TIME Names The Women Who Launched The ‘#MeToo’ Movement As ‘Person Of The Year’

Time magazine has named “The Silence Breakers” who sparked the #MeToo movement as 2017’s Person of the Year.

“The galvanizing actions of the women on our cover … along with those of hundreds of others, and of many men as well, have unleashed one of the highest-velocity shifts in our culture since the 1960s,” the magazine’s editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal said in a statement.

“Social media acted as a powerful accelerant; the hashtag #MeToo has now been used millions of times in at least 85 countries. … The idea that influential, inspirational individuals shape the world could not be more apt this year. … For giving voice to open secrets, for moving whisper networks onto social networks, for pushing us all to stop accepting the unacceptable, The Silence Breakers are the 2017 Person of the Year,” he added.

The Silence Breakers are TIME's Person of the Year 2017 #TIMEPOY https://t.co/mLgNTveY9z pic.twitter.com/GBo9z57RVG

— TIME (@TIME) December 6, 2017

The magazine’s cover featured actress Ashley Judd, singer Taylor Swift and former Uber engineer Susan Fowler.

He said Trump came in at No. 2 on the list because he has “changed the very nature of the presidency and the way the White House functions.”

The decision to name The Silence Breakers comes as a growing number of women have bravely come forward in recent weeks to allege sexual misconduct against prominent political figures including Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), as well as Hollywood and media figures like Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, Charlie Rose and Matt Lauer.

Felsenthal called The Silence Breakers the voices that “launched a movement.”

“This is the fastest-moving social change we’ve seen in decades and it began with individual acts of courage by hundreds of women, and some men too, who came forward to tell their own stories of sexual harassment and assault,” he said on NBC’s “Today.”

WATCH: “The image you see partially on the cover is of a woman we talked to… who doesn’t feel that she can come forward without threatening her livelihood.” @TIME EIC @efelsenthal talks #TIMEPOY cover pic.twitter.com/q3bPbKNPbg

— TODAY (@TODAYshow) December 6, 2017