HeForShe is a solidarity movement for the advancement of gender equality, initiated by the United Nations. Grounded in the idea that gender inequality is an issue that affects all people – socially, economically and politically – HeForShe is a global effort that seeks to involve men and boys in achieving equality by taking action against negative gender stereotypes and behaviors. Its logo represents the union of women and men working together to achieve gender equality, by joining together aspects of both the female and male symbols. Since its launch at the United Nations, on 20 September 2014, by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and UN Women Global Goodwill Ambassador Emma Watson, millions of men from around the world including Heads of State, CEOs, and global luminaries have committed to gender equality. On the HeForShe website, a geo-locating map records the global engagement of the movement through counting the number of men and women around the world who have taken a pledge for the HeForShe initiative, registering over 2.1 million online commitments worldwide. As studies show that 257 more years will be necessary to close the gender gap, and with 95% of the world's CEOs and heads of states being men, male allyship is more than necessary. The commitment of men with power and privilege can be a major game-changer for gender equality and hopes that the human stories and scalable, proven solutions will provide a roadmap to progress and help to shape the robust men's movement for gender equality, which is needed now more than ever.
History
A special event was held to kick-start the HeForShe movement on 20 September 2014 at the Headquarters of the United Nations in New York City. It was hosted by UN Women Goodwill Ambassador Emma Watson, whose speech about her call to involve men and boys in promoting gender equality was widely circulated via social media. The video of the launch has over 11 million online views and there were 1.1 million #HeForShe tweets by more than 750,000 different users within two weeks. The launch was named by Twitter as a catalytic moment of 2014 and painted the hashtag on its wall in its HQ. At that event, UN Women made a call to mobilize the first 100,000 men in the movement, a goal successfully reached in just three days. Former United States President Barack Obama, actor Matt Damon, singer Harry Styles, and UN Secretary-General António Guterres are among some of the high-profile male featured on the site. As of July 2020, over 220 000 people have committed online in India, 200 000 in Rwanda, 170 000 in the Democratic Republic of Congo, 150 000 in the US and 130 000 in Mexico. HeForShe was launched by UN Women's Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and led by her former Senior Advisor Elizabeth Nyamayaro until 2019. Since then, HeForShe has been led by Edward Wageni, former director of Save The Children International Kenya.
Initiatives
Global Leaders as role models
On 23 January 2015, UN Women launched the HeForShe IMPACT 10x10x10 initiative to gain further momentum in advancing gender equality and women's empowerment at the 2015 World Economic Forum in Davos. The HeForShe Champions initiative is a unique ecosystem that engages 10 world leaders, 10 global CEOs and 10 university presidents to address some of today's most pressing gender issues. Each Champion has made three specific, measurable and transformative commitments towards achieving gender equality. The unwavering commitment of the HeForShe Champions is providing the leadership needed to reach the goal of gender equality in society. Global leaders serving as the founding champions include former H.E. President Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone; H.E. Prime Minister Stefan Löfvén of Sweden; Paul Polman, former CEO of Unilever; Rick Goings, former chairman and CEO of Tupperware Brands Corporation. In 2016, the Thematic Champions initiative was launched to engage further global leaders, who make gender equality an institutional priority by implementing one bold, game-changing commitments to advance and achieve gender equality. As of July 2020, the Thematic Champions included Justin Trudeau, PM from Canada; Jean-Laurent Bonnafé, CEO of BNP Paribas; Bruce Cleaver, CEO from De Beers Group. As part of these initiatives, HeForShe has been holding an annual summit since 2015, where global HeForShe Champions from both initiatives and other high-profile people present their gender equality solutions to the world.
Parity in Global Leadership
The HeForShe Proven Solution on How to Achieve Parity in Global Leadership was produced as several HeForShe Champions’ organisations including Price Waterhouse Coppers, World Bank, McKinsey & Company whom all have increased female representation in their global leadership team, setting out a roadmap for other organizations.
Emerging Solutions for Gender Equality
The annual HeForShe Emerging Solutions for Gender Equality Report contains concrete emerging solutions on how to achieve gender equality. These solutions address a wide range of issues, including closing the gender pay gap, ending gender-based and sexual violence, and achieving parity across society.
Male Allies Guide
The HeForShe Male Allies Guide for Gender Equality – Tips for Understanding and Managing Your Emotions, was built on a programme pioneered by the Government of Finland, a HeForShe IMPACT Champion, to enlist army conscripts to prevent violence against women.
Inspiring Individual and Community Action
Campaigns
To raise awareness on gender equality challenges such as mental load, gender-based violence and discrimination, and to engage men in the conversation, HeForShe holds on a regular basis campaigns on social media. These include What We Share Is More Powerful Than What Divides Us, #MorePowerfulTogether, #YearOfMaleAllyship and #HeForSheAtHome.
#MorePowerfulTogether
Launched in September 2018, the #MorePowerfulTogether campaign invited landmarks around the world, most notably The Empire State Building in New York City, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, and the CN Tower in Toronto, to turn off half their lights to demonstrate the power lost when women are underrepresented from society, economies and communities.
#HeForSheAtHome
As a response to COVID-19, as gender inequalities, particularly of women in the home, became increasingly apparent when it comes to housework, cleaning and caring for children, the sick or the elderly, HeForShe launched the #HeForSheAtHome campaign to inspire men to help balance the burden in their households. In sharing the stories of positive male role models sharing the work at home from all over the world, #HeForSheAtHome seeks to inspire many more to do their fair share and to reduce women's mental load.
Country-level initiatives
The success of HeForShe can be seen through the Civil Society's numerous and impactful actions worldwide. HeForShe Taverns have been set up throughout South Africa to initiate conversations with men about engaging with women without being abusive in taverns, as they are mostly men-dominated. Further HeForShe Equality Stories include boys and men cycling through rural India to shift positively traditional gender norms, and boys and men redefining masculinity in Jordan. Students engage very much, as a #GetFree tour was organised throughout universities to initiative gender equality ideas in North America, and over 100 HeForShe student clubs are active worldwide. The Civil Society is able to engage via the online HeForShe Action Kit.
HeForShe in Sports
HeForShe has been partnering with numerous organisations to advance gender equality in sports, including the Valencia Club de Fútbol, one of Europe's major football teams and Fenerbahçe Sports Club, one of Turkey's most popular sports club. The HeForShe Champions also engage by raising awareness on gender equality through their own sports events such as the Danone Nations Cup and the BNP Paribas Tennis Open.
Criticism
Though HeForShe has been met for the most part with support and approval, it has also been met with criticism. Some claim that the movement is inherently sexist for upholding the very gender stereotypes it denounces, demonstrated by the name "He for She," where it is implied the stronger male allies need to step up to defend the more sensitive and victimized women. Although HeForShe has actively represented LGBTQ+ issues alongside sister campaign United Nations Free & Equal, some have expressed concerns that the name of the movement leaves behind non-binary individuals. While HeForShe states its goal to engage cisgender men as allies to all other gender identities i.e. the focus of UN Women, the full name of which is the Global Entity for Gender Equality and therefore is aimed at addressing all forms of inequality.
