Emma Watson held a live Q&A session via Facebook on International Women's Day, focusing on the need to build a unified movement of women and men to confront gender inequality.

The actress and activist highlighted numerous issues facing women worldwide, including violence, wage discrimination and stringent gender roles that are ingrained into society. These roles are also imposed on men, Watson said, and addressing them is an important step toward creating a world in which women are equal.

"We're never, ever, ever going to be able to fly as high unless we're both in support of each other," she said.

Watson's activism first gained widespread attention after she gave a speech at the United Nations last September during which she helped launch the "HeForShe" campaign.

A large part Watson's speech centered on the need to address male stereotypes, which she said reinforced the social dynamics that oppressed women. This drew some criticism, which Watson addressed during Sunday's session.

"It's not about men saving women, and I think that's a misunderstanding," she said. "Women are already in the club. We're already in the club because it's our movement. It's not a men's club. It's an equality club for both genders."

Watson added that feminism and equality are synonymous, a point she repeated multiple times. "If you stand for equality, then you're a feminist. Sorry to tell you, you're a feminist," she said.

The one-hour session was live streamed on Facebook, which also hosted the event at its London office. At the time of this writing, Watson's Q&A Facebook post attracted more than 66,000 likes, 4,800 shares and 3,600 comments. Earlier on Sunday, she posted about the event and solicited questions on her official Facebook page.

Watson struck both optimistic and pessimistic tones at different times during the Q&A. The public outpouring of support following her U.N. speech heartened her. "I go to bed at night feeling very optimistic about the state of affairs" she said at one point.

However, that optimism was tempered by negative responses to Watson's speech, including online harassment — the worst of which was a website that claimed to have nude photos of her, and threatened to release them.

Watson said the threat, while empty, had still caused pain for her and her family. What it did not do, she said, was make her reconsider advocating on behalf of women.

"If anything, it made me so much more determined. I was just raging. It made me so angry that I was just like, 'This is why I have to be doing. This. This is why I have to be doing this,'" she said. "If they were trying to put me off, it did the opposite."