Simone Ashley was one of the honorees at the Glamour UK Women of the Year Awards and she gave an empowering speech after being honored by Bridgerton co-star Nicola Coughlan.
The 29-year-old actress spoke on stage during the event on Tuesday night (October 1) in London, England.
Simone told a recent story about being harassed by a “man in a van” while trying to parallel park with her best male friend sitting in the passenger seat.
“He was like ‘roll down your window I want to tell you something,’ and I didn’t roll down my window, I very graciously and kindly said ‘no thank you, I’m OK,’” Simone said (via Daily Mail). “I started to get a bit nervous and with this, he then looked at my male friend and then he put one arm up, and then he put the other arm up, and then he puffed his chest and went ‘you should be driving’ as if to say ‘men can do it’ and I’m sure they can, and yes in the moment I laughed, inside I felt a little bit embarrassed and really frustrated.”
Simone continued, “This is a really minor example of being told I wasn’t good at something because I’m a woman. But we all know that there are constantly much more profund and serious examples that women face day to day, where we are told that something is impossible because they are a woman.”
“Even though they know, we know that we are worth and we are capable. So the message that I want to convey, don’t listen to anything or anyone that deprives us of hope,” she said. “Instead plant your energy into believing what you already know, honour your dreams, fight for them and don’t surrender to anyone who tells you it’s not possible.”
She added, “If someone ever tells you something isn’t possible because you’re a woman, I hope you can look in the mirror and put one arm up and the other one and puff your chest and say ‘I can do it!’”
