WEBVTT

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As you can imagine

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women are not born feminist.

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I wasn't born a feminist myself.

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I will tell you how I became one.

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I lived in Brazil,

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exiled because of the 
military dictatorship

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in 1979,

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and a tragedy happened.

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A wonderful woman from Minas Gerais,
were I used to live

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was shot to death 
on the beach by her partner

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who said she was cheating on him.

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One day, I was going to a TV show

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and I found out that a journalist

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was interviewing the murderer's attorney.

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The attorney was well known
in Brasil's criminal law.

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The journalist asked

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how was he going to face
the murderer's defense.

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He answered that it was very simple

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-- of course, he said this in Portuguese --

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very simple,

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it was a legitimate defense 
of the murderer's honor.

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That's why he killed her.

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As you can imagine, that shocked me;

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I was a justice seeker
in every sense of the word

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fighting for equality for all people,

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and I realized I was missing
a very special chapter,

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so I made myself study and think about

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what had happened to women.

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What had happened to women in history?

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And there I met the patriarchal system

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which is an excluding system.

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Not only for women.

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Not only for women.

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The system also excludes

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others who don't have
the same level of masculinity.

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In that search I found, most of all,

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what had happened during the 19th century --

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a century in which women
were mostly excluded --

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So we went to Napoleon's 
Code of Law, from 1804,

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which was completely imitated
by most of the countries

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that placed women on a lower 
place regarding civil rights;

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women couldn't study or work,

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or administrate their own property.

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However, I want to bring up

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that even we have a system
so full of exclusion,

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lots of men started to 
join women's claims;

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feminism was born.

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In 1848 took place probably
the first feminist council

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in Seneca Falls,

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close to New York,

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and there were 30 percent of men,
joining women

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in their claims for equal rights.

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The 19th century was specially
hard for women;

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it was very usual to think

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that women were less 
intelligent than men.

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I will use Gustave Le Bon's words,
he was a French sociologist that said

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that women's intelligence was
similar to a gorilla's intelligence

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and that had to be checked.

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So, I think

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that we have walked a long way

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but there are still plenty of things to do

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to achieve complete gender equality.

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I will present four dimensions,
that for me are basic

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to achieve equality.

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First of all, we need to stop

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violence against women.

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In Argentina, we have had 
three big marches:

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the "Ni una menos", Not one less,
movement has been very important;

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and during the last few days we had

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(Applause)

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we had the first, maybe
historical, women's strike.

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Yes, there were some in the past, 
and also in literature

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but this one was remarkable.

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I also would like to say

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that is absolutely fundamental

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to have equal participation,
from both women and men

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in different tasks.

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Why are there tasks exclusively for women?

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Why men can't take care of the kids,

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or the house?

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Why women can't perform

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typically masculine work?

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Labor market is

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really harsh to women;

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Women's total payroll represents
70 percent of men's total payroll.

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The third item I want to mention

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is that we need equality.

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Equality of representation
in government's areas

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and in every institution.

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Women can barely reach
the highest positions.

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Today, only 30 percent 
of CEOs are women,

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the same happens with all high levels.

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Not even universities have been
a place to develop equality.

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And finally, I would like
to give you some food for though

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about the idea

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of autonomy of our own bodies.

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Men's bodies and women's bodies.

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Women have to be owners of their bodies

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they can decide to become mothers,

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go through a pregnancy,

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or not carrying on with 
pregnancies they don't want.

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(Applause)

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We need to have legal
abortion in Argentina.

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(Applause)

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Finally, I would like to share
a really intimate belief;

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a feminist belief,

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that it's a better future for human beings.

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It's about people's dignity

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men, women, and other 
sexual identities,

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it's about sexual diversity
that requires, for each of us,

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a life full of dignity.

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That's my main goal.

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(Applause)