Circumstances

Emma Watson delivered her “HeForShe Speech” on 20 September 2014, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, on the occasion of the launch of the campaign HeForShe.

The HeForShe campaign is an initiative of UN Women division calling for men to advocate gender equality. At that time, Emma Watson who was the main speaker at the event had been a UN Goodwill Ambassador for six months. Emma Watson’s speech had a powerful impact on social media immediately afterwards, being redistributed on various platform and giving the campaign visibility.

Furthermore, when the campaign started, important figures like former US President Barack Obama, actor Matt Damon, and former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon were among the official supporters.

We can say that Emma Watson’s speech was a key part of the campaign, and especially of securing its visibility am...