Time magazine released the cover of its annual Person of The Year issue, and while bets were on people like Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump, this time around, the publication decided to mark the global movement against sexual assault triggered by women who stepped up and named their accusers.

Titled "The Silence Breakers", the cover photo is meant to represent the #MeToo movement through which women and men shared their stories of sexual harassment. It features Susan Fowler, a former Uber employee who wrote about Silicon Valley sexism in her blog, which ultimately led to the exit of the company's CEO Travis Kalanick; Isabel Pascual, a pseudonym used by an agricultural worker who was stalked and harassed by her employer; Adama Iwu, a corporate lobbyist in Sacramento, California, who encouraged numerous women to expose sexual harassment; actress Ashley Judd, who was among the first women to accuse film producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment; and Taylor Swift, who won a lawsuit against a former DJ, David Mueller, who she said had groped her.

"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.

But what of the woman not on the cover of Time? Alongside the rest of the group of women, the image also features just an arm of a woman, resting on the table. Felsenthal revealed to NBC News that while the anonymous woman did share her story, she was concerned that her livelihood might be threatened if she stepped into the public eye.

"The image you see partially on the cover is of a woman we talked to, a hospital worker in the middle of the country," he said.

"One of the important things we explore in our coverage around the issue is, of course, the parade of headlines is non-stop and incredible to see, but we look at the degree to which this is really just the beginning. How far will it go, and how deep into the country? How long-lasting?" Felsenthal added.

"The woman told the magazine that she still wondered whether she could have stopped the encounter."

Time mag
Time magazine's Person of The Year issue (Dec 2017) Time Magazine