Emma Watson isn't just that "Harry Potter girl." With her speech for the newly launched HeForShe campaign at the United Nations headquarters in New York City over the weekend, the 24-year-old proved she's far more.

The British actress, who gained fame portraying Hermione Granger in the successful Harry Potter franchise, gave her first speech as the United Nations Women's Goodwill Ambassador on Sept. 20 in a fight for women's equality throughout the world. She urged for females to receive equal pay as well as political and social parity.

"The reality is, that if we do nothing, it will take 75 years, or for me, it would be nearly 100, before women can expect to be paid the same as men for the same work-15.5 million girls will be married in the next 16 years as children and at current rates, it won't be until 2086 before all rural African girls can have a secondary education," Watson said.

Through her speech, Watson also attempted to reverse the negativity tied to the word "feminist" and terminate lingering stereotypes.

"I was appointed as Goodwill Ambassador for U.N. Women six months ago and the more I've spoken about feminism, the more I have realized that fighting for women's rights has too often become synonymous with man-hating. If there is one thing I know for certain, it is that this has to stop," she said.

The United Nations HeForShe campaign also aims to recruit men to help put an end to global discrimination and violence against women. Watson noted that men are also affected by gender equality; however, it's an issue that often goes unnoticed. Males in the U.K., she said, are dying from suicide between the ages of 20 to 49 in greater numbers than those whose lives are taken from car accidents, cancer or heart disease.

"I've seen men made fragile and insecure by a distorted sense of what constitutes male success. Men don't have the benefits of equality, either," she explained. "We don't often talk about men being imprisoned by gender stereotypes, but I can see that they are and that when they are free, things will change for women as a natural consequence. If men don't have to be aggressive, women won't be compelled to be submissive. If men don't need to control, women won't have to be controlled."

She concluded the speech with two thought-provoking questions: "If not me, who? If not now, when?"

Watson not only received critical acclaim for her moving speech, she also did get men to cooperate. Many are showing their support via social media using the hashtag #HeForShe.

-- Anna Halkidis is a multimedia journalist, who earned her master's degree from the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism in 2012. Her work has appeared in Newsday, Women's eNews, The Mott Haven Herald, as well as other publications. Follow her on Twitter.

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