January 21st, 2017, marks a historic date in American history in terms of advocating for human rights issues, particularly gender equality. It’s now been a year since people across the nation took part in the historic Women’s March. What began as a single protest in Washington slowly progressed into a worldwide movement, with over three million participants. The rallies were intended to combat the recent inauguration of Donald Trump, a man who has made more than his fair share of inflammatory statements against women. Even now, the movement is nowhere close to over. While simultaneously promoting issues such as immigration reform, racial equality, healthcare reform, and much more during this time, women have made tremendous progress with strengthening the movement they began a year ago.

Sexism is still prominent in our society, and it’s no coincidence that President Donald Trump has also continually been called out for objectifying women. He has made multiple sexist comments in and out of office, an issue that is one of the most pressing issues of today’s society. If people see that the President of the United States is willing to degrade women, and treat them as if men are their superiors, others will also believe it okay to objectify woman. This is exactly what woman in today’s day and age are fighting against. Powerful woman with access to communicate to the masses have spoken out against Trump in efforts to voice their displeasure. One such widely known activist is Meryl Streep. She has commented multiple times, saying, “This instinct to humiliate when it’s modeled by someone in the public platform by someone powerful it filters down into everybody’s life.” Streep, and all women, have had enough of men not treating women as equals, and are using their platforms to spread awareness to this hopefully dying inequality.

Woman have become emerging leaders in all fields of the world, whether it be running for office at increasing rates, or joining in the new trend #metoo. #Metoo is a global hashtag used to show the magnitude of sexual assault. It recently became popular when when actress Alyssa Milano tweeted saying “If you’ve been sexually harassed or assaulted write ‘me too’ as a reply to this tweet.” So far, more than half a million woman have tweeted the hashtag #metoo. The broader cultural significance of the already growing women’s movement was only fueled by the #metoo movement, and has greatly helped to end sexual harassment and the stigmas against it.

All in all, 2017 was the year of the women, and it is continuing into 2018. Time’s Up is a movement against sexual harassment, founded on January 1, 2018, by celebrities desiring to support victims of sexual harassment who may have less access to media platforms and funds to speak up. One way they chose to advocate for this was at the Golden Globes red carpet, which took place on January 7th, 2018. Celebrities chose to express their support through their wardrobe. Woman wore black dresses to show their support the Time’s Up and #metoo movement.  It’s also evident that woman have joined forces to fight for their rights, as men have contributed to this movement as well, expanding the growing community against sexual harassment and gender inequality. Hopefully, this is a trend that will continue into 2018 and beyond.