HeForShe celebrates two years of movement

To mark the second anniversary of UN Women’s HeForShe movement, world leaders, change-makers, activists and celebrities will unite at a special event hosted at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City later this evening.

UN Women has also unveiled the first-ever HeForShe IMPACT 10x10x10 University Parity Report. In the groundbreaking report, Leicester along with nine other leading global universities lay out concrete commitments and begin charting their progress toward achieving gender parity.

Our President and Vice-Chancellor Professor Paul Boyle has been interviewed by BBC News, talking about what the University is doing to try and close the gender gap in senior academic positions. He was also part of a panel at the UN General Assembly where UN Women Goodwill Ambassador Emma Watson delivered a speech on gender equality, filmed by Sky News.

In September 2014, UN Women launched HeForShe, a global solidarity movement for gender equality, with the aim of engaging and encouraging men and boys to take action against the gender inequality which women across the world face.  This worldwide movement seeks to progress the advancement of gender equality specifically through increased engagement of men and young people as advocates and agents of change.

In September 2015, the University officially launched its HeForShe partnership with the United Nations as one of ten universities worldwide to be HeForShe IMPACT Champions. The HeForShe IMPACT 10x10x10 is an initiative that convenes ten Heads of State, ten global CEOs and ten University Presidents to fast-track gender equality in boardrooms, classrooms and world capitals.

In the video below, Professor Boyle introduces the HeForShe movement and outlines some of the University’s commitments to help achieve gender equality.

We were delighted to welcome our partners from the UN Women's HeForShe team at the start of their #Get Free University tour and over 450 students and staff attended the special launch event.

The University also launched its unique HeForShe video - which can be viewed below - and has gone on to win a Learning on Screen Award, a CASE Circle of Excellence silver award and has recently been shortlisted for a British Television Society Midlands Award.

The film concept was also replicated by banking giant Barclays when they pledged their support for HeForShe.