International Women’s Day may have come and gone but a relatively new movement is still gaining worldwide support. The UN Women China organisation recently launched its own HeForShe campaign in Beijing.

Created to carry out the United Nations’ global efforts to destroy gender prejudices across China and the rest of the world, HeForShe aims to bring men and boys into the struggle currently being fought overwhelmingly by women.

The problem in China lies not within girls’ education, as it does in other countries around the world, but with employment. Chinese actor Li Guangfu recently said, "It's common to see girls do better at school than boys, all the way to higher education in China. But at work you see women take far fewer important positions. I think this is a big social problem." It is extremely unjust for half the population to be so underrepresented in elite organisations, when so many have proved that they can outperform their male classmates.

While the campaign works to promote justice for women on the other side of the globe, HeForShe is gaining ground in Britain too. Although relatively new, having only started in September 2014, it already has a strong female representative who is a huge inspiration for thousands of young women.

Emma Watson, who shot to fame for her role as Hermione Granger in the incredibly successful ‘Harry Potter’ films, kick-started the campaign with a powerful speech at Davos a few months ago. And she is certainly working hard to give it the attention it deserves and needs if it will create any progress. Defining feminism as “the theory of political, economic and social equality of the sexes”, she argues that men are equally important in the fight against discrimination. She could not have made this any clearer in her speech, directly addressing the male members of her audience and stating that gender bias is ‘your issue too’.

It is reassuring that this essential cause is being backed by such a widely respected, eloquent young woman. Nowadays, the following situations are all too familiar: girls not being offered the opportunities their male peers take for granted; girls hesitating to embrace opportunities they are given due to a lack of confidence caused by a male-dominated society; girls having these opportunities taken away from them for natural decisions that should not be criticised, such as deciding to have a child.

While girls in China and elsewhere still face prejudice even when often outperforming their male peers, it is crucial that both men and women work to break down the barriers of inequality that exist all over the world.

Raveena Rao, Bromley High