It has created a wave of awareness and brave confrontations over sexual harassment and assault, taking down powerful men in the process. And now the #MeToo movement has been named Time magazine’s Person of the Year for 2017.
On its cover, Time called the people behind the movement “The Silence Breakers.” Its story features women and men who have spoken out — including activist Tarana Burke, who started the hashtag 10 years ago.

#MeToo rose to prominence as a social media campaign in the wake of high-profile accusations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. After actress Alyssa Milano popularized the hashtag, thousands of women began sharing their stories about the pervasive damage wrought by sexual harassment and by “open secrets” about abuse.
The movement’s empowering reach could be seen in the platform on which Time announced its choice: the Today show. It was just one week ago that NBC fired the morning program’s longtime and powerful co-host, Matt Lauer, over a detailed complaint of “inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace.”
While the most high-profile #MeToo stories have come from women and men who work in the movies and media, the Time article also features women who work hourly jobs, some of whom want to remain anonymous. The magazine’s cover portrait includes strawberry picker Isabel Pascual, lobbyist Adama Iwu and former Uber engineer Susan Fowler along with Ashley Judd and Taylor Swift.