Fans have turned on Taylor Swift for failing to participate in the Women's March

Pop star Taylor Swift is copping an online backlash after she issued a tweet supporting the weekend's worldwide Women's Marches.

Swift, a self-described feminist, was not among the A-list celebrities who turned out to various demonstrations on the weekend.

Her pop star peers including Ariana Grande, Rihanna, Katy Perry and Miley Cyrus were all among the millions who turned out in protest, while many female celebs delivered impassioned speeches at the rallies.

Pop icons Madonna and Cher even managed to put aside their well-documented differences to march together:

Swift instead sent her support from afar, offering her "love, pride and respect for those who marched".

"I'm proud to be a woman today, and everyday," she tweeted.

But many on social media were quick to criticise Swift for her absence from the marches - and for jumping on board the cause given her silence about President Donald Trump during his election campaign against Hillary Clinton.

If you were really for feminism you would have spoken up against Donald Trump instead of just saying to vote on Election Day @taylorswift13

— alyssa (@xoalyssaxo3) January 21, 2017

but where were you during the entire election?

— Jordan Ross Schindler (@jordanrosstv) January 22, 2017

Swift first described herself as a feminist in 2014, saying it was her friendship with Girls creator Lena Dunham that opened her eyes to the movement.

"As a teenager, I didn't understand that saying you're a feminist is just saying that you hope women and men will have equal rights and equal opportunities. What it seemed to me, the way it was phrased in culture, society, was that you hate men. And now, I think a lot of girls have had a feminist awakening because they understand what the word means. For so long it's been made to seem like something where you'd picket against the opposite sex, whereas it's not about that at all," she told The Guardian.

"Becoming friends with Lena - without her preaching to me, but just seeing why she believes what she believes, why she says what she says, why she stands for what she stands for - has made me realise that I've been taking a feminist stance without actually saying so."