Singer Lesley Gore told her story of how the song came together in the liner notes of a box-set album:

“I met John Madara and Dave White up at the Catskills hotel… [they] came up to me with a guitar, took me into a cabana by the pool, and played me "You Don’t Own Me.” I told them they had to meet me in New York on Monday and we were in the studio probably a week and a half later.

“It is much to Quincy’s credit that he could see what was really involved in that song, because his edict, as far as I know, was to keep me in “It’s My Party” territory – keep it light, keep it frothy, keep it young. You can’t hold back a 17 year-old woman… she has got to find a way to spread her wings – and this was a song that allowed me a little bit more freedom vocally.

“The beauty of that song is that the verses start in a minor key, and then, when you go into the chorus, it goes into the major, and there’s such a sense of lift and exhilaration. After seeing how powerful that is, it became a method I’ve used on a number of occasions.

source