Amelia Ryan and Libby O’Donovan have been stalwarts of the Adelaide music scene for decades, particularly the Adelaide Cabaret Festival.

One or the other or both can usually be relied upon in June to come up with a popular concept that gets punters on seats. However, the duo has stepped it up with I Am Woman, a tribute to the history of women in Australian rock and roll from the 1960s through to the beginning of the golden era in the 1970s.

The show begins in the pre-feminist 1960s, when women first started appearing in early music television shows such as Six O’Clock Rock and Bandstand.

However, those women were fully controlled by male producers, who picked their material and even the clothes they wore. O’Donovan and Ryan pay tribute to pioneers like Little Pattie, Judy Stone, Bev Harrell and Patsy Ann Noble.

Libby O’Donovan (left) and Amelia Ryan in I am Woman. Photo supplied.

The absurdity of the barriers women faced from needing your husband’s permission to take an international flight, open a bank account and of course, divorce...