Neither Dolly Parton nor Gloria Steinem had children — and worked to make life better for children overall.

“She didn’t tell us she was a feminist,” says Melnick, author of “I’ve Had to Think Up a Way to Survive: On Trauma, Persistence, and Dolly Parton.” “She showed us — in her actions and her words and in her songs. And I think that’s why people loved her so much.”

She paid tribute to the two feminist icons in a new post