Emma Watson Speaks at France’s G7 Gender Equality Conference

Goodwill Ambassador for UN Women and founder of the HeForShe initiative, Emma Watson has committed to fighting for gender equality, working to reduce destructive masculine stereotypes, narrow the gender wage gap, and resolve issues of female victimization and oppression.

On May 10, Watson took to the podium in Paris, France, speaking about the importance of gender equality and the protection of human rights at the G7 Gender Equality Conference. In an apparent embodiment of her activism philosophy, Watson wore a Teatum Jones outfit with a quote from author and social activist Toni Cade Bambara stitched across the back. “The role of the artist,” it said, “is to make the revolution irresistible.”

This G7 Gender Equality Conference was round two of Gender Equality Advisory Council meetings to complete a proposed document for the Biarritz Agreement, a legislative package that will aim to support sexual, reproductive, and human rights for women and girls globally.

At the event, Watson met with advocates from Women 7, a coalition comprising civil society organizations and feminist leaders who are fighting for the G7 to finance women’s movements, with the goal of gender equality legislation, around the world.

Watson, who says that gender equality law is more than politics, and is an issue of humanity, asked the G7 to step up to a feminist leadership role, implementing and funding legal frameworks to create a dignified world and reduce violence against women.

As human beings, please do not be passive bystanders to the attacks and roll backs [sic] we see happening all around us and every day on women’s rights all across the world – be active participants in moving us forward.

While gender equality remains a complex and widespread issue, Watson’s work is instrumental in redefining what it means to be a powerful woman and in amplifying female voices so that they may spread their power to other women across the globe.