TomorrowMakers

The stunningly beautiful youth icon and Hollywood star Emma Watson is one of the most famous actors with global fame and a tremendous body of superlative work. The British actor Emma Watson is chosen as the UN Women Goodwill Ambassador in the year 2014. The intelligent actor involved herself in humanitarian work and started becoming vocal about the rights of women from a very young age. An avid reader and an original thinker Emma Watson rose to fame with her legendary role of the fearless and inimitable Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter film series.

A graduate of Brown University, the supremely talented actor and humanitarian has consistently dedicated her efforts towards the empowerment of women for the last five years. Let us take a look at these inspiring milestones achieved by Emma Watson for the rights of women all over the world.

1) Advocate and ambassador of United Nations HeForShe Campaign

The inimitable Emma Watson has been a champion and an ambassador of the United Nation’s Women's HeForShe Campaign. The goal of this campaign is to achieve gender equality by encouraging everyone to participate as stakeholders to bring change and take action against negative labelling. Emma promotes the ideals of gender equality by being vociferous at various events. Her strong stance and ability to ignite young minds through her powerful speeches has won hearts and made her a truly global icon of the movement. 

Through the HeForShe Campaign, Emma promotes that men and boys also need to be involved in the movement for gender equality as against the traditional outlook that it is a “movement by women for women.” The geo-locator on the website of HeForShe shows the global participation of millions of men and boys. Emma's sincere and tireless efforts to rally for women’s rights through everything that she does and speaks have been greatly admired by many. She is fearless and straightforward in her pursuit of making the world a more receptive place for rights of women. The HeForShe campaign has an objective of sensitising individuals, civil societies, and the students in the universities, colleges and schools. Emma is the face of the millennials and their collective aspirations which makes the reach of this campaign for women’s rights much larger. The campaign is implemented through continuous engagement of young minds through offline and online activities. The campaign regularly highlights the exceptional and noteworthy work done by its supporters and ambassadors. 

In her recent interaction with the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Emma Watson emphasised the active participation of youth in politics. The Canadian Prime Minister appreciated her and said: “The HeForShe campaign has had an extraordinary impact around the world, making men champions of women’s issues that are everyone’s issues. Her voice is extremely important in making people realize how important this is.”

2)  Fair-trade and organic fashion by People Tree 

Women form a large part of labour and workforce all over the globe. In 2009, at a very young age, Emma Watson created a fantastic fashion line called People Tree. People Tree aims to bring into the market organic fashion through fair trade. Her initiative, zeal and unwavering dedication to women’s rights propelled her to think of an issue like fairness practices in the way clothes are manufactured and sold. She is also a believer of sustainable and environmental-friendly fashion. These original ideas led her to create a fashion label that makes organics clothes through fair trade practices. 

Also Read: How women are creating sustainable environment by going plastic free 

Emma told The Guardian: “I was excited by the idea of using fashion as a tool to alleviate poverty and knew it was something I could help make a difference with.” She is a vocal advocate of fair trade as an effective mechanism to end global poverty. Emma believes that buying clothes from developing nations will pave a path for financial independence. She is also aware and expressive about the positive impact of fair trade practices on the rights of women. She insists that the route of fair trade is better than charity. She believes “you can help people by buying things they make and supporting things they take pride in.” 

3) Consistent work through One Young World

Emma Watson is not only an amazing actor but also works tirelessly for the cause of gender equality, fair trade, organic fashion and women’s rights in all spheres of life as mentioned earlier. She is also a proud ambassador and advocate of the non-profit organisation One Young World. This organisation is dedicated to bring together young leaders to talk about solutions for some of the world’s most urgent problems.

4) Making women’s rights as the most trending topic on the internet

Emma Watson walks the talk when it comes to activism. Her exceptional work as a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador and her keynote speech on gender equality in 2014 made stellar records on the internet of most views and shares. Her legendary speech broke the internet and set greater records of popularity. Her earnest, fluent and extremely convincing argument for upholding women’s rights made everyone sit up and listen.

The first campaign of its kind at the UN focused on galvanizing as many men and boys as possible to be advocates for gender equality. In her thought-provoking and compelling speech Emma emphasized that we shouldn’t just talk about gender equality but also make sure that it is tangible. Emma declared the definition of feminism as “the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities. It is the theory of the political, economic and social equality of the sexes.” Emma invited the men and the boys to step forward, to be seen to speak up, to be the "he" for "she". 

Also Read: Businesses today need to invest more in women, says YES Bank's Namita Vikas

5) Strong supporter of OMGYes – Female sexuality as a tool for empowerment 

Emma Watson is a strong and vociferous supporter of OMGYes, a website that makes people learn about female sexuality. She believes that women’s rights also include the freedom to express sexuality without any fear. Her visible support and advocacy of freedom of expressing female sexuality have made her a role model amongst the youth. 

Aptly held as the “Voice of a Generation”, Emma Watson has utilised her global popularity, education and activism to champion the cause of women’s rights through various initiatives. She believes in making her movement inclusive and not just centred around the participation of women. This path-breaking approach has made Emma a rock star in the eyes of the millennials who need a young icon whom they can relate and look up to. While we got a glimpse how women causes are championed around the world, meanwhile did you know what are the property rights for women in India? Take this quiz to find out.