The year 2018 started out with the formulation of the Time’s Up Movement formulated on January 1st. Time’s Up was founded by Hollywood celebrities in response to Harvey Weinstein’s sexual harassment allegations and other sexual misconduct cases.

According to Hero Profile, the time’s up movement was so impactful that Time Magazine considered the voices of Time’s Up to hold the title of 2018 Person of the Year.

“I think that people are aware now of a power imbalance and it’s something that leads to abuse,” Meryl Streep said. “It’s led to abuse in our own industry and it’s led to abuse across the domestic workers’ field of work, it’s in the military, it’s in congress, it’s everywhere and we wanted to fix that.”

Time’s Up planned for all the women attending the Golden Globes to unite by wear black. The goal of this act was to put an emphasis on women empowerment and for all the women watching the award show to be inspired.

“I feel like that it was really good of the women to actually do something about what was  going on and actually make a stance on the situation as a group and a whole,” Mikayla Boles 10 said. “Women needed to do something really big and impactful and I think a lot of people understand their message and  because they wore black dresses people listened.”

The Time’s Up movement lead to #metoo, another movement, which encouraged women to feel like they are not alone, when it comes to sexual violence. This program advocates for people to receive the help that they need in regards to sexual harassment. They ensure databases for local and federal organizations to provide support for victims of sexual harassment.

“Many of us are survivors, too; so we know that empowering others through empathy is often a part of our own healing journeys,” Me too’s website said.

In addition to Time’s Up and Me too, this year the United States had large numbers of female candidates running in the State and Midterm elections. Coincidentally this election received an abundance of new registered voters as well as a large amount of voters compared to past elections.  

“Since the early primaries began for the 2018 midterm elections, it’s been a year of firsts and to many, a year of the woman,” CNN said. “In the midst of this election, the first significant national vote since the election of Donald Trump.”

The fact that 589 women ran for primaries proved that politics is no longer a male-dominated field. Out of the 589 women, 102 were elected in the House of Representatives, 14 were elected in the senate and 9 were elected in gubernatorial positions.  

“The record number of women running for election this year is undoubtedly going to change politics permanently, for the better. But what’s also significant is that many of the women running aren’t conventional candidates. These aren’t elite career politicians making their run at the next rung of politics,” Sally Kohn said. “They’re single moms and school teachers and public interest lawyers who want to make a difference for their communities and their countries.”

The second-annual Women’s March occurred in 2018 too. The Women’s March is a worldwide protest where women gather to share their opinions on political issues and promote better and equal rights. The first protest happened on January 21, 2017, and it was the largest single-day protest in history with 500,000 to 1,000,000 protesters.

“The women are marching for a good cause,” Lillian Hyatt 10 said. “I am a woman that believes we should support people and we should help out in any way we possibly can.”

In 2018 the Women’s March was scheduled for January 19, 2019. The main protest was held in Washington D.C, while there were other protests held in different cities across the country.

“It has been called the Year of the Woman, and rightly so — defined by historic political victories in the United States, #MeToo-fueled uprisings around the world. Women upended the political landscape in last month’s midterm elections,”Maya Salam, a reporter for the “New York Times,” said. “This was the first full year of the #MeToo era, and while women continued to accuse powerful men of sexual harassment, we also saw the conversation shift to ‘what’s next?’”