They are the Silence Breakers, the women who started to speak up - and ended up taking down - the powerful men who they say sexually harassed or assaulted them. And Time Magazine has named these women -and men -- collectively as Time Person of The Year. Here's CGTN correspondent Liling Tan with the story.

Breaking years of silence, these women have revealed their stories of sexual harassment and assault by powerful men across multiple industries.

They've fueled a movement that's shaking up the system, and hitting alleged abusers where it hurts the most, their jobs and their reputation.

SUSANNA SCHROBSDORFF EXECUTIVE EDITOR, TIME MAGAZINE "It's 'The Silence Breakers,' women and some men all around the world, thousands, millions perhaps, who stepped out this year to say that they've had enough with sexual harassment at work, at home, and sexual assault. And we're doing this because they've changed cultural norms. This is a shift that is unprecedented in its speed. Not since the 60s have we seen cultural norms change this quickly."

On the cover, actress Ashley Judd who spoke up against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein; singer Taylor Swift who took a radio DJ to court for groping her, engineer Susan Fowler whose outing of a sexist office culture would shake up Uber and bring down its CEO.

But the cover also includes lesser known figures California lobbyist Adama Iwu, Mexican strawberry picker Isabel Pascuel, and a woman whose face is out of frame belonging to an anonymous young hospital worker from Texas who Time magazine says is a sexual harassment victim afraid of revealing her identity.

SUSANNA SCHROBSDORFF EXECUTIVE EDITOR, TIME MAGAZINE  "What they've all stepped up to say is that they're not going to take this kind of harassment anymore and their influence is that companies are firing men who have abused their power. This has never happened before."

Harvey Weinstein was fired from his own company, actor Kevin Spacey sacked from House of Cards. And in the news business, there was Bill O'Reilly of Fox, Charlie Rose of PBS, and Matt Lauer of NBC.

And the Hashtag MeToo campaign that began in mid-October went viral, fueling an international show of solidarity never seen before.

LILING TAN NEW YORK By speaking out, these individuals powered the #MeToo campaign that has gone global. Officials in UK government have fallen. France has a version called BalanceTonPorc which means "Out Your Pig," and other variations on the theme are being used across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, South America and Asia. Liling Tan, CGTN, New York.