Dolly Parton defied country music's expectations for women and built a career on her own terms: experts

From the get-go, Dolly Parton was a force to be reckoned with. She challenged social norms, broke barriers for women in country music and ultimately helped redefine what a female country star could be.

Throughout her life, Parton — who died Aug. 25 after a brief battle with cancer — helped “expand the narrative” of how women were perceived, not only in country music but beyond it, experts told Fox News Digital.

“Dolly followed some other pioneering women like Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn who had already challenged expectations and proved that women’s experiences belonged in country music,” Dr. Tracy King, a chartered clinical psychologist, writer and pop-culture commentator, told Fox News Digital.

But Parton’s determination to control her own identity extended far beyond her looks. Behind the larger-than-life image was a savvy songwriter and businesswoman who was equally determined to control her own work.

“Dolly built on the groundwork of Kitty Wells, Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette and expanded the range of what a female country performer could become,” King said. “She opened the door to women being recognized as authors of their careers rather than being selected and managed by men. She wrote her own material, protected her publishing rights, left a successful partnership with a powerful male performer and developed businesses beyond the control of the traditional Nashville system.”

“She showed younger artists that creative freedom depends not only on being heard, but on retaining ownership and decision-making power,” she added.

Parton also demonstrated that female country artists did not have to remain confined to what society expected of them.

“A female country artist could enter pop music, film and television, establish a production company, build businesses and still remain connected to country music,” King said. “We can see elements of that broader template in the careers of performers such as Reba McEntire, Shania Twain, Faith Hill, Trisha Yearwood, The Chicks, Carrie Underwood, Miranda Lambert, Taylor Swift and Kacey Musgraves.”

“Her songwriting opened another door by showing that women’s inner lives could carry major commercial songs,” King added. “Female characters could be jealous, angry, ambitious, sexually judged, economically exploited, ashamed, heartbroken or ready to leave. Later female performers had greater permission to write from their own point of view rather than to present a version of womanhood that was comfortable for a male audience.”

Parton’s influence ultimately stretched far beyond music.

She built a business empire centered in her home state of Tennessee, with Dollywood becoming one of the state’s most recognizable attractions. Her charitable work through the Dollywood Foundation and Imagination Library left another lasting mark.

The Imagination Library, inspired by Parton’s father, who never learned to read or write, provides free books to children from birth to age 5. The program grew into an international literacy initiative, distributing millions of books to children around the world.

Following Parton’s death, tributes poured in from some of the women who followed the path she helped widen.

“Dolly, thank you for all the wonderful things you did for us here on earth,” Reba McEntire wrote on Instagram. “Your love, your music and you gave so much with your huge huge heart. There will never ever be another you. We will remember and cherish every memory and every note you ever played and sang.”

“Thank you, Lord, for Dolly,” she concluded. “She’s gonna have a blast in heaven singing all her favorite songs with all her family and friends who have gone on before her.”

Shania Twain also shared an emotional tribute, calling Parton her “mentor.”

“Dolly was pure light sent from heaven,” Twain wrote on Instagram. “My mentor is gone. My songwriting teacher and hero of grace and humility. There is a hole in my heart but the joy of just the thought of her smile will continue to fill me with inspiration for as long as I live.”

Decades after she first entered an industry with narrow expectations for female performers, Parton left women in country music with far more room to define success on their own terms, said King.

“Dolly left female performers with a much wider blueprint: write the story, own the work, control your own narratives and shake off the ones anyone else may have given you,” King said.