Emma Watson spoke at the United Nations to bring awareness to gender inequality and campus sexual assault last week.
Watson helped start the campaign, He For She, back in 2012 to fight for global gender equality and just celebrated its two year anniversary this past week. He For She is part of the U.N. Women Solidarity Movement for Gender Equality.
Watson is known for her long-time role as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter series but the 26-year-old has accomplished much more. Watson is a U.N. Women Goodwill ambassador. Putting aside her countless movies, Watson also graduated from Brown University with a Bachelor’s degree about two years ago.
In her U.N. speech last week she discussed Brown University and the impact it had on her life.
“Brown became my home. My community. And I took the ideas and the experiences I had there into all of my social interactions, into my workplace, into my politics, into all aspects of my life,” she said.
Watson shared her own pleasant experience with college but for some people, that’s not always the case. She gave examples where maybe women can study but can’t lead a seminar or in some places do not “belong” at all.
“What if, as is the case at far too many universities, we are given the message that sexual violence isn’t actually a form of violence?” she asked.
Watson and the He For She campaign want to acknowledge sexual assault on college campuses.
“A university should be a place of refuge that takes action against all forms of violence,” she said.
Watson introduced the He For She IMPACT Report that explains their “initiative that convenes ten Heads of State, ten global CEOs and ten University Presidents to fast-track gender equality in boardrooms, classrooms, and world capitals.”
Washington D.C.’s Georgetown University and New York’s Stony Brook University are the only two U.S. “IMPACT universities” among the ten.
Watson believes that universities can be the “catalyst" to bring about the change.
“We must not see or experience double standards. We need to see equal respect, leadership, and pay,” she said.
These are the expectations she demands. Watson wants people to leave college “believing in, striving for and expecting societies of true equality.”
