The HeForShe campaign launched last year with a speech from UN Women Goodwill Ambassador Emma Watson. The campaign is a solidarity movement for gender equality which calls upon men and boys to help end the persisting inequalities faced by women and girls globally. As heforshe.org explains, the movement for gender equality was originally conceived as a struggle led only by women for women. Over the past few years, men have begun to stand up and address the inequality and discrimination faced by women. Gender inequalities affect both men and women, and HeForShe unifies humanity to support humanity, for the benefit of all. Here is Watson's original speech from 2014:
UN Women recently hit the road for a University Tour across the UK, ending up at London School of Economics where actor Douglas Booth gave his keynote speech. He discussed the large percentage of refugee women seeking protection in Europe, stating, “I am he for she because engaging men everywhere is vital to ending gender-based atrocities in these areas of conflict." He stressed the importance of everyone finding their voice to speak out for inequality, adding, "“I want to make sure that when I am lucky enough to have children, they will be going to a school with the understanding that they live in a world in which they can be free to be themselves."
You can watch his speech from October 7th here:
After the #GetFree Tour, Elle UK released an article titled, "5 Things We Learned From The HeForShe Tour." The 5 things they took from the speeches and panels were:
1. Men are our partners in bringing about equality.
2. Both the everyday inequalities and the extremely terrible atrocities need to be tackled.
3. We need to address unconscious bias.
4. Gender fluidity is celebrated.
5. Change is possible (and can be immediate).
HeForShe has been listening to all the feedback from the tour and working to make sure the movement is completely inclusive. From sexual violence to unequal pay to everyday sexism, we still have a long way to go before we reach gender equality. It's our job to commit to make a more just and equal world where gender discrimination and violence are no longer prevalent. As UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said, "We can only stop it by working together. Women and men." It's on all of us to dismantle gender norms and prejudices to start making a change.
