Emma Watson UN Feminism Speech Analysis

“How did Emma Watson use persuasive techniques to convince her audience of her point of view about feminism?”

Gender equality is an issue for everyone, including men. Emma Watson clearly demonstrates this in her 2014 speech to the United Nations for her HeForShe campaign, "Gender Equality is Your Issue Too." She begins by explaining her experience with feminism and why it is critical to include men in the solution. Then, Watson focuses on her call to action, convincing the audience of what they need to do to advocate for equality. Her intended audience was men at the United Nations in 2014, when feminism was becoming a more widely accepted movement. This makes her speech contextually relevant, but also unique due to the audience. Watson employs a variety of persuasion techniques to persuade the audience of her views on feminism and how everyone should advocate for it, including men. These techniques include ethos, pathos, and logos.  

Watson uses ethos to persuade her audience about her views by gaining their trust through techniques such as counter arguments and position. She demonstrates that she has taken a stand and received a respectable position to make a difference as a result of her passion for the issue by stating that she "was appointed six months ago", to build credibility as she refers to her appointment as a UN goodwill ambassador. It also reinforces the audience's belief that she is determined to make a difference through her position. She also uses a counter-argument to demonstrate her commitment to the issue and to show that anyone who cares about it can advocate for change. Watson states she “care[s] about this problem” And “want[s] to make it better." She explains this after debating whether she is qualified to discuss the issue as an actor. This evokes trust in the audience by demonstrating Watson's determination to resolve the issue and encourages them to advocate for change as their trust in Watson and the movement has grown. Overall, Watson consistently employs counter-argument and position in her speech to demonstrate ethos.

Watson applies emotional language and personal anecdotes to evoke emotion with her speech to persuade her audience regarding her views that feminism isn’t just for women. Emotional language is used to evoke emotion because its emotionally directed to the audience to present benefits available as she states "daughters, sisters and mothers can be free from prejudice". She continues, "but also so that their sons have permission to be vulnerable and human too." From this, talking about the audience's sons most effectively displays her message that feminism is relevant to men as well, and it is also emotive language because it uses the audience's family to persuade them. Similarly, Watson uses personal anecdotes, such as when when she was 14, she "started being sexualised by certain elements of the press," and when she was 18, her "male friends were unable to express their emotions," to demonstrate that she has witnessed and experienced inequality. As a result, she can relate to the audience by evoking sympathy and imposing emotional accountability on them because they are aware of her story and have emotionally connected with her. Ultimately, pathos is demonstrated through emotive language and personal anecdotes in order to relate to and gain sympathy from the audience.

Watson employs logos to inform and educate the audience on the issues surrounding inequality through predicted statistics and facts. When she states, "15.5 million girls will be married as children in the next 16 years," she is using predicted statistics to inform the audience about possible future outcomes if current conditions do not change (Watson, 2014). By including these statistics, Watson implies that if current practises do not change, unjust practises will continue. This manipulates the audience into supporting the movement because they want to avoid these consequences. She also uses facts to refer to relevant events, implying that the issue has been around for a long time when she mentions that "in 1995, Hilary Clinton made a famous speech in Beijing about women's rights." It further informs the audience of relevant events that occurred in order to achieve a similar goal to HeForShe. It also causes the audience to consider how long the problem has existed and has yet to be resolved, making them more likely to support the movement because they feel sympathetic and informed. As a result, Watson is successful in informing and educating the audience, leading to their support for the movement through statistics and facts.

Emma Watson's speech "Gender equality is your issue, too" employs a variety of techniques to empower the audience to advocate for change. She persuades the audience about her views on feminism by utilising ethos, pathos, and logos. The audience was compelled to connect with the issue for both ethos and pathos, causing them to be inclined to support the movement. However, with logos, the audience was informed about the problem, making them more likely to advocate for the movement. Overall, Watson succeeded in making the audience feel informed, sympathetic, and emotionally connected to the issue. This effectively alters the audiences' perceptions of feminism.