Today, I am thankful for those who start a movement for the betterment of humanity.
Back in 2011, Warner Brothers released the last of the Harry Potter movies, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II. After the successful series ended, many of its star actors, such as Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Ralph Fiennes, turned to new roles on the screen, in theater, or other entertainment venues. Emma Watson, who had played Hermione Granger in the screen version of JK Rowling’s rendition, also continued her career in film, but, additionally, she would attend college and strive for something greater. Watson also began a mission close to her heart – the promotion of women’s right to education. She started in places like Bangladesh and Zambia, but, in due time, her interest burgeoned to the global stage. In July 2014, at the age of 24, Watson was asked by the United Nations to serve as the ambassador to a new movement, HeforShe. The movement advocates for men to advocate for the equal gender rights of women. The movement calls for many important components, such as equality of roles in the workplace, the closure of the gender pay gap, and ending all violence – including sexual harassment – against women. No more is this evident than what has been witnessed in the last few years with the arrest and conviction of the Hollywood producer, Harvey Weinstein, among others.
As a man, I see it as my duty and obligation to ensure an equality for all, men and women alike, in everything I do. Even more so, as a father of 3 sons, it is imperative that I serve as an examplar for these young men, thereby encouraging them to serve as paragons for gender equality. The movement to ensure women equality is a noble task that, sad as it might seem, has been a struggle for many centuries. When Thomas Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence, it noted that “we hold these rights to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” Indeed, all men are created equal, but so are all women. It should really be altered to read: All humans are created equal.
The women’s movement towards equality has been a long and windy road, filled with many detours, obstacles, and impediments. On this day (July 19), a group of around 300 people arrived in Seneca Falls, New York, for a convention focused on the rights of the female gender. Led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, the two-day convention was engineered to organize women (and men) to protest the abuses women faced. Despite popular belief, the movement was not entirely focused on women’s suffrage – the right to vote. At that time, women were taxed the same as men in their occupations, but their wages were technically owned by their husbands – as well as any property they inherited. Moreover, they were denied education in many states, played inferior roles in the church and other public places, and, in the case of divorce, were often deprived or disadvantaged with respect to possession of children. In their manifesto, The Declaration of Sentiments, the organizers of the Seneca Falls Convention not only outlined nineteen abuses that women endured but called for eleven resolutions to change. The ninth of those resolutions called for the ‘sacred right to the elective franchise,’ but most others focused on social and civil equality in the home and community. A number of men came to their support, as the first advocates for the HeforShe movement, including the African American abolitionist Fredrick Douglas and the renowned New York Tribune editor Horace Greely. As Greely would write, “what adequate reason [a man] can give for refusing the demand of women to an equal participation with men in political rights? None at all.”
Sadly, it would take nearly 75 years until women would earn the right to vote in America. Now, a century since that amendment would pass, women are still fighting for equality in their lives. So, let me ask you a simple question: What adequate reason can I give for refusing to demand for women to have an equal participation with men in the workplace, with equal pay, and with equal respect, devoid of any sexual harassment? The answer is the exactly the same that Greely wrote: None at all.
Today, I’m grateful for individuals like Emma Watson who take up the cause for the rights of women. It’s time we all stand up and fix this unjust inequality in this world.
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