new, year long initiative IMPACT 10X10X10. “It’s about engaging governments, businesses and universities and having them make concrete commitments to gender equality,” she says in her speech, before reaching out to the people behind those organisations to tell their stories. “Girls, who have been your mentors? Parents, have you treated your children equally? If so, how have you done it? Husbands, have you been supporting your female partner privately so she can fulfil her dreams too? Young men, have you spoken up in a conversation when a women was casually degraded or dismissed?” she goes on before finishing on the positive note, “It is my belief that there is a greater understanding than ever that women need to be equal participants in our homes, in our societies, in our governments, and in our work places. They know that the world is being held back in every way, because they are not. Women share this planet 50/50 and they are underrepresented, their potential astonishingly untapped.” Go Hermione.