When I was a little girl I wished I was a boy
I tagged along behind the gang and wore my cordoroy
Everybody said I only did it to anoy
But I was gonna be an engineer
Mamma told me, "Won't you be a lady?
It's your duty for to make me the mother of a pearl
Wait until your older dear, then maybe
You'll be glad that you're a girl."
Dainty as a Dresden Statue
Gentle as a Gersey Cow
Smooth as silk, give creamy milk
Learn to coo, learn to moo
That's how you come to be a lady now
When I went to school I learned to write and how to read
Some history, geography and home economy
and Typing is a skill that every girl is sure to need
to while away the extra time until the time to breed
and then they had the nerve to say, "What would you like to be?"
I says "I'm gonna be an engineer!"
"No, you only have to learn to be a lady-
The duty isn't yours for to try and run the world.
An engineer could never have a baby,
remember, dear that your a girl."
So I become a typist and I study on the sly
working every day and night so I could qualify
Every time the boss comes in he pinched me on the thigh-
says, "I've never had an engineer.
Oh, you owe it to the job to be a lady.
It's the duty of the staff to give the boss a whirl.
The wages that you get are crummy, maybe-
it's all you get cause your a girl"
"She's smart, for a woman-
I wonder how she got that way.."
You get no voice, you get no choice,
Just stay mumm, pretend you're dumb,
That's how you come to be a lady today
Then Jimmy come along and we set up a conjugation
We were busy every night with love and recreation
Spent my days at work so he could get his education-
Now he's an engineer!
He says, "I know you'll always be a lady;
It's the duty of me darling to love me all my life.
Could an engineer look after and obey me?
Remember dear, that you're my wife."
Well, soon as Jimmy got a job then I was back again
Happy at my turret-lathe a year or so and then
the morning that the twins were born me Jimmy says to them:
"Kids, your mother was an engineer"
"Now you owe it to the kids to be a lady,
dainty as a dishrag, faithful as a chow
Stay at home, you've got to mind the baby,
Remember you're a mother, now."
Well every time I turn around there's something else to do
Cook a meal or wash a floor or scrub a sock or two
I listen to the morning show -It makes me wanna spew-
I was gonna be an engineer!
How I only wish that I could be a lady
I could do the lovely things that a lady's 'sposed to da
I wouldn't even mind if they would pay me
Then I could be a Person, Too!
What price, for a woman?
You can buy her for a ring of gold.
To love and obey- without any pay
Get a cook and a nurse - for better or worse,
You don't need a purse when a lady is sold
But now the times are harder and me Jimmy's got the sack
I went down to Vickor's, they were glad to have me back-
I'm a third class citizen - me wages tell me that -
but I'm a First Class Engineer!
The boss he says he'll pay me as a lady
"You only got the job cause I can't afford a man-
With you I keep the profits high as may be
You're just a cheaper pair of hands."
Well I listened to my mother and I joined the typing pool
I listened to my lover and I put him through his school
If I listen to the boss I'm just a bloody fool-
and an underpaid engineer.
I've been a sucker ever since I was a baby
as a daughter and a wife, a mother and a dear
Now I'll fight them as a woman, not a lady,
I'll fight them as an engineer!