HeforShe Alliance Impact Report 2024

A Decade of Impact 2014-2024

As HeForShe marks its 10th anniversary, we are proud to announce the launch of the 2024 HeForShe IMPACT Report. This year’s report is a testament to the extraordinary progress made by HeForShe Alliance Champions, who have collectively driven significant advancements in gender equality.

The report highlights the cumulative results of the Alliance's efforts, demonstrating how coordinated action can lead to transformative change for women and girls worldwide. 

“This report tells the story of the HeForShe movement at the heart of social mobilization for positive change.  Ten years ago, UN Women launched a call to create a global community of gender equality supporters, across generations and geographies.  Today HeForShe has connected over 2 million local activists who spark over 3 billion online conversations about gender equality every year.” 

Sima Bahous, Executive Director of UN Women and Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations 

“Gender equality is a unique key accelerator for achieving every one of the 17 SDGs. The HeForShe Alliance members’ results are proof of that. Each partner institution of the Alliance, whether public sector, private sector or third sector, has benefitted from the transformational change brought about by the pursuit of gender equality created on our own terms and in specific contexts.” 

HeForShe Alliance Joint Statement  

Significant achievements include a substantial increase in female representation across organizations, with 45% of Champions enhancing overall female representation and 64% boosting the number of women in top leadership positions. The push for gender-equal representation also saw 50% of Champions increasing the percentage of women on their boards. In addition, leadership and mentorship programs have flourished, with initiatives spanning 25 countries and achieving impressive retention rates. 

The HeForShe Alliance remains committed to advancing gender equality, and the 2024 IMPACT Report is a powerful reminder of what we can achieve when we work together. 

Highlights

HeForShe Advocacy Impact and Reach

Over the past 10 years, HeForSheʼs advocacy work has contributed to UN Womenʼs larger strategic goal of changing social norms by engaging men and boys to challenge and transform discriminatory attitudes and behaviours, promoting gender equality and positive social norms.

The movement has sparked over 3 billion conversations both online and in-person, with more than 2 million activists in our community.

HeForSheʼs messaging reached over 1 billion people through direct advocacy campaigns. Below is an overview of the key campaigns carried out over the past decade to advance gender equality.

Call to Action: Disrupt Sexist and Misogynistic Speech and Patterns of Behaviour

Over the last two years, HeForShe has leveraged three innovative campaigns with a call to action to challenge and disrupt sexist and misogynistic speech and patterns of behaviour across various spaces: #ChangeThePunchline in comedy, #RespectfullyDisruptive in institutional settings, and #JustSayBro in a community.

Each campaign has strategically targeted different spaces and constituents, building upon each other to create a cohesive thread aimed at transforming the status quo and mobilizing men to actively contribute to gender equality.

#ChangeThePunchline

In early 2024, HeForShe launched the #ChangeThePunchline campaign to challenge and disrupt misogyny in the comedy and entertainment business. Building on the “Respectfully Disruptive” theme of the 2023 HeForShe Summit, this campaign leveraged comedy to provide young men with an approachable way to call out their peers for making sexist comments. Seven male comedians were engaged to push out the messaging and launch the campaign. The campaign earned 20.2 million impressions and reached 11.2 million users, while receiving an organic engagement rate of 4.87 per cent (exceeding the industry benchmark of 2-3 per cent). Measuring the engagement rate is crucial as it quantifies active involvement and mobilization, showing how men are engaging with the content and potentially changing behaviours and attitudes.

#RespectfullyDisruptive

At the 2023 HeForShe Summit, HeForShe unveiled the #RespectfullyDisruptive campaign to disrupt sexism in professional and corporate spaces, with leaders issuing a resounding call to action to disrupt gender inequalities in institutional settings. Central to this transformation is the positive role of men as allies for gender equality. #RespectfullyDisruptive was a call to men and boys to be active agents of change, committed to reshaping the global landscape for a sustainable, gender-equal future. The summit and subsequent campaign achieved a total reach of 492,000 and garnered 16,000 engagements on social media.

#JustSayBro

In 2022, HeForShe introduced the #JustSayBro campaign as a call to action to disrupt sexism and misogynistic patterns in everyday behaviours and language. HeForShe created a movement that redefines the word “bro” that most men hear daily as a single-word response to intercept sexist comments. Taking advantage of TikTok and Instagram algorithms, the campaign allowed HeForShe to grow its presence on the platforms and engage men who want to use their voices for change for gender equality. Overall, the campaign earned 34.5 million impressions (439 per cent higher than projected) with 11 million users reached.

#IDo Campaign

In 2021, HeForShe launched the #IDo campaign with a call to action for more male allyship by celebrating the positive role model of men who act in support of gender equality, and how they show up to end gender discrimination around the world. The #IDo campaign was inspired by the commitment made when taking vows, encouraging men and boys to make a pledge to advance gender equality in their lives. The campaign received 1.6 million views and grew our audience by 26 per cent across TikTok.

#HeForSheAtHome

In 2020, HeForShe launched the #HeForSheAtHome global campaign in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which, along with lockdown measures to curb it, resulted in exacerbated gender inequalities. The burden of unpaid care work, increase in domestic violence and other forms of gender-based violence (GBV) became increasingly evident as the world was grappling with the global public health crisis. The HeForShe campaign called on men to step up and take on their share of unpaid care work and show up as allies and partners for equitable relationships. The goal of the campaign was to inspire men aged over 25 to publicly share their stories of balancing the responsibility of care with the women in their household. #HeForSheAtHome in India alone generated over 1 billion views on TikTok. More than 200 men and celebrities from all corners of the world contributed to the campaign, including heads of UN agencies, country ambassadors, actors, musicians and Olympic athletes.

EA Campaign

In 2019, supported by funding from Electronic Arts (EA) Play to Give, HeForShe commenced a campaign aimed at transforming online gaming culture to foster inclusivity. Timed between the launch of EA Play to Give and an inclusion event in San Francisco, the campaign achieved over 4 million social media impressions, effectively spreading its message and encouraging a more inclusive gaming environment.

#MorePowerfulTogether

In 2018, HeForShe partnered with world leaders to launch #MorePowerfulTogether in conjunction with the United Nations General Assembly and the annual HeForShe Summit. The campaign invited 25 iconic world landmarks across 18 cities and 8 countries around the world, most notably the Empire State Building in New York City, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai and the CN Tower in Toronto, to turn off half their lights to demonstrate the power lost when women are underrepresented from society. The campaign was kicked off in a highly publicized event at the Empire State Building. A total of 30,000 gender-equality pledges were made as a result of the campaign. Overall, more than 560 million and social media impressions were generated worldwide, while web traffic increased fivefold on pre-campaign traffic.

WELCOMING NEW HeForShe CHAMPIONS

Read the full report here: HeForShe 2024 IMPACT Report