Heres the whole of Emma Watsons speech to the UN on how gender equality is everyones responsibility. Theres all sorts of things that are impressive about it. First, she reclaims the term feminism and returns it to its original battle for equality and fairness, which makes it important for anybody vaguely humanist to care about. Second, she obviously really cares about this. Its not some false celebrity publicity stunt. Her voice is nervous, anger comes through in places. Its easy to dismiss her because of her role as an actress, but she hasnt compromised herself through that and opponents cant have it both ways - you cant complain about vapid, meaningless celebs and then complain when they turn out to be a lot more than that. Her message that were all responsible is a strong one. Over the last few years, I built a team - a good team - of women Project Managers. The fact that most of you - and plenty of people I work with - are probably going oh aye now proves that a lot of what Emma says is absolutely correct, because it means your first reaction isnt - oh, they must be the people who deserved those jobs. The fact of the matter is that I did offer two men jobs over time - both turned them down for financial reasons in the end. Its easier to employ good women precisely because its harder for them to get good jobs than it is for average men. One last point - the pregnancy argument that employers use. Who cares? First, if you cant cope without someone for 6 or 9 months or however long they go on maternity for, or if you dont want someone excellent back at your organisation just because theyve been away for 2 years, that says more about your organisation than it does about the employee. Second, anybody could leave anytime anyway. Whats the difference? Hats off to Miss Watson. I wouldnt have been capable of making a speech in front of an audience like that at her age, irrespective of the opportunities Id been given earlier in life. I hope she keeps working toward her goal. Anyway, you should watch the speech. Its excellent. youtube/watch?v=p-iFl4qhBsE
Posted on: Tue, 23 Sep 2014 17:16:30 +0000
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