By | Flor Leano
Hollywood star Emma Watson is probably among the most successful actresses who can make women empowerment a global trending issue. She reached stardom in Harry Potter through the straightforward character of Hermione Granger. And for several years now, she remains the iconic figure in women empowerment and has given gender equality issues a worldwide impact. Her strong opinions on gender equality inspired young minds while her powerful speeches won the hearts of many.
Even at a young age, Emma has been involved in humanitarian work and started becoming vocal about the rights of women. When she was 18, she created a fab fashion line called People Tree which aims to bring into the market organic fashion through fair trade. She advocated the use of fashion as a tool to alleviate poverty. Emma believes that buying clothes from developing nations will pave a path for financial independence. She was also expressive about the positive impact of fair trade practices on the rights of women.
She was indeed worthy to be chosen as the UN Women Goodwill Ambassador and became the enduring image of HeForShe Campaign in 2014. The goal of this campaign was to achieve gender equality by encouraging everyone to take action against negative labelling. In her speeches, she was fearless and straightforward in her pursuit of making the world a better place for women. Although unexpected, Emma redefined feminism as “the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities.” The Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appreciated her work for the UN’s HeForShe campaign and commented that she had an extraordinary impact around the world and made men champions of women’s issues that are everyone’s issues.
After becoming a UN ambassador for gender equality, Emma Watson continued to advocate for women’s rights. In 2019, she and Nobel laureate Nadia Murad joined other women’s rights activists in 2019 to urge powerful world leaders at the Group of Seven (G7) summit in France to usher in laws empowering women and end those that harm them. And during the pandemic, Emma and other activists recognized the fact that women face online abuse on a much bigger scale than men. They signed an open letter published at the UN Generation Equality Forum in Paris urging action from online platforms, calling it a “pandemic of online abuse against women and girls”. They also urged the chief executives of Facebook, Google, TikTok and Twitter, to “urgently prioritise the safety of women on your platforms”. In response, they have said they will commit to improving systems on reporting abuse and will give women more control on who can engage with their content.
Being a model of empowerment, Emma keeps learning new things. Just lately, the star told her followers about her experience of “getting behind the camera”, describing it as the most “empowering thing” she learned during the pandemic. She shared, “As a young woman, I always thought the most glamorous and exciting thing would be to be someone’s ‘muse’; and of course as women, we are inspiring… but wow it’s something else to be able to tell your own story and other people’s.” Alongside her personal enrichment while learning how to work behind the camera, she also supports climate change issues. On her Instagram, she points out that youth-led organizations are the pioneers fighting against the climate crisis. She inspires youth participation in climate change advocacies and featured the work of Greta Thunberg, a Swedish environmental activist who is known for challenging the world leaders to take immediate action for climate change. When Greta was 15 years old, she and other students paved the way for the establishment of Fridays for Future, an international climate change movement. Although young, she sat outside the Swedish Parliament every day demanding that measures be taken on the climate crisis.
