Right, let’s talk about the songs that make you feel like you could topple governments before breakfast.
2024 and 2025 delivered some absolute bangers in the feminist anthem department. Some came from unexpected places (looking at you, Chappell Roan), others from artists who’ve been doing this longer than most of us have been alive. What matters is they all pass the test: press play, feel powerful, repeat as needed.
This isn’t some worthy playlist you’ll listen to once and forget. These are the tracks you actually want blasting when you’re getting ready, driving to that difficult meeting, or just reminding yourself you’re not taking anyone’s nonsense today.
1. Good Luck, Babe! – Chappell Roan
If you weren’t paying attention to Chappell Roan before 2024, you definitely were after this. “Good Luck, Babe!” is the kind of song that stops you mid-scroll on TikTok because wait, what is this and why does it sound like every emotion I’ve ever had?
It’s about compulsory heterosexuality, but even if you’ve never heard that term, you get it immediately. Watching someone you care about deny who they are to fit into what society expects.
That specific flavour of heartbreak when someone chooses the “acceptable” path over the authentic one. Roan’s vocals build from restrained to absolutely soaring over production that somehow sounds both retro and completely now.
Kelly Clarkson and Miranda Lambert covered it. Sabrina Carpenter covered it. The VMAs performance involved medieval costumes and became an instant cultural moment.
This is the lesbian anthem 2024 needed, delivered by an artist who wasn’t afraid to be messy, theatrical, and honest all at once.
2. Labour – Paris Paloma
This one went properly viral for good reason. Paris Paloma managed to bottle up about three centuries of female rage into four minutes of folk-pop.
“All day, every day, therapist, mother, maid / Nymph then a virgin, nurse then a servant.” Listen to that once and tell me it doesn’t accurately describe someone you know. Probably yourself if you’re honest.
What makes “Labour” special isn’t just the lyrics documenting every invisible task women do. It’s how it connected.
TikTok filled with videos of women sharing their own stories, historical figures who were forgotten, relationships where they carried everything whilst their partners contributed nothing.
Hundreds of women sent in recordings of themselves singing it, which Paloma compiled into “Labour (The Cacophony)” in 2024.
Hearing all those voices together, different ages and backgrounds, hammers home that this isn’t individual complaints. It’s a pattern so old it feels ancestral.
The stripped-back production lets every word land. No hiding behind big beats or clever production tricks. Just voice, guitar, and years of accumulated resentment finally getting words.
3. Flowers – Miley Cyrus
Self-love anthems usually sound cloying. This doesn’t. Miley Cyrus figured out how to make buying yourself flowers and writing your name in the sand sound like the most powerful thing you could do.
The song spent weeks at number one, won Record of the Year at the Grammys, and became the soundtrack to every “doing better without him” video on social media. That disco-pop shimmer gives it enough lift that singing along feels like celebrating rather than compensating.
“I can buy myself flowers” shouldn’t be revolutionary, but in a culture that still tells women their value comes from relationships, it kind of is.
4. Run the World (Girls) – Beyoncé
Thirteen years old and still the blueprint. This doesn’t ask nicely. It doesn’t explain itself. It just states facts over a beat that sounds like a military march crossed with a club banger.
The genius of “Run the World (Girls)” is how unapologetic it is. Beyoncé isn’t making a case for female empowerment or asking for a seat at the table. She’s telling you women already run everything, and if you haven’t noticed, that’s your failing. The aggressiveness works because it refuses to tone itself down for comfort.
Gets played at protests, sporting events, basically anywhere women gather and remember they’re brilliant. Still hits.
5. WAP – Cardi B & Megan Thee Stallion
The amount of rage this song inspired from people who definitely shouldn’t have been listening to it in the first place remains funny. Conservative commentators lost their absolute minds whilst the track topped charts globally.
Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion created the explicit anthem about female pleasure that pop music needed. No metaphors, no coyness, just two women being extremely clear about what they want.
The fact that this caused moral panic whilst male rappers have been doing similar for decades proves exactly why it matters.
Sometimes feminist empowerment sounds like demanding to be heard in boardrooms. Sometimes it sounds like “WAP.” Both are valid.
6. The Man – Taylor Swift
Swift spent years getting criticised for having boyfriends, not having boyfriends, writing about having boyfriends, basically existing as a successful woman with opinions. “The Man” is her responding by asking: would any of this be a problem if I weren’t female?
The answer is obviously no. The bridge listing everything she’d “get away with” as a man lands because it’s not hypothetical. We’ve all watched male artists do exactly those things to applause whilst women get scrutinised for less.
Swift directed the video herself, appearing in prosthetics as a stereotypical successful businessman. Subtle? No. Effective? Absolutely.
7. 360 – Charli xcx
Here’s the thing about “360”: it works because it doesn’t try to be inspirational. Charli xcx isn’t making grand statements about feminism or writing manifestos about female empowerment. She’s just being excellent and surrounding herself with excellent women.
The BRAT album aesthetic became everywhere in 2024. That specific lime green, the confident assertion that Charli and her circle define cool, the whole vibe of women being powerful without explaining themselves. Compare this to Katy Perry’s “Woman’s World,” which tried so hard to be a feminist anthem it forgot to be good. “360” succeeds by not caring whether you get it.
8. Just a Girl – No Doubt
Gwen Stefani’s sarcastic masterpiece from 1995. The title sounds cute. The ska-punk energy says otherwise.
“Just a Girl” uses that gap between what society expects (“sweet little girl”) and what’s actually happening (fury at constant underestimation) to brilliant effect. Stefani sings about being told she’s weak, having her independence questioned, being treated like she can’t handle basic tasks.
The anger underneath that bouncy production captures something specific: being constantly underestimated whilst simultaneously held to impossible standards. Nearly 30 years later, still relevant. That’s depressing but also proves the song got something right.
9. Bad Idea Right? – Olivia Rodrigo
Feminist anthems don’t have to be about making perfect choices. Sometimes they’re about having autonomy to make questionable ones.
Rodrigo knows going to see her ex is probably stupid. She lists all the reasons why. Then goes anyway because she wants to. The punk-rock energy and cheeky delivery turn female desire and decision-making into something powerful rather than shameful.
Not every empowering song needs to be about strength and resilience. Sometimes it’s just about owning your choices even when they’re messy. That’s feminism too.
10. Respect – Aretha Franklin
If you don’t have this on a feminist playlist in 2025, what are you doing? Nearly 60 years old and still the standard.
Aretha Franklin took Otis Redding’s song and transformed it into something that became an anthem for both civil rights and women’s liberation. That bit where she spells out R-E-S-P-E-C-T remains one of the most iconic moments in music history for good reason. She wasn’t asking. She was demanding.
Covers get done regularly. None of them improve on the original. That’s how you know it’s perfect.
11. Man’s World – Marina
Marina stripped away all the electronic production from her earlier work for this acoustic track imagining what society might look like if women had designed it.
Released in 2020, it combines gentle guitar with the fury of living in a patriarchy that positions itself as natural rather than constructed.
“If you were a girl, then you’d understand” lands hard because it captures every conversation where you’ve tried explaining gendered experiences to someone who refuses to get it.
12. Born This Way – Lady Gaga
Lady Gaga’s 2011 anthem doesn’t limit itself to one kind of empowerment. “Born This Way” creates space for everyone society marginalises, including women who don’t perform femininity the way culture demands.
The gospel production lifts the self-acceptance message into something that genuinely sounds triumphant rather than defensive. Gets played at Pride reliably because it captures that specific feeling of refusing to apologise for existing.
13. Formation – Beyoncé
“Formation” doesn’t ask for acceptance. It states facts about Black women’s power and dares you to have a problem with it.
The 2016 track samples New Orleans bounce music whilst addressing police brutality, cultural appropriation and Black excellence. Beyoncé performed it at the Super Bowl with dancers dressed as Black Panthers, making her politics impossible to ignore. Conservative commentators predictably lost it. Everyone else recognised it as brilliant.
This is what unapologetic looks like in musical form.
14. Pretty Hurts – Beyoncé
Different Beyoncé energy entirely. “Pretty Hurts” dismantles beauty standards by showing a pageant contestant breaking under pressure to be physically perfect.
“Perfection is a disease of a nation” cuts through because it’s true. The vulnerability in Beyoncé’s vocal performance contrasts with her usual power stance, making the message about beauty culture’s damage land harder.
Worth noting this came out in 2013 and we’re still having the exact same conversations about unrealistic standards. Progress moves slowly.
15. You Don’t Own Me – Lesley Gore
Recorded in 1964 when Gore was 17 years old. Think about that. A teenage girl singing about refusing to be controlled, changed or put on display by a partner, in an era when women were expected to be compliant.
The song predated second-wave feminism but captured everything it would fight for. Dusty Springfield covered it. Grace covered it. Keeps getting discovered by new generations because the message doesn’t age.
16. I Am Woman – Helen Reddy
The 1972 anthem that became second-wave feminism’s unofficial theme song. Helen Reddy singing “I am strong, I am invincible, I am woman” whilst reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100.
The Grammy acceptance speech where she thanked God “because She makes everything possible” made the song legendary. That moment alone guaranteed its place in feminist history.
Every anthem since owes something to this track’s unapologetic celebration of female power.
17. Survivor – Destiny’s Child
Destiny’s Child released this in 2001 after lineup drama that tabloids treated like scandal. Instead of playing victim, they flipped it by celebrating resilience.
The martial beat and defiant lyrics turned personal mess into an anthem about coming out stronger. “I’m a survivor, I’m not gonna give up, I’m not gonna stop, I’m gonna work harder” became mantras for anyone facing adversity.
Proves women don’t need to collapse gracefully. Loud fighting back works too.
18. Fight Song – Rachel Platten
Critics dismissed this as too earnest when it came out in 2014. Millions of women adopted it anyway during difficult transitions.
“Fight Song” speaks to anyone feeling overlooked or defeated. The gradual build from quiet to explosive mirrors finding your voice after silence. Sometimes earnestness is exactly what’s needed.
19. Girl on Fire – Alicia Keys
Alicia Keys comparing a woman realising her power to being literally on fire, with everyone stopping to watch her burn bright. The 2012 track builds from piano to full orchestration, matching lyrics about someone nobody can stop.
Keys wrote it thinking about her own journey and other women refusing to dim their light for anyone’s comfort. That specificity makes it work.
20. Don’t Touch My Hair – Solange
Solange’s 2016 track from “A Seat at the Table” addresses Black women dealing with boundary violations and microaggressions. The song reclaims bodily autonomy through deceptively gentle production that combines soul, R&B and experimental sounds.
Works on multiple levels. Literal boundary crossing. Deeper violations of personhood. The way society treats Black women’s bodies as public property. All of it wrapped in something that sounds intimate and powerful simultaneously.
Look, feminist anthems aren’t going to fix systemic inequality or topple patriarchal structures overnight. If only it were that simple.
But they do something important: they create moments where you remember you’re not alone in whatever battle you’re fighting.
Whether that’s negotiating a pay rise, leaving a relationship that’s draining you, or just making it through another day of subtle microaggressions that nobody else seems to notice.
These 20 tracks cover different ground because feminism isn’t one experience. Chappell Roan’s queer heartbreak sounds nothing like Aretha Franklin’s civil rights anthem, which sounds nothing like Paris Paloma’s folk-pop rage about domestic labour. That’s the point. There’s no single sound of female empowerment because there’s no single way to be a woman.
What they share is refusal. Refusing to be quiet, small, compliant, grateful for scraps. Refusing to pretend that current systems work fine when they demonstrably don’t. Refusing to accept that being female means accepting less.
Some of these songs are angry. Some are joyful. Some are sad. Most are a bit of everything because that’s what being human is. The ones that last are the ones that give you language for experiences you thought were just yours. Turns out they’re everyone’s. That’s where the power comes from.
Next time you need reminding of your worth, queue these up. Let them do their job. They’re good at it.
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