Transcription of Priyanka Chopra's Speech as UNICEF Ambassador

Priyanka Chopra:

Oh, good afternoon everyone. I’m gonna just keep it here. Good afternoon, everybody. This is Ava. She’s 16 years old (applause). An age where girls should be enjoying their innocence and joys of their youth, but she at such a tender age understands the importance of being the voice for her peers and advocate for young girls and women around who may not have the opportunities that us sitting over here have. So, receiving this honor from a hero like her makes this so much more exceptional, so, thank you. (applause)

Good afternoon, and thank you and wow I’m so privileged and so honoured to be sharing this afternoon with all of you and these incredibly amazing women that are being honoured today. I’d like to extend my congratulation to each one of you, Octavia, Michelle, Kelly, Patty and all fifty women that have been included in the impact report. Your achievements not just inspire me, but also so many others to work harder, to be better, and to make a dent wherever we can. So, I am very very proud to be alongside of you.

So, in life, you know, there are moments when you stop and ask yourself “How did I get here?”, like “Why am I standing here?” This is definitely one of those moments for me. And I find myself going back to the beginning. Back to my roots, I was born to incredible parents, amazing parents who served as doctors in the Indian Army, I was the first born. And as far back as I can remember, I made my parents very proud and happy 99% percent of the time. Okay, slight exaggerations of personal achievements are allowed from time to time, don’t you think?

My brother was born a few years later and even then nothing changed for me. We were both given equal opportunities and I want to emphasize this, I want to really emphasize this for you because I don’t think a lot of people might understand that being equal might seem very normal. But where I come from, India, and a lot of developing countries around the world more often that not this is an exception. It’s actually a privilege. My first experience of glaring disparity between boys and girls came at a very very young age. I grew up in a middle class family with extremely philanthropic family who constantly reminded me and my brother how lucky we were and how giving back to those who were less fortunate was not a choice. It was a way of life. Simple. I was seven or eight years old when my parents start taking me on these visits in a travelling clinic to developing communities around and villages around the city that we lived in called Verrilli. We were packed into this ambulance and my parents would provide free medical care to people who couldn’t afford it. My job at the age of eight was assistant pharmacist. So, I would count all the medicines, put them in envelopes and give it out to patients and I really took my job very seriously, very seriously. But the more I went to these expeditions, the more I began to notice the simplest things that distinguished a boy from a girl or a man from a woman.

For example, girls were pulled out of school when they hit puberty because they were considered ready for marriages and babies. That’s 12 and 13 while boys still enjoyed their childhood. Or basic human rights such as health care were denied just because they were women. Let this, let’s call this whole experience trigger number one for me. Fast forward a few years, and many many triggers in between, like a producer-director  for example. Early on in my career, I must have been about 18 or 19 telling me that if I didn’t agree to the ridiculous terms or painfully low salary in his movie, that he would just replace me. Because girls are replaceable in the entertainment business, that was a memorable one made me decide to make myself irreplaceable. But I think what really moved the needle for me and ultimately led me to create the Priyanka Chopra Foundation for health and education and around the same time partner with UNICEF was an encounter with my housekeeper’s daughter.

About 12 years ago, I came home from set early one day and she was sitting in my library reading a book. And she must have been eight or nine years old and I knew she loved reading. So I asked her, I was like this is, I mean “It’s a weekday, why aren’t you in school?” And she said “Oh I don’t go to school anymore.” So, I went and asked her mother and I said, you know “Why isn’t she in school?” And her mom said that her family couldn’t afford to send her and her brothers to school. So they chose the boys. The reason she would eventually get married, and it would be a waste of money. I was completely blown, and it shook me to my core. Eventually I decided to cover the cost of her education so that she could continue to learn. Because education is a basic human right. And a huge necessity, especially today. From that point on, I was determined to make a difference and as many children’s lives as I could and whatever big pr small way that I could contribute. There is a really really beautiful quote that I read recently and I think it’s absolutely appropriate to say, to explain what I’m trying to say today.

“The hands that rocks the cradle, the pro creator, the mother of tomorrow, a woman shapes the destiny of civilization such is the tragic irony of fate, that a beautiful creation such as a girl child is today one of the gravest concerns facing humanity.” Girls have the power to change the world. It is a fact and yet today girls are more likely than boys never to set foot in a classroom despite of all the efforts and progress made over the last two decades. More than, I’m just giving you a stat, more than 15 million girls of primary school age will never learn how to read and write, compared to 10 million boys. Primary school, is the beginning of our future. Over the last 11 years, I have witnessed firsthand the incredible work that UNICEF does for children around the world, especially victims or survivors of child marriage, displacement, war, sexual violence. But there is still so much work to do. And for me, that is the fuel to my fire. The reason why I’m so committed in this cause and that is where my passions stems from. Because I know that a girl’s education not just empowers families, but communities, and economies. A result of her education, we all do better. It’s just as simple as that.

As entertainers and influencers, sitting in this room, I feel that it’s our social responsibility to be a voice for the voiceless which is why I applaud each and every woman in this room for being such a badass (applause). For using your platform and you voice to contribute to change and for ensuring that there is not even one lost generation as long as we are alive.

I’d like to thank to Variety and all of you for encouraging me and all of us in this room to keep going and fighting on. Thank you so much.

Transcribed by Adinda Prasty Ascalonicawati
Oct 16, 2018

Transcription of Anne Hathaway's on International Women's Day UN

Anne Hathaway:

Thank you so much for those words. Well, President of the General Assembly United Nation, UN Deputy Secretary General, Executive Director UN Women, distinguished ladies and gentlemen.

When I was a very young person, I began my career as an actress. Whenever my mother wasn’t free to drive me into Manhattan for auditions, I would take the train from suburban New Jersey and meet my father, who would have left his desk at the law office where he worked and we would meet under the upper platform arrival and departure sign in Penn station. We would then get on the subway together and when we service he would ask me “Which way is north?”. I wasn’t very good at finding north in the beginning, but I auditioned a fair amount and so my dad kept asking me “Which way is north?”. Over time I got better at finding it. I was stuck by that memory yesterday while boarding the plane to come here, not just by how far my life has come since then, but buy how meaningful that seemingly small lesson has been. When I was still a child, my father developed my sense of direction, and now as an adult I would trust my ability to navigate space. My father helped me give the confidence to guide myself through the world.

In late March  last year in 2016 I became a parent for the first time. I remember the indescribeable and as I understand a pretty universal experience holding my week old son and feeling my priorities change on a cellular level. I remember I experienced a shift in consciousness that gave me ability to maintain my love of career and also cherish something else, someone else so much much more. Like so many parents I wonder how I was going to balance my work with my new role as parents. And in that moment I remember that the statistic for the USS policy and maternity leave flashed in my mind.

American women are currently entitled 12 weeks unpaid leave. American men are entitled to nothing. That information landed differently for me when one week after my son’s birth, I could barely walk. That information landed differently when I was getting to know a human who’s completely dependent on my husband and I for everything. When I was dependent on my husband for most things. And when we were relearning everything we thought we knew about our family and our relationship, it landed differently. Somehow, we and American parent were expected to be back to normal in under three months without income? I remember thinking to myself if the practical reality of pregnancy is another mouth to feed in your home, and America is a country where most people are living pay check to pay check, how does 12 weeks unpaid leave economically work? The truth is for too many people it doesn’t. One in four American women go back to work two weeks after giving birth because they can’t afford to take off any more time than. That’s 25 percent of American women. Equally disturbing women who can’t afford to take a full 12 weeks often don’t. Because it will mean incurring a motherhood penalty, meaning the will be perceived as less dedicated to their job and will be passed over the promotions and other career advancement. In my household, my mother had to choose between a career and raising three children. A choice that left her unpaid and underappreciated as a homemaker. Because it just wasn’t support for both paths.

The memory of being in the city with my dad is a particularly a meaningful one  since he was the sole breadwinner in our house and my brothers and my time with him was always limited by how much he had to work. And, we were incredibly privileged family. Our hardships for the stuffs of other families dreams. The deeper into the issue of paid parental leave I go, the clearer I see the connection between persisting barriers to women’s full equality and empowerment and the need to redefine and in some cases be stigmatized men’s roles as caregivers. (applause)

In other words, in order to liberate women, we need to liberate men. The assumption and common practice that women and girls look after the home and family is a stubborn and very real stereotype. And not only discriminates against women’s but limits men’s participation and connection within the family and society. These limitations have broad ranging and significant effect for them and for the children, we know this. So why do we continue to undervalue father’s and overburdened mother’s? Paid parental leave is not about taking days off work, it’s about creating the freedom to the fine roles to choose how to invest time and to establish new positive cycle of behaviour. Companies that have offered paid parental leave for employees have reported improved employer relate retention reduced absenteeism and training costs and boosted productivity and morale. Far from not being able to afford to have paid parental leave, it seems we can’t afford not to.

In fact, a study in Sweden show that for every month fathers took paternity leave, the mother’s income increased by 6.7%. That’s 6.7% more economic freedom for the whole family. Data from International Men and Gender Equality survey shows that most fathers report that they would work less if it meant that they could spend more time with their children. And picking up on the thread that the Prime Minister mentioned, I’d like to ask “How many of us here today saw our dads enough growing up? How many of you dads here see your kids enough now?” We need your help each other if we are going to grow. (applause)

Along with the UN women, I am issuing a call to action for countries, companies, and institutions globally to step up and become champions for paid parental leave. In 2013 provisions for paid parental leave were in only 66 countries out of 190 UN member states. I look forward to beginning with the UN itself which has not yet achieved parity, and who’s paid parental leave policies are currently up to review. (applause). Oh you’re going to see a lot of me. Let us lead by the example in creating a world in which women and men are not economically punished for wanting to be parents. I don’t mean to imply that you need to have children to care about and benefit from this issue whether or not you have or want kids, you will benefit by living in s more evolved world with policies not based on gender. We all benefit for living in a more compassionate time where our needs do not make us weak. They make us only human. Maternity leave or any workplace policy based on gender can, at this moment of history, only ever be a gilded cage. Though it was created to make life easier for women, we now know it creates perception of women of being inconvenient to the workplace. We now know, it changed men to an emotionally limited path and it cannot by definition serve the reality of a world in which there is more than one type of family. Because in the modern world, some families have two daddies. How exactly does maternity serve them? (applause)

Today, on International Women’s Day, I would like to thank all of those who went before creating our current policies. Let us honour them and build upon what they started by shifting our language and therefore our consciousness away from gender and towards opportunity. Let us honour our parents’ sacrifice by creating a path for a more fair farther reaching truth to define all of our lives, especially the lives of our children. Because, paid parental leave does more than give more time for parents to spend with their kids. It changes the story of what children observe and will from themselves imagine possible. I see cause for hopes in my own country The United States currently the only high income country in the world without paid maternity, let alone parental leave, great work has begun in the states of New York, California, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Washington which currently all implementing paid parental leave programs. (applause)

First lady, Chirlaine McCray and Mayor Bill DeBlasio have granted paid parental leave to over  20.000 government employees in New York City, we can do this. Bringing about change cannot just be the responsibility of those who need it most. We must have the support of those in the highest levels of power if we are ever achieve parity. That is why it’s such an honour to recognize and congratulate pioneers of paid parental leave like the global company general.

Today, I am proud to announce the known global CEO Emmanuel Faber as our inaugural HeForShe fanatic champion for paid parental leave. As part of this announcement, Danone will implement the global 18 weeks gender-neutral paid parental leave policy for the company’s 100.000 employees by the year 2020. (applause)

Nishioka there when Ambassador Emma Watson delivered her now iconic HeForShe speech and stated that if we live in a world where men occupy a majority of positions of power, we need men to believe in the necessity of change, I believe she was speaking about visionaries like you, merci. Imagine what the world could look like, one generation from now if the policy like Danone’s becomes the new standard. If 100.000 people become 100 million, a billion more. Every generation must find their north. When women around the world demanded the right to vote, we took a fundamental step towards equality, North. When same-sex marriage was passed in the US we put an end to a discriminatory law, North. When millions of men and boys and Prime Ministers and Deputy Directors of the UN, sorry, the President of the General Assembly. That’s what happens when I go off script.

When men like the men in this room and around the world, the ones we cannot see the ones who support us in ways we cannot know but we feel. When they answered Emma Watsons’s called to be HeForShe, the world grew, North. We must ask ourselves, “How will we be tomorrow than we are today?” The whole world grows when people like you and me take a stand because we know that beyond the idea of how men and women are different, there was a deeper truth, that love is love and parents are parents. Thank you. (applause)

Transcribed by Adinda Prasty Ascalonicawati
Oct 15, 2018

Transciption of Emma Watson's Speech at the HeForShe Campaign UN

Emma Watson:

Your excellencies, UN Secretary General, President of the General Assembly, Executive Director of UN Women, and distinguished guests.

Today, we are launching a campaign called HeForShe. I am reaching out to you because we need your help. We want to end gender inequality, and to do this we need everyone involved. This is the first campaign of its kind at the UN. We want to try and galvanize as many men and boys as possible to be advocates for change. And we don’t just want to talk about it, we want to try to make sure its tangible. I was appointed to as Goodwill Ambassador for UN Women six months ago. And the more I’ve spoken about feminism, the more I realized that fighting for women’s rights has too often become synonymous with man hating. If there is one thing I know for certain, it is that this has to stop. For the record, feminism by definition is the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities. It is the theory of political, economic, and sexual equality of the sexes. I started questioning gender-based assumptions a long time ago.

When I was  eight, I was confused being called “bossy”. Because, I wanted to direct the plays that we would put on for our parents. But the boys were not. When at fourteen, I started to be sexualized by certain elements of the media. When at fifteen, my girlfriends started dropping out of their beloved sports teams because they didn’t want to appear “muscle-y”. When at eighteen, my male friends were unable to express their feelings. I decided that I was a feminist. And this seemed uncomplicated to me. But my recent research has shown me that feminism has become an unpopular word. Women are choosing not to identify as feminist. Apparently, I am among the ranks of women whose expressions are seen as too strong. Too aggressive, isolating, and anti-men. Unattractive even. Why has the word become such an uncomfortable one? I am from Britain and I think it is right that I am paid the same as my male counterparts. I think it is right that I should be able to make decisions about my own body. I think it is right that women be involved on my behalf in the policies and the decisions that will affect my life. I think it is right that socially I am afforded the same respect as men. But sadly, I can say that there is no one country in the world where all women can expect to receive these rights. No country in the world can yet say that they have achieved gender equality. These rights, I consider to be human rights. But, I am one of the lucky ones.

My life is a sheer privilege because my parents didn’t love me less because I was born a daughter. My school did not limit me because I was a girl. My mentors didn’t assume that I would go less far because I would give birth to a child one day. These influences with the gender equality ambassadors, that made me who I am today. They may not know it, but they are the inadvertent feminists who are changing the world today. We need more of those, and if you still hate the word it is not the word that is important. It’s the idea and ambition behind it. Because not all women have received the same rights that I have. In fact, statistically very few have been. In 1997, Hillary Clinton made a famous speech in Beijing about women’s rights. Sadly many of the things that she wanted to change are still true today. But what stood out for me the most, was that less than thirty percent of the audience were male. How can we affect change in the world when only half of it is invited? Or feel welcomed to participate in a conversation?

Men, I would like to take this opportunity to extend your formal invitation. (applause)

Gender equality is your issue too. Because to date, I have seen my father’s role as a parent being valued less by society. Despite my needing his presence as a child as much as my mother’s. I’ve seen young men suffering from mental illness, unable to ask for help for fear it would make them less of a men or less of a man. In fact, in the UK suicide is the biggest killer of men between twenty or forty –nine eclipsing road accidents, cancer, and coronary heart disease. I’ve seen men made fragile and insecure by distorted sense of what constitutes male success. Men don’t have the benefits of equality either. We don’t often talk about men being imprisoned by gender stereotypes, but I can see that they are. And that when they are free, things will change for women as a natural consequence. If men don’t have to be aggressive in order to be accepted, women won’t feel compelled to be submissive. If men don’t have to control, women don’t have to be controlled. Both men and women should feel free to be sensitive. Both men and women should feel free to be strong. It is time that we all perceived gender on a spectrum instead of two sets of opposing ideals. (applause).

If we stop defining each other by what we are not and start defining ourselves by who we are we can all be free-er. And this is what HeForShe is about. It’s about freedom. I want men to take up this mantle, so that their daughters, sisters, and mothers can be free from prejudice. But also so that their sons have permission to be vulnerable and human too. We claim those parts of themselves they abandoned. And in doing so, be a more true and complete version of themselves.

You might be thinking “Who is this Harry Potter girl” and “What is she doing speaking at the UN?” and it’s really good question. I’ve been asking myself the same thing. All I know is that I care about this problem and I want to make it better. And having seen what I seen and given the chance, I feel it is my responsibility to say something. Statesman Edmund Burk said “All that is needed for the forces of evil to triumph is for good men and women to do nothing.

In my nervousness for this speech and in my moments of doubt, I’ve told myself firmly: “If not me, who?”, “If not now, when?” If you have similar doubts when opportunities are presented to you, I hope that those words will be helpful. Because, the reality is that if we do nothing it will take seventy-five years of for me to be nearly one-hundred before women can expect to be paid the same as men. For the same work. Fifteen-point-five million girls will be married in the next sixteen years as children. And at current rates, it won’t be until 2086 before all rural African girls can have a secondary education. If you believe in inequality, you might be one of those inadvertent feminists that I spoke of earlier and for this I applaud you. We are struggling for a uniting word but the good news is that we have a uniting movement. It is called HeForShe. I am inviting you to step forward, to be seen, and to ask yourself “If not me, who?, “If not now, when?” Thank you very very much. (applause)

Transcribed by Adinda Prasty Ascalonicawati
Oct 14, 2018