Feminist Friday: Single Girl, Married Girl

The Carter Family's 1927 version of the folk song "Single Girl, Married Girl" is probably one of the oldest recorded songs that I would classify as dealing with feminist issues, and boy does it ever. The lyrics seem radical, even by 21st Century standards:

Single girl, single girl

She's going dressed fine

Oh, she's going dressed fine
Married girl, married girl

She wears just any kind

Oh, she wears just any kind

Single girl, single girl

She goes to the store and buys

Oh, she goes to the store and buys

Married girl, married girl

She rocks the cradle and cries

Oh, she rocks the cradle and cries

Single girl, single girl

She's going where she please

Oh, she's going where she please

Married girl, married girl

A baby on her knee

Oh, a baby on her knee

And with those few lines, the writer cuts right to the quick of the modern liberated woman's struggle to "have it all". Not such a modern problem, it turns out, though obviously, we are fortunate to have many freedoms that were unavailable to women when this song originated at least 150 years ago. While we may have more choices today, the isolation and sacrifice that motherhood brings is a universal truth spanning the ages.