Protest songs have been part of American history for centuries — from “Yankee Doodle” during the Revolutionary War period to “Okie from Muskogee” by Merle Haggard to Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright” — and these tunes have covered all sides of the political and social spectrum.
Stay up-to-date with the politics team. Sign up for the Teen Vogue Take
However, the history of protest music is often associated with men. Musicians like Woody and Arlo Guthrie and Bob Dylan are lauded for their issue-focused songs, yet women have played a key role in this American tradition as well. For example, numerous songs accompanied the fight for women’s suffrage in the 19th century, including one set to the tune of “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” with lyrics that proclaim:
In 1931, poet and folksong writer Florence Reece borrowed the melody of the hymn “Lay the Lily Low” as she scribbled the lyrics to “Which Side Are You On” while her home was surrounded by anti-union coal industry thugs. Billie Holiday started performing “Strange Fruit” in the late 1930s, which asked listeners to face the harrowing truth of Black lynchings in the Jim Crow South. Even today, Paris Paloma’s feminist rallying cry “Labour” is a top-streamed song on TikTok. From labor strikes and racial justice to feminism and calls for peace, here are five female artists who have used the power of song to inspire and rally their audiences.
Hazel Dickens and “Working Girl Blues”
Born in West Virginia in 1935, Hazel Dickens lived and understood the experiences of working people — from her many family members who worked in the Appalachian coal mines to her time working in factory, mill, and retail jobs. Dickens moved to the Baltimore/Washington, D.C. area in the 1950s in search of better employment opportunities.
While working her day jobs, Dickens began playing bluegrass music in local “hillbilly” bars. More often than not, she was the only woman in the band. In her work and on stage, Dickens faced sexism, low wages, and unsafe or poor working conditions. As a result, many of Dickens’ songs focused on workers’ rights, reflecting her West Virginia roots and experiences in the working class.
Coal mining looms large in many of her songs: “Black Lung” tells of the occupational disease that many miners suffered and died from, and “The Mannington Mine Disaster” chronicles a tragic 1968 explosion that killed 78 miners. The plight of the working and immigrant poor is called out in “Working Girl Blues,” “They’ll Never Keep Us Down,” and “Little Lenaldo.” And “Old Calloused Hands” highlights the unpaid and underappreciated labor of women — inspired by Dickens’ sister whose marriage was abusive. Dickens and her frequent musical partner Alice Gerrard also performed as part of Anne Romaine and Bernice Johnson Reagon’s racially integrated Southern Folk Cultural Revival Project in the 1960s, touring in the South with politically active musicians.
Nina Simone and “Mississippi Goddam”
Nina Simone was a musical genius from the age of three when she first started playing the piano. Despite her talent, she quickly learned about the discrimination experienced by Black people in America. During Simone’s first classical concert as a child, her parents were forced to give up their front-row seats for white patrons. Young Nina refused to play for the audience until her parents were invited back to their original seats.
Simone’s awareness of injustice and her desire to take action was reflected in her performances and her everyday life. In 1964, Simone wrote her iconic protest song “Mississippi Goddam” in the aftermath of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, which killed four young Black girls, and the assassination of Civil Rights leader Medgar Evers. The song’s lyrics not only call out the oppression faced by Black communities, but also criticized the continual charge to “do it slow” — in other words, she highlighted how the direction to be patient with the slow pace of social change impeded the progress of racial justice.
When Simone performed this song, she sometimes changed the lyrics to highlight specific acts of racism or oppression. For instance, she changed the line “Tennessee made me lose my rest” to “Selma” after the police brutality on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, “Watts” after riots broke out in Los Angeles, and “Memphis” after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed. She also often lent her musical talents to benefits and demonstrations that addressed social inequities.
In 1966, Simone wrote and performed “Four Women,” a musical portrait of different stereotyped Black women who were exploited or subjected, yet still stood strong. Despite Simone’s intention to criticize racial prejudice, “Four Women” was sometimes misinterpreted as racist itself and banned on radio stations.
In an interview, Simone once said, “An artist’s duty, as far as I’m concerned, is to reflect the times…” Her music — reflecting both the times it was born in and issues that are still prevalent today — provides a beautiful and insightful cry of protest.
Joan Baez and “We Shall Overcome”
Monica Barbaro’s Oscar-nominated portrayal of Joan Baez in the Timothée Chalamet-led film A Complete Unknown has introduced the songstress and her musical repertoire to new generations. But the legend that is Joan Baez is so much more than her association with Bob Dylan.
In 1959, Baez went from coffee house performances to the Newport Folk Festival and soon released her first album. By 1962 she became known as the “Queen of Folk” and was famous for her powerful interpretations of traditional songs. At the same time, Baez was heavily involved in the Civil Rights movement — both musically and as an activist. When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, she led the crowd in a rendition of “We Shall Overcome,” a gospel song that was first transformed into a protest song by Lucille Williams in 1945 during a labor strike in South Carolina.
Always an advocate for peace, Baez was arrested twice while protesting the Vietnam War, and she wrote several related protest songs including “Saigon Bride” — the story of a soldier who has to leave behind his bride to go to war — and “A Song for David,” written for her then-husband David Harris so he would have comfort while in prison for protesting the draft.
Baez also famously visited Hanoi, Vietnam on an official peace mission in 1972 to address human rights abuses and deliver Christmas mail to prisoners of war. During the visit, the U.S. launched a 12-day bombing raid. One side of her experimental 1973 album Where Are You Now, My Son? featured taped recordings of the sounds of air-raid sirens and dropping bombs.
But Baez’s activism didn’t stop there. She was also part of the creation of the Free Speech movement at University of California, Berkeley in 1964, and she founded the Institute for the Study of Nonviolence in 1965. Later in her career, Baez performed for and protested alongside members of the United Farm Workers movement and raised money for the United Nations’ Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization., the nuclear disarmament movement, LGBTQ rallies, and many other social justice causes.
Today, Baez continues to use her voice to call for change and social action. In 2023, after the Tennessee state legislature attempted to expel the “Tennessee Three” — a trio of lawmakers who pushed for gun control — Baez was coincidentally on a flight with representatives Gloria Johnson and Justin Jones from Nashville to Newark. At the airport, Baez sang the traditional freedom songs “We Shall Overcome” and “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ‘Round" with Jones in solidarity with their stand.
Dolly Parton and “Just Because I’m A Woman”
Many people today may have been introduced to Dolly Parton as “Aunt Dolly” on the Disney sitcom Hannah Montana, but beyond her appearances alongside goddaughter Miley Cyrus, Dolly Parton is one of the most revered and honored female country music singer-songwriters of all time.
Often referred to as the “Queen of Appalachia,” Parton grew up in a musical family and was the fourth of 12 children born in a one-room cabin in Tennessee. Her family's struggle to make ends meet fueled her desire to use music to improve her circumstances, and she began appearing on local radio and TV shows at age 10.
In 1967, Parton released her first album, Hello I’m Dolly, which included the Top Forty hit, “Dumb Blonde,” a song that called out female stereotypes. In 1968, she wrote the autobiographical song, “Just Because I’m a Woman” about women’s liberation and the double standards between men and women in response to an argument with her late husband after he discovered she had been with other men before they married. In 1980, Parton teamed up with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin for the film 9 to 5 and provided the movie’s theme song. “9 to 5” became an anthem for working women with its focus on workplace inequities, especially gendered ones.
Although Parton famously avoids making political statements and is well-known for appealing to fans of all backgrounds, her songs reflect her values and she has never shied away from singing what is on her mind. In 2018, she contributed the song “19th Amendment” — a celebration of women gaining the right to vote — as part of RadioLab’s More Perfect podcast. Parton insisted on singing about women’s suffrage, and she went on to say that it is imperative for everyone to exercise their right to vote. Her song “World on Fire” (and its related video), released in 2023, has lyrics and visuals that reference a world beset by division, and perhaps even hints at climate change.
In addition to her prolific music career, Parton consistently supports the causes she cares about. In 1995, Parton started the Imagination Library, providing free books to children ages zero to five in her home county. Since that small beginning, this literacy-building program has shared over 200 million books across the United States and in Australia, Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom, including books in braille. Parton has also donated money to provide scholarships for students, to support COVID-19 research during the pandemic, and towards Hurricane Helene recovery efforts.
The Chicks and “I’m Not Ready to Make Nice”
The Chicks, in the arrangement we know today, began as the Dixie Chicks in 1995 when sisters Emily Strayer (banjo) and Martie Maguire (fiddle) teamed up with Natalie Maines to create a new sound. Together, they blended the sisters’ instrumental prowess in traditional bluegrass, roots, and western swing music with Maines’ honky-tonk and country-rock inspired vocals.
Like many female musical groups of the era, they were underestimated and overlooked as nothing more than country music’s response to the Spice Girls. The Chicks soon solidified their unique blend of traditional string band musicianship and feminist spunk to become a voice for women with songs like “Sin Wagon,” which joyously revolts against the societal confines of womanhood, and “Goodbye Earl,” a lighthearted murder ballad about getting revenge on your abuser.
In the 2000s, The Chicks went against industry norms when they publicly fought against their record label over unpaid royalties, eventually becoming part of a larger countersuit against long-term record contracts. They also refused to stay silent when they saw other country artists promoting what they viewed as a form of hostile patriotism in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In 2003, amidst President Bush’s decision to go to war with Iraq, Maines made a statement at a London concert condemning the president and the war.
The response to Maines’ statement was intense and immediate — they were publicly lambasted, blacklisted, and radio stations across the country banned their music, some even holding CD-smashing events. To highlight the overwhelmingly vitriolic and sexist backlash, The Chicks chose to speak out and posed naked on the cover of Entertainment Weekly with words that had been flung at them such as “Dixie Sluts” and “Saddam’s Angels” written on their bodies to draw attention to the treatment.
They bypassed Nashville and the country music industry’s ban and released their next album, Taking the Long Way, in 2006. The central song, “I’m Not Ready to Make Nice,” is an anthem of betrayal and resistance to being told to make an apology that they did not believe in. Despite winning two Grammy awards, the song received almost no recognition from the country music industry.
In 2020 after a 14-year hiatus, The Chicks announced they were dropping the word “Dixie” from their name to remove themselves from the nostalgia of the Confederacy and any connotation with slavery and, the same day, released “March March,” a hard-hitting rallying cry urging listeners to march, vote, and stand up for a number of social and political issues, including climate change, reproductive rights, racial justice, gun control, and police brutality. At their concerts today, The Chicks unapologetically proclaim their beliefs, jumping between fan favorites and emotionally charged protest songs that invite their audiences to engage with social justice issues through the power of music.
This article was produced with Made By Us, a coalition of more than 400 history museums working to connect with today's youth.
