By Keith Davis Sociology's Judith Barker, coordinator of women's studies, examines country music — and finds some unexpected feminist themes. Tmmy Wynette stood by her man — and it brought her fame and fortune. "I was born to love and satisfy," sang country princess Karen Wheeler. And no one working on a jukebox tan had the least bitty problem when Merle Haggard growled, "Ain’t no woman going to change the way I think. I think I’ll just sit here and drink." But as far back as 1952 another kind of serenade was drifting out of the jukebox’s purple glow: "It wasn’t God who made honky-tonk angels, as you said in the words of your song. Too many times married men think they’re single, and that’s caused many a good girl to go wrong." Kitty Wells was the singer, and "It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky-Tonk Angels" was her answer to "Wild Side of Life," in which Hank Thompson mourned the loss of his wife, who (to his way of seeing it) preferred heading out to the bars to staying at home with her true-blue husband. Wells, though, had a different point of view; she put the blame back on the man. Wells’s early response predated the voices of a new kind of woman, according to Judith Barker (left), associate professor of sociology and coordinator of women’s studies. In fact, says Barker, singers like Bonnie Raitt, Lorrie Morgan, Shania Twain, Trisha Yearwood, Reba McEntire, and a host of others are using country music to express the ways working-class women are finding out who they are and what they want from their relationships. So convinced is Barker that much of contemporary country music is expressing what she calls "women-friendly" values, she is seriously examining (hold on to your barstool, old hoss) feminist themes in country music.