A few years ago you may have known Emma Watson for her role as Hermione Granger in the ‘Harry Potter’ film series, or as Sam in the coming-of-age drama, ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower’. Recently, however, Emma Watson has been using her global profile to campaign for women’s rights, most notably as a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador.
Watson was a key member in the launch of UN Women’s HeforShe movement in 2014, which campaigns to achieve gender quality and encourages men to help in doing so. To date, the campaign has received 1.1 million pledges of support, including many from world leaders, and encouraged 1.3 billion conversations around the world. Helping to launch the campaign in 2014 she commented that “it is time that we all perceive gender on a spectrum… 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 HeforShe is about.” Watson’s launch of the movement prompted many messages of support with a particular focus on male involvement. Well known figures such as Harry Styles, Eddie Redmayne and Russell Crowe demonstrated their support over twitter.
As part of her role in this movement Watson has visited many countries across the globe from Canada to Malawi in an attempt to spread the message of the campaign and to visit leaders who have pledged support. In September this year Watson also launched the Impactx10x10x10 initiative as part of the HeforShe campaign which invites government, commercial and university leaders to ‘drive change from the top’ and encourage gender equality in leading roles. Encouraging university commitment, Watson stated, whilst delivering the initiative, that, “the university experience must tell women that their brain power is valued …and that they belong in the leadership of the university itself”. She also addressed the issue of sexual violence on campus, encouraging universities to be “a refuge, that takes action against all forms of violence”.
During her role in this movement, Watson has not been without criticism. A recent article in the Sun by Rod Liddle attacked her 2016 UN speech as “whining, leftie, PC crap” and questioned why “we indulge these luvvie slebs”. This response was criticized by many other news outlets and across social media, with many emphasizing that this was exactly the type of attitude that Watson’s work is trying to address. Aside from a small minority of critical opinions, Watson’s work has received overwhelmingly positive responses. In 2015 she was listed in Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world and the former New York Times editor, Jill Abramson spoke in support of her “gutsy, smart take on feminism”. Emma Watson, therefore, can be seen as an extremely influential advocate for gender equality, and certainly worthy of our ‘Woman of the Week’.