KEY ANSWERS - QUESTIONS ABOUT EMMA WATSON’S SPEECH
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkjW9PZBRfk
Parts you have to work on: (4:05-6:20) + (6:57-9:56) + (11:70-12:30)
PART I – 4’05” to 6’20”
1) Listen and pick out the domains evoked by Emma Watson.
Salary, education, marriage.
2) Have women achieved gender equality in these domains? Everywhere in the world?
No, not at all. She says “there is no one country in the world where all women can expect to see these rights.
No country in the world can yet say that they achieved gender equality”.
3) How does Emma Watson consider herself? why? Pick out the examples given.
She considers herself as privileged because she was not rejected as a daughter, not limited in her education or
career as a girl. She is paid the same salary as her male colleagues.
4) Find examples of countries where basic human rights are not respected. What about Europe?
India, Pakistan, Yemen, Syria, some African countries…most of the time in terms of due to the poor access to
healthcare, economic resources, risk from cultural and traditional practices, and non-sexual violence.
In Europe, countries such as Iceland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway (that is to say Northern European
countries) are more respectful of women’s rights and pay more attention to gender equality (namely for the
issues of pay and access to parental leave).
5) What does Emma Watson want? Suggest? (5:53-6:20)
She wants everyone to have a better perception of the word “feminism”. Some people hate the word, but she
reminds that what matters is the ideas and the ambitions behind it.
PART II – 6’57” to 9’56”
6) What about men ?
E. Watson wants men to feel concerned about gender equality, as they are victims of discrimination too. Men
don’t dare to be sensitive, they go through pressure as they have to be strong: fragile and insecure by a
distorted sense of what constitutes male success. Men don’t have the benefits of equality, either.
PART III – 11’70” to 12’30”
7) If nobody does anything, what will be the consequences for women?
If we don’t do anything, things won’t change and women’s situation won’t improve, the gender gap will remain
and in the countries where the situation is already difficult for women, it will take decades before women are
entitled to the same privileges or rights as men: “it will take seventy-five years, or for me to be nearly 100
before women can expect to be paid the same as men for the same work. 15.5 million girls will be married in the
next 16 years as children. And at current rates it won’t be until 2086 before all rural African girls will be able
to receive a secondary education.”
Extract from the script of Emma Watson's Speech at the U.N.
“I am from Britain, and I think it is right I am paid the same as my male counterparts. I think it is right that I
should be able to make decisions about my own body. I think it is right that women be involved on my behalf in
the policies and decisions that will affect my life. I think it is right that socially, I am afforded the same
respect as men.
But sadly, I can say that there is no one country in the world where all women can expect to see these rights.
No country in the world can yet say that they achieved gender equality. These rights, I consider to be human
rights but I am one of the lucky ones. My life is a sheer privilege because my parents didn’t love me less
because I was born a daughter. My school did not limit me because I was a girl. My mentors didn’t assume I
would go less far because I might give birth to a child one day. These influencers were the gender equality
ambassadors that made me who I am today. They may not know it, but they are the inadvertent feminists who
are changing the world today. And we need more of those.
And if you still hate the word, it is not the word that is important. It’s the idea and the ambition behind it,
because not all women have received the same rights I have. In fact, statistically, very few have.
In 1995, Hillary Clinton made a famous speech in Beijing about women’s rights. Sadly, many of the things that
she wanted to change are still true today. But what stood out for me the most was that less than thirty
percent of the audience were male. How can we effect change in the world when only half of it is invited or feel
welcome to participate in the conversation?
Men, I would like to take this opportunity to extend your formal invitation. Gender equality is your issue, too.
Because to date, I’ve seen my father’s role as a parent being valued less by society, despite my need of his
presence as a child, as much as my mother’s. I’ve seen young men suffering from mental illness, unable to ask
for help for fear it would make them less of a man. In fact, in the UK, suicide is the biggest killer of men
between 20 to 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.
We don’t often talk about men being imprisoned by gender stereotypes, but I can see that they are, and that
when they are free, things will change for women as a natural consequence. If men don’t have to be aggressive
in order to be accepted, women won’t feel compelled to be submissive. Both men and women should feel free to
be sensitive. Both men and women should feel free to be strong. It is time that we all perceive gender on a
spectrum, instead of two sets of opposing ideals. 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. It’s about freedom.
I want men to take up this mantle so that their daughters, sisters, and mothers can be free from prejudice,
but also so that their sons have permission to be vulnerable and human too, reclaim those parts of themselves
they abandoned, and in doing so, be a more true and complete version of themselves.
You might be thinking, “Who is this Harry Potter girl, and what is she doing speaking at the UN?” And, it’s a
really good question. I’ve been asking myself the same thing.
All I know is that I care about this problem, and I want to make it better. And, having seen what I’ve seen, and
given the chance, I feel it is my responsibility to say something.
Statesman Edmund Burke said, “All that is needed for the forces of evil to triumph is for good men and women
to do nothing.”
In my nervousness for this speech and in my moments of doubt, I told myself firmly, “If not me, who? If not
now, when?” If you have similar doubts when opportunities are presented to you, I hope those words will be
helpful. Because the reality is that if we do nothing, it will take seventy-five years, or for me to be nearly 100
before women can expect to be paid the same as men for the same work. 15.5 million girls will be married in the
next 16 years as children. And at current rates it won’t be until 2086 before all rural African girls will be able
to receive a secondary education.
If you believe in equality, you might be one of those inadvertent feminists that I spoke of earlier, and for this,
I applaud you. We are struggling for a uniting word, but the good news is, we have a uniting movement. It is
called HeForShe. I invite you to step forward, to be seen and to ask yourself, “If not me, who? If not now,
when?”. Thank you very, very much. ”
