The New York-born music star, 71, who is known for her activism as well as her songs, was asked what it has meant to see banners at women's marches saying "Girls just want to have fundamental rights".

"When I saw that, I cried a little because I used to get in a lot of trouble for talking about women's rights," she told Lauren Laverne on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs.

"When I saw that, I called up my friends that I started the True Colours Fund with, and I said, 'Let's start the Girls Just Want To Have Fundamental Rights Fund, come on', which helps women's health, safe and legal abortion, prenatal care, postnatal care, cancer screenings and everything having to do with women's health and promotion of women.

"So we do that, and we raise money and fund organisations all over the world."

Lauper co-founded True Colours United (formerly True Colours Fund), an organisation focusing on youth homelessness and the LGBTQI community, in 2008.

She announced her donor-advised fund, formed to financially support women's issues, in 2022, following protests in support of abortion rights after the Supreme Court repealed Roe v Wade.

The protests took place five years on from the global Women's March that was organised after the first inauguration of US President Donald Trump.

"Well, they (things) change, and they don't.

"The fact that Taylor Swift had to justify herself, I was like, 'Are you kidding?' I'm freaking so proud of that young woman. What a good example.

"I'm happy watching all these young women, and I know that there'll always be struggles, but you just always got to take a step back, and there's always going to be gatekeepers, and just figure out how to get around them.

"Find like-minded people doing similar things that you aspire to do, and know that there are still artist collectives that you could join, and achieve what it is you want."

With AAP.