In 1971, Loretta Lynn knew her life was different from most. She then used it to become the champion of the everywoman

Loretta Lynn used her 1971 song ‘One’s on the Way’ to give voice to the everyday pressures women faced, at a time when country music offered women little room to speak openly about their lives. The song contrasted the domestic work of raising children and running a home with the glamorous lives of celebrities, helping establish Lynn as a champion of ordinary women.

Lynn drew on her own experience: she grew up poor in Kentucky, married at 15 and was raising four children by her early twenties. ‘One’s on the Way’ became one of her biggest hits, and its focus on women’s realities foreshadowed ‘The Pill’, her 1975 song about birth control and women’s freedom, which provoked controversy.