Folk Songs About Women, Feminism and Equal Rights

International Women's Day is March 8th and Women's Equality Day is August 26th.

Mrs. McClung's Address at Walker Theatre (Canadian Suffragist movement)  \  Maria Dunn \ We Were Good People (2004) \ Self (Distant Whisper Music)
Ellen Bukstel \ Real Woman

[played 2008]
Peggy Seeger \ Gonna Be An Engineer \ Folkways Years 1955-92: Songs Of Love And Politics \ Smithsonian/Folkways
Enoch Kent \ Sewing Machines \ For The Women \ Second Avenue
Rachel Harrington \ A Housewife's Lament \ City Of Refuge \ Self

[played in earlier years]
Cosy Sheridan\ Barbie\ The Pomegranate Seed\ CMS
Anne Weiss\ Day of Celebration\ Tomorrow's Gate\ Self
Cathy Fink\ Coal Mining Woman\ Doggone My Time\ Sugar Hill
Anne Hills & Cindy Mangsen\ The Housewife's Lament\ Never Grow Old\ Flying Fish
Old Spice Boys\ She Drives a Truck\ Lost in Spice\ Self
Cosy Sheridan\ Bikini On A Billboard\ Anthymn\ Wind River
John McCutcheon\ The Masters\ Stand Up!\ Appalseed
Allette Brooks\ Silicon Valley Rebel\ Silicon Valley Rebel\ Self
The Carter Family\ Single Girl, Married Girl\ Anchored in Love\ Rounder
Bernice Lewis\ I Need A Wife Too\ Open Lines & Signals\ Local Folkel
Memphis Minnie\ Good Biscuits\ Hoodoo Lady\ Columbia
Enoch Kent\ They Sent a Wumman\ Songs of Love, Lust & Loathing\ Second Avenue
The Waifs\ The Waitress\ A Brief History\ Jarrah
The Duhks\ The Wagoner's Lad\ The Duhks\ Sugar Hill

[other suggestions]
SE Alaska Panhandle Ballad \ ETHAN DANIEL DAVIDSON \ Ring Them Bells \  Self
Women at Work \ FRED STANTON \ Full Time Union \ cass self
Rosa's Coronas \ KATE CAMPBELL \ Rosaryville \ Compass
Woman of Africa \ STEVE & ROSALIND BARNES \ Bridge of Winds \ Western  Wave
Just a Note \ KARAN CASEY \ Distant Shore \ Shanachie
Millworker \ BARBARA DANE \ When We Make It Thru \ \ Paredon
Carol McCluskey \ TOM JURAVICH \ Rising Again \ UAW
Union Woman \ PEGGY SEEGER \ Different Therefore Equal \ Folkways
Luray Women \ SI KAHN \ Unfinished Portraits \ Flying Fish
Here's to the Women \ LINDA ALLEN \ Mama Wanted to be a Rainbow Dancer \ Nexus
Struggle \ EEK-A-MOUSE \ The Mouse & the Man \ Boot
I Need a Wife Too \ BERNICE LEWIS \ Open Lines & Signals
Everyone Knows \ PEGGY SEEGER \ An Odd Collection \ Rounder
A Woman's Anger \ CHARLIE KING & MARTHA LEADER \ Seppin' OUt \ Flying Fish
A Woman's Work \ FRANKIE ARMSTRONG \ And the Music Plays So Fine
Strugglin' Woman's Work \ CLARA SMITH \ I Can't Be Satisfied \ Yazoo
Old Calloused Hands \ HAZEL DICKENS \ Hard Hitting Songs for Hard Hit People \ Rounder

Steve Jerrett played:
  1 Robin Greenstein
    Let No Man Steal Your Thyme
    Images of Women                            (Windy - CD)

  2 Elizabeth Knight
    Keep Woman In Her Sphere
    Songs of the Suffragettes                  (Folkways - LP)

  3 Galaxia Women Enterprises
    Sarah Grimke - Equality of the Sexes
    Side By Side                               (Galaxia - LP)

  7 New Harmony Sisterhood Band
    Sojourner Truth
    ...And Ain't I A Woman?                    (Paredon - LP)

 17 Sweet Honey In The Rock
    Fannie Lou Hamer
    B'lieve I'll Run On, See What The End's Gonna Be  (Redwood - LP)

 18 Bernice Johnson Reagon
    Give Your Hands to Struggle
    Give Your Hands to Struggle              (Smithsonian Folkways - CD)

 19 Ronnie Gilbert & Hollie Near
    This Train Still Runs
    This Train Still Runs                      (Abbe Alice - CD)

Additional song suggestions? Send email


Folk Music Song Themes Last modified