On Sept. 20Â at the United Nations headquarters in New York, Emma Watson took the world by storm with her game-changing speech on feminism. Watson, actress and U.N. Women Global Goodwill Ambassador, used her speech to introduce the campaign HeForShe. The campaign, organized by U.N. Women, aims to integrate men into feminism to help promote universal gender equality. Her speech, along with telling of her personal connection to feminism, outlined many of the problems that men and women are facing globally.
But what is feminism exactly?
As addressed by Watson in her speech, the word has a distorted definition by many. Feminism, unfortunately, often carries the connotation of “man-hating.” The negativity associated with this word is one of the reasons that Watson and U.N. Women began HeForShe. “Feminism,” Watson said, “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”1. Therefore, if you believe that men and women are equal, you are, by definition, a feminist.
So why don’t more people identify as feminists?
Many people are reluctant to come out of the “feminist closet” due to the man-hating stigma. Sure, there are definitely feminists who hate men, but that’s not the point of feminism, nor do all feminists hate men. You cannot judge all feminists based on the actions of a few. Likewise, you cannot judge all Christians by the doings of the Westboro Baptist Church, nor can you judge all Muslims on the actions of a few extremists.
Women can vote now, so why do we even need feminism?
The feminist movement is about so much more than women’s suffrage. Yes, the right to vote was a huge success for feminists, but women are facing a plethora of other human rights obstacles. Despite the progress made in past years, women still earn just 77 percent of what men make for the same work2. In some parts of the world, girls are not even allowed a secondary education. Among these problems, Watson adds, “15.5 million girls will be married in the next sixteen years as children.”1 Additionally, in Saudi Arabia, women aren’t allowed to drive cars or even ride bikes in public. In countries like China and India, many parents terminate pregnancies once they find out that their future child would be a girl, because boys are valued more than girls in those countries. In other countries, women still can’t even own land3. From an early age, girls all over the world are taught to be submissive to boys and are often told to “know their place.” Globally, women are mistreated, abused and denied the rights that their male counterparts enjoy.
I’m a guy. Gender inequality doesn’t affect me.
Gender inequality is everyone’s problem. Any male with a mother, sister, daughter or female friend should want them to enjoy the same rights that they have. It’s important to point out that men are cheated from rights as well. These rights that women enjoy and men are without were addressed in Watson’s speech as a selling point for HeForShe. Watson pointed out, for example, that fathers are valued much less than mothers in society. She went on to say, “I’ve seen a young man suffering from mental illness unable to ask for help for fear it would make him less of a man — in fact, in the UK, suicide is the biggest killer of men between 20-49, 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”1.
Tom Hiddleston, Russel Crowe, Logan Leerman, Harry Styles, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Prince Harry are among thousands of men that have all joined the HeForShe movement. By going to www.heforshe.org you can take action by saying that you agree, “Gender equality is not only a women’s issue, it is a human rights issue.”1 You can also tweet or post a picture on Instagram using the hashtag #HeForShe. If you’re lucky, Emma Watson just might retweet it! Also, you can use the interactive map to see how many men around the world have taken the commitment on the HeForShe website.
While HeForShe is a great start, it alone will not solve the gender equality issue. It is going to take a while to achieve this goal, but inviting men to partake in the feminist movement is definitely a step in the right direction. In order for true gender equality to be achieved, men, women and those who do not identify with the binary gender system must leave behind gender roles and prejudices and realize that the rights they are fighting for are human rights.Â
Sources: