What happens when women stop competing for the one seat at the table and start building their own tables?
This week on Friday I’m in Bed, we’re talking feminism, female solidarity and the women who decided there was no point waiting for permission.
First up, Daisy Chain Fields, the all-women music festival inspired by Lilith Fair, which brought together some of the biggest names in music and raised $20 million for organisations supporting women and girls.
It got us thinking about Lilith Fair in the 1990s, when women in music were routinely told that two women on the same bill wouldn’t sell tickets, that radio wouldn’t play them both, and that female artists had to compete for the one space available.
So have things actually changed? Are women finally making space for each other, or are we just getting better at doing the same thing in a slightly shinier package?
Then we turn to Dolly Parton, following her death at 80, and the extraordinary feminist legacy of 9 to 5.
Dolly didn’t necessarily make feminism less radical. She made it easier for people who were frightened of feminism to hear it.
But why did feminism need to be made friendly in the first place?
We talk about Dolly’s carefully constructed image, the power of femininity, humour as a way of smuggling feminist ideas into the mainstream, and whether women still have to be likeable when they’re asking for equality.
Because maybe the question isn’t just whether women have come a long way.
Maybe it’s who gets to take up space in the first place.
No advice. No wellness. Just two women talking about feminism, pop culture and the things that make us go, “Hang on a minute…”
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Topics covered:
Daisy Chain Fields, Lilith Fair, women in music, female solidarity, feminism, women supporting women, Dolly Parton, 9 to 5, feminist films, workplace sexism, female friendship, likeability politics, women taking up space, gender equality, music festivals, feminist culture and the legacy of Dolly Parton.
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