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Emma Watson Launches Equality Initiative During Passionate Speech At Davos

Mallory Schlossberg   

Emma Watson Launches Equality Initiative During Passionate Speech At Davos
Entertainment1 min read

Emma Watson Davos

Youtube/HeForShe

Emma Watson at Davos on Jan. 23, 2015

"Harry Potter" actress Emma Watson, 24, has become a public figure for gender equality.

Her speech about women's rights at the UN back in September, which introduced the HeForShe campaign - which seeks to involve men in the fight against sexism - earned a tremendous amount of attention, and rightfully so.

The actress and UN Women Goodwill Ambassador gave a similarly empowering speech at Davos on Friday introducing the next phase of HeForShe, called Impact 10 x 10 x 10. Watson describes it as "engaging governments, businesses, and universities, and having them make concrete commitments to gender equality."

But she reinforces that it's about the people behind these large organizations.

"I spoke about some of my story in September," she says. "What are your stories? Girls. Who have been your mentors? Parents. Did you make sure you treated your children equally? If so, how have you done it? Husbands, have you been supporting your female partner privately so that she can fulfill her dreams, too? Young men, have you spoken up in a conversation when a woman was casually degraded or dismissed? How did this affect you?" 

She later mentions that men might have signed the HeForShe petition, but they have expressed that they don't know what to do next.

"The truth is, the 'what now' is down to you. What your HeForShe commitment will be is personal and there is no best way. Everything is valid."

She tells a story of a young woman who expressed to her that she was so empowered by Watson's speech, she stopped letting her father abuse her. She mentions that men have expressed to her that they hope to see a world where "their daughters will still be alive."

"If you're a HeForShe," she says, "I'm here to ask you, what is the impact you can have? How? What? Where? When, and with whom? We want to help. We want to know and we want to hear from you."

You can watch her entire speech below. 

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