The Campaigner of the Year has cast a spell over the HeForShe campaign, which calls for a million men to sign up for gender equality
Emma Watson’s speech has been watched more than 7m times on YouTube. Photograph: Celeste Sloman/UN Women
It’s not often that UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon makes Harry Potter jokes, but after actor Emma Watson’s speech at the UN’s New York HQ last September, he declared she had waved a magic wand over her audience. The description was surprisingly apt. Watson was appointed UN Women Goodwill Ambassador in July 2014 and became involved in the organisation’s HeForShe campaign – which calls for one billion men to declare their support for gender equality. Watson was visibly nervous as she spoke, but what she said about her own experience of feminism and the confusion and unhappiness that gender stereotypes can create for men and women struck a chord. Women related to her stories about being called bossy, about being sexualised at too early an age. Men listened when she talked about the impact of mental illness or them being unable to express their emotions. She obviously spoke for a lot of people: the speech has been watched more than 7m times on YouTube and 331,220 men have now signed up for the HeforShe campaign.
Her campaign has also won Watson a place on Time’s 100 Most Influential People list for 2015 – in at 26
Watson also showed great equanimity about the inevitable backlash. Straight after the speech, a website appeared threatening to post naked pictures of Watson and efforts were made to make #RIP EmmaWatson trend on Twitter. Her response? “This is why I have to be doing this. If they were trying to put me off, it did the opposite.” She also made sure that the inspiring responses she received from men to her speech – men who supported her, men who wanted to make sure their daughters grow up in a fairer world – received as much publicity as the trolling. The campaign has won Watson not only the Observer Campaigner of the Year Award, but also a place on Time’s 100 Most Influential People list for 2015 (in at 26, and one of only four Britons on the list) and the Feminist Celebrity of the Year from the Ms Foundation for Women.
It’s not often that UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon makes Harry Potter jokes, but after actor Emma Watson’s speech at the UN’s New York HQ last September, he declared she had waved a magic wand over her audience. The description was surprisingly apt. Watson was appointed UN Women Goodwill Ambassador in July 2014 and became involved in the organisation’s HeForShe campaign – which calls for one billion men to declare their support for gender equality. Watson was visibly nervous as she spoke, but what she said about her own experience of feminism and the confusion and unhappiness that gender stereotypes can create for men and women struck a chord. Women related to her stories about being called bossy, about being sexualised at too early an age. Men listened when she talked about the impact of mental illness or them being unable to express their emotions. She obviously spoke for a lot of people: the speech has been watched more than 7m times on YouTube and 331,220 men have now signed up for the HeforShe campaign.
Her campaign has also won Watson a place on Time’s 100 Most Influential People list for 2015 – in at 26
Watson also showed great equanimity about the inevitable backlash. Straight after the speech, a website appeared threatening to post naked pictures of Watson and efforts were made to make #RIP EmmaWatson trend on Twitter. Her response? “This is why I have to be doing this. If they were trying to put me off, it did the opposite.” She also made sure that the inspiring responses she received from men to her speech – men who supported her, men who wanted to make sure their daughters grow up in a fairer world – received as much publicity as the trolling. The campaign has won Watson not only the Observer Campaigner of the Year Award, but also a place on Time’s 100 Most Influential People list for 2015 (in at 26, and one of only four Britons on the list) and the Feminist Celebrity of the Year from the Ms Foundation for Women.
Emma Watson spoke about her own experience of feminism and the confusion and unhappiness that gender stereotypes can create. Photograph: Mark Garten/UN Photo
HeforShe may be her most high-profile campaign, but it’s not Watson’s first. Alongside the acting career she started at 11 and her studies at Oxford and Brown University in the US, Watson is a long-standing advocate of schooling for girls. She’s been an ambassador for Camfed International, which fights to educate girls in rural Africa, since 2012. Most recently, on behalf of the UN she’s been in Uruguay campaigning for women’s political participation (currently only 13% of Uruguay’s parliament are women, whereas the world average is 28%).
UN Women executive director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka thinks Watson is a strong voice for young people worldwide. “Her commitment to the issues that we work on at UN Women multiplies our ability to reach and engage more young people – who are key to advancing gender equality.” She’s absolutely right, but somehow that misses the unique quality Watson brings to all her work: a quiet determination to succeed and an enquiring mind coupled with the ability to be enthusiastic, open and vulnerable. When explaining a campaign message to the public, that’s a combination that’s better than magic.
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