I Am Woman

Helen Reddy wrote this when she couldn't find enough songs to include on her first album, I Don't Know How To Love Him. She was looking for songs that reflected a positive self-image that she felt she had gained from her participation in the women's liberation movement. Included on the 1971 album, Reddy didn't like the way this version came out and neither did her producer, Larry Marks (he thought she sounded "too butch"), but they put it on the album anyway. Another producer did like it. Movie producer Mike Frankovitch wanted to use it in his "feminist comedy" Stand Up And Be Counted. Reddy agreed on two conditions: That she would re-record the song, and that he would donate $1000 each to Women's Centers in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. To coincide with the movie's release, the song was issued as a single in 1972, which slowly rose to #1 in America. Reddy's second album was subsequently titled I Am Woman and included this new version of the song.

When this song got a makeover in 1972, the arrangement was changed, as were some lyrics ("I can face anything" became "I can do anything"), and a verse was added. These tweaks helped the song become a huge hit.

"I Am Woman" is a cultural touchstone in America, as it underscored the feminist movement. Like the movement, the song proved divisive, generally split along gender lines with women loving it (or at least appreciating its message) and some men hating it. This trope played out in an episode of the TV show Married With Children when the show's patriarch, Al Bundy, enters a state of distress when his wife sings it (Katey Sagal, who played the wife, is actually a professional singer - she sang it in a purposefully grating way on the show). The song also found its way into an episode of The Simpsons when Homer sings it while dressed as a girl. Other media appearances include the TV shows Doogie Howser, M.D. and Cold Case, and the movies My Best Friend's Wedding and Sex and the City 2.