That an iconic female trailblazer in music, business, and popular culture wasn’t up on the feminist conversation du jour might reveal Parton’s origins: a place where a woman’s strength and independence are more about walk than talk. In the women’s movement, that talk—the articulation, study, and theories of advancement toward gender parity—has been crucial to social progress. Of equal import and less acclaim, though, is what poor and working-class women do for the cause.
