First Leonardo DiCaprio, now Emma Watson has addressed the United Nations headquarters this week, launching the HeForShe campaign, which is intended to inspire men and boys to pledge to end gender inequality.

Watson, best known for her role as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films, was named a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador earlier this summer and appeared before the general assembly on Sunday to deliver an impassioned plea to promote her new movement and discuss the state of modern feminism throughout the world.

“I was appointed six months ago and the more I have 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.”

The campaign urges men to speak up against inequalities that face women on a daily basis and to reject the common stereotypes that are injurious to both sexes as a result.

“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,” said the actress. “I want men to take up this mantle. So their daughters, sisters and mothers can be free from prejudice but also so that their sons have permission to be vulnerable and human too — reclaim those parts of themselves they abandoned and in doing so be a more true and complete version of themselves.”

The 24 year old actress also tried to clear up some very common fallacies regarding the very nature of feminism, and what it meant to take up the cause in today’s society.

“I decided that I was a feminist. This seemed uncomplicated to me,” explained Watson. “But my recent research has shown me that feminism has become an unpopular word. Women are choosing not to identify as feminists. Apparently, I am among the ranks of women whose expressions are seen as too strong, too aggressive, isolating, and anti-men, unattractive even.”

According to Watson, gender inequality hurts men just as much as women when they subscribe to crude gender stereotypes. “I’ve seen my father’s role as a parent being valued less by society. I’ve seen young men suffering from mental illness, unable to ask for help for fear it would make them less of a man … I’ve seen men fragile and insecure by what constitutes male success. Men don’t have the benefits of equality, either. We don’t often talk about men being imprisoned by gender stereotypes but I can see that they are.”

She finished her speech with a direct invitation to men of all ages to join her in seeking to end inequality, as her campaign hopes to reach 100,000 commitments from men around the world.

“I am inviting you to step forward, to be seen to speak up; to be the ‘he for she’ – and to ask yourself if not me, who, if not, now when.”