Speech: UN Women Goodwill Ambassador Anne Hathaway on International Women’s Day

I'm sure I don't have to tell you that this is a strange, thorny moment in the world.

It’s very confusing to try and bridge what’s actually going on out there versus what we hope to achieve in here. 

It’s hard to bear the knowledge that the distance between the promise of equality and the experience of it are yet still so far apart, for so many. 

It’s hard knowing that this day which is meant to celebrate women must yet still be about how unsafe it is to be a woman.  

Even less safe to be a girl.

Are we not all tormented that societal progress for women has, in large part, been in response to extreme gender violence?  

Are we not tormented by what women like Giselle Pelicot, Virginia Guiffre, and Malala Yousafzai, to name three amongst half the world – have had to endure?  These women and girls had the bravery to demand justice when horrific violence was forced on them and in doing so, by honouring their own right to dignity, changed the world.  

Are we not tormented by this cost of change?

Amid all this pain, all this proof of inequality, all this proof of the stubborn imbalance of justice… do we really dare celebrate

Well, it’s just my opinion but… Yes. 

Yes, we absolutely do.

It is absolutely our honour to celebrate the courage and power of the women who would not be denied their justice, because they chose action in a world that expects silence. 

We celebrate their defiance, and we in turn are defiant in celebration.

We come together today under complicated skies, and yet we celebrate our generations of warriors, who – either by seemingly small individual actions or sweeping government and societal reform – have stayed focused on the true goal of justice for all. For all.

Our fighters have been the cornerstone of accountability as political landscapes have changed and as power players have shifted. They have kept the momentum of progress moving forward to all corners of the world. 

Progress, which we know, can be devastatingly slow, but which is weaving together across time and space making the lives, rights and dignity of women and girls more equal in opportunity, more equal in safety, economic empowerment, and freedom to those historically favoured.  

Their work has laid the path for gender equality, which we proudly walk today, together; a path which we pray will lead to the peace of future generations.

We celebrate the fact – the fact – that strong, autonomous, feminist movements are among the most consistent predictors of government action to address violence against women.  

We celebrate that we have come far enough to have evidence to prove that fact.  

We grieve that there is yet so much evidence of the necessity of this work.

We celebrate, yes. We grieve as well; but no matter what, we keep going until it’s done.

Today, we come together in tribute to the hope and the work and the grit of those who have not yielded to cynicism, who leave the candle of our collective faith in the importance of justice ever-lit.

And with every person who commits to ending gender-based violence in the physical and digital worlds; who commits to championing women’s economic empowerment; who demonstrates authentic communication by listening and uplifting the voices of the unheard and, in doing so, blunts the danger of silence and self-censorship; every person who does that, here, and up there, and out there, the flame grows stronger, and our experience of being human, brighter.

Friends, our choosing to celebrate today does not signal that we are here to accommodate injustice.  

No. Our celebration today affirms our determination to outlast it. Don’t make us wait, please. 

Happy International Women’s Day.