The book "Here's to the Women," mentioned above, is still available through Legacy Books, a division of Sing Out! Go to Sing Out.org.

Bev Grant wrote a terrific song, "We Were There" about working women. She has recorded it and my group, the Solidarity Singers, has also recorded it for our c.d. which we hope to release on May Day, 2002.

Dick Greenhaus just mentioned the "Coal Mining Women" album that the Carawan's put together. You might also try their recordings of songs from John's Island, South Carolina and later recordings by one of the singers on that album, Bessie Jones. Many of these relate to work of various sorts, including childcare.

According to such sources as Jean Ritchie's "Singing Family of the Cumberlands" (a must read for everybody) the classic ballads were often sung by women as they did housework and that is one of the principal ways that they were passed down from mother to daughter over many generations. So certainly, the big traditional ballads should qualify as women's work songs as well.

Aunt Molly Jackson and Agnes "Sis" Cunningham have many excellent topical (and political) songs about various aspects of work from a woman's point of view.

There is also an excellent duo, Rebel Voices, out of the Seattle area, two women with fine voices who largely focus on labor oriented themes in their three excellent cds.

I also wonder if Dar Williams' song about the babysitter shouldn't be included in a list of this sort.

At the moment its title is escaping me, but there are several ballads wherein a husband and wife make a bet to see which one works harder and exchange roles for the day. The woman usually wins and, if properly sung, the song always gets a lot of laughs.

There are also several very bawdy songs describing women who work in the world's oldest profession, but I suspect that this thread doesn't want to go there.

I see where this could become an endless posting (as some of the learned entries above approach) so I'll end it for now.

-Bennet