LOS ANGELES, Aug 29: Dolly Parton never openly embraced the feminist label, but throughout her remarkable career, her choices, music and public life repeatedly reflected themes of independence, equality and female empowerment.
The country music icon, who died this week at the age of 80, was featured among 12 Women of the Year on the January 1987 cover of Ms., the magazine co-founded by prominent feminist Gloria Steinem.
The group included a US senator, a celebrated novelist and a former nun who worked with Central American refugees. Parton’s inclusion highlighted the influence she had already established beyond the world of country music.
Parton was known for avoiding political labels, and she similarly declined to describe herself as a feminist when asked. For many admirers, however, the absence of a label did little to diminish the feminist themes they found throughout her life and work.
Her independence, business achievements, relationships with other women and, particularly, her songwriting offered a powerful picture of a woman determined to live according to her own choices.
Author Lynn Melnick, who explored Parton’s impact on her own recovery from trauma in her book I’ve Had to Think Up a Way to Survive: On Trauma, Persistence, and Dolly Parton, said the singer demonstrated her beliefs through her actions and music rather than explicitly declaring them.
Parton’s ability to address gender inequality with humour and accessibility became one of the defining features of her work.
At the Newport Folk Festival in 2019, audiences enthusiastically responded when she performed “Just Because I’m a Woman”, a song that challenges the unequal standards applied to men and women.
The song’s central message questions why women should be judged more harshly for experiences that society accepts in men. Parton had previously explained that its inspiration came from a conversation with her husband shortly after their marriage.
Her approach was characteristically direct but disarming. Rather than presenting her arguments in ideological terms, she often used humour, everyday experiences and relatable storytelling to connect with audiences.
Music writer Caryn Rose said Parton understood that her traditionally feminine appearance could work against her in an industry dominated by expectations about women. Instead of rejecting that image, she turned it into a source of personal power.
Steinem expressed a similar view decades earlier. In the 1987 Ms. issue, she praised Parton’s ability to use her business skills to help other women and people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Steinem also argued that Parton’s flamboyant appearance allowed her to reclaim symbols that had often been used to diminish women, turning them into tools of self-expression and influence.
For music writer and academic Evelyn McDonnell, Parton’s glamorous appearance could also function as a kind of protective layer. Beneath the elaborate hair, eyelashes and rhinestones was an artist willing to address social and economic issues affecting women.
Parton’s 1980 hit “9 to 5”, written for the film in which she starred alongside Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, became one of the clearest examples of her engagement with workplace inequality.
The song focused on women struggling against unfair working conditions, economic limitations and male authority, while highlighting the importance of solidarity among female workers.
Her songwriting also tackled subjects that country radio was sometimes reluctant to address.
In “The Bargain Store”, Parton used the imagery of used merchandise to explore emotional damage and recovery following a failed relationship. She later said radio stations had interpreted the song as being about prostitution rather than its intended theme of healing.
For Melnick, the song also suggested that a woman’s worth does not depend on having a man in her life.
Parton addressed another socially sensitive subject in “Down from Dover”, which tells the story of a young unmarried mother. She recalled that the song was written at a time when pregnancy outside marriage was rarely discussed openly and that radio stations refused to play it.
Some commentators have viewed Parton as an early embodiment of ideas that later became associated with third-wave feminism during the 1990s.
That interpretation places emphasis on personal choice and the freedom to define femininity on one’s own terms. In Parton’s case, that could mean embracing glamorous clothing, towering heels, elaborate hairstyles and rhinestones while simultaneously building an independent career and expressing views that challenged traditional expectations.
Parton’s refusal to adopt a political identity may have helped broaden her appeal across cultural and ideological boundaries. Admirers from very different backgrounds have often felt a connection with her.
Yet for her feminist supporters, that broad appeal does not erase the significance of what she accomplished.
Parton’s legacy demonstrates that feminism does not always have to be expressed through a political declaration. For many of her fans, it was evident in the choices she made, the opportunities she created and the stories she placed at the centre of her music.
She may never have claimed the word for herself, but generations of listeners heard a message of independence and resilience in her songs—and embraced her as a feminist icon in their own way.