I have a musical theater student, in her late 20's, who is learning "Woman" from The Pirate Queen. She loves the song, which is about a young woman in Elizabethan times wanting the same opportunities as a man to follow her dreams and realize her potential.
I had a couple of other female singers, in their late teens, also look at the song. None of them had any connection to the text at all. Have we managed, in the space of a decade, to raise a generation of young women who do not know gender inequality? That would be amazing, indeed!
A song these younger female singers relate to are "Astonishing", from Little Women, in which Jo faces the choice to leave a traditional life to pursue her dream of being an author. Or "Defying Gravity" from Wicked, in which Elphaba commits to finding her own way in the world and to being herself. So, the self-expression theme is still evident, just not the gender comparison.
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