Speaker A
Mr. Secretary-General, Excellencies, distinguished guests. To you, and especially to all the women and girls of the world – but also to all men and boys – I say: Happy International Women’s Day! I am honoured to have been invited to speak.
Anne Hathaway urges global investment in women to accelerate progress and achieve gender equality on International Women’s Day 2024.
Key Takeaways
- Women’s contributions are vital across all sectors and must be recognized and valued equally.
- Current funding for gender equality is grossly inadequate compared to global military expenditures.
- Urgent investment in women is essential to achieve peace, prosperity, and gender equality.
- Excuses for slow progress are no longer acceptable; immediate action is required.
- Everyone has a role in deciding to invest in women and accelerate social progress.
What the video covers
- Anne Hathaway opens by wishing a Happy International Women’s Day to all and highlights the theme: 'Invest in women, accelerate progress.'
- She emphasizes the diverse skills and contributions of women worldwide, from various professions and roles.
- Hathaway honors the resilience of over 614 million women and girls living in conflict zones.
- She points out the persistent inequality despite women being half the world’s population.
- The current global economic system fails women, with only 4% of Official Development Assistance targeting gender equality.
- Only 0.3% of ODA is directed toward ending violence against women and girls, showing a major funding gap.
- She contrasts rising global military spending with the much smaller investment needed to achieve gender equality.
- Hathaway rejects excuses for slow progress and calls for urgent and bold investment in women’s rights.
- She appeals to everyone with power to influence change to prioritize investment in women.
- The speech ends with a call to action to accelerate change and fairly invest in women for a better future.
Chapters
- 00:00Opening and International Women’s Day greeting
- 00:17Theme introduction: Invest in women, accelerate progress
- 00:35Women’s diverse roles and resilience in conflict zones
- 01:15Questioning women’s unequal value despite equal numbers
- 01:35Funding gaps in Official Development Assistance for gender equality
- 02:20Comparison of military spending vs. investment needed for equality
- 03:04Rejecting excuses and calling for urgent action
- 03:53Call to action: invest in women and accelerate change
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
I’d like to reflect on today’s theme: “Invest in women, accelerate progress.” The creativity, insight, knowledge, and expertise of women in every sector of our societies, right across our world - from footballers to tech entrepreneurs to climate-smart farmers
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to home-based mothers caring for their families, often on top of earning a living - these skills have never been more advanced and undeniable. We should all be so inspired by the determination and strong voices of young women leading climate action; by the courage of women human rights
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defenders. I must say, I am personally so moved by the extraordinary resilience of the more than 614 million women and girls living in conflict areas across the world, who are keeping their families alive in the face of destruction and deprivation. Today more than ever, we see women holding
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positions of power in all aspects of society. Thank goodness. After all, we are still, as we always have been, half the world.
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Which begs the question: if we share this world in equal numbers, why aren’t we valued equally?
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Because the ongoing, disgraceful reality is that women are not valued equally. Our current global economic system is failing women. Official Development Assistance (ODA) is more than 200 billion dollars. But just 4 per cent of ODA had gender equality and
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women’s empowerment as a principal objective and just 0.3 per cent of ODA is directed toward ending violence against women and girls. There is an outrageous discrepancy between what is so clearly needed and what gets prioritized. So let’s stop this absurd double standard and
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finally invest in women as we deserve. For example, these days, the world is spending more on fighting than ever, even though the vital stability brought by peace is the only true enabler of progress. World military expenditure jumped 9%
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to a record 2.2 trillion dollars last year. How do we accept that that money was made readily available, when a fraction of it – an additional 360 billion dollars each year - is the cost of achieving gender equality across key global goals, including the goals of ending poverty and hunger?
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Yet we are repeatedly told “there just isn’t enough right now,” “it isn’t the right time,” “change happens slowly - be patient.” I think I speak for a great many of us when I say the limits of patience have been thoroughly explored.
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If we value lives lived in prosperity and peace; lives lived without fear of violence; space in family life for leisure, learning and fair earning; the opportunities to look ahead and be part of a new world of work, then surely, surely we have reached the point
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where we can successfully argue women’s rights to share in such a world equally. Perhaps we can even agree that this matter is past the point of arguing.
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So today, I ask you, each with your own power to decide, to vote, to influence, to spend - what do you truly value? What will you lead investment in? Will you accelerate the change we so desperately need, and make this the moment where we boldly and fairly invest in women?
Speaker A
I hope so. Thank you.
Topics:Anne HathawayInternational Women's DayIWD2024gender equalitywomen empowermentUN Womeninvestment in womenglobal economic systemOfficial Development Assistancewomen in conflict zones
