Today being International Women’s Day, here are three very different versions of the song “Women Of The World.”

A moving paean to female empowerment, “Women Of The World” was originally written and recorded by the legendary Scots poet, singer and raconteur Ivor Cutler with Linda Hirst in 1983. However “Women Of The World” is most closely associated with alt-rock scion Jim O’Rourke, who extended Cutler’s rousing folk ditty into a 9-minute epic of shimmering beauty for 1999 album Eureka. By stark contrast, the DFA-signed future-punks Yacht turned in a noisy, electronic thrash-out for their 2007 long player I Believe In You, Your Magic Is Real.

In any of these forms, the power of the song and its sentiment still shines through.

Here are the three versions, in order of release:
 
Ivor Cutler “Women Of The World” (1983)
 

 
Jim O’Rourke “Women Of The World” (1999)
 

 
Yacht “Women Of The World” (2007)
 

 
Happy Women’s day!