Version I heard as a kid had "brother" and "sister" verses, although maybe that's a recent addition. Anyway, as BJ says, would you prefer the woman to be doing the hard work while the guy sits back trimming the sail? Would this merely reflect the fact that when there's hard physical work to do, the man is normally the one doing it, cos he's stronger? Care to deny this? find me any athletics event where women compete on an equal footing with men.

A more valid complaint is the tyranny of the old over the young, and of the rich over the poor. Consider "Step it out Mary" - Mary and her lover drown themselves cos her father insists on her marriage, and the prime culprit is the squire/lord who thinks he can buy her. Oh, and the tyranny of the armed forces over men by press-gang and conscription - that's one thing the women didn't have to worry about (although rape and pillage certainly would be a concern).

There's a fair selection of stuff out there, though. There's songs about the manipulation and/or betrayal of men by women (Black velvet band, Whiskey in the jar) and vice versa (original House of the rising sun). I'd guess that for most songs about women being done wrong, there's others about men being done wrong.

Note that I'm not denying the sexism of the last few hundred years is unpleasant - I find discrimination extremely distasteful. But discrimination takes other forms, and the discrimination which causes ppl to offer jobs to women instead of men, or to coloured ppl over whites, is just as bad as anything going the other way. Show me a campaign organised by feminists to encourage men to become house-husbands, and I'll give feminism a lot more respect. And for god's sake, stop this ridiculous trend of "Women's literature", "Women's history", etc. If there's great literature written by women (and there is plenty!), or great acts done by women (ditto) then they'll feature in literature or history, full stop. If they don't, then the plan CANNOT be to create a separate course for them, otherwise equality can NEVER occur. And you do want equality, don't you?

Grab.