View source for Peggy Seeger: "I'm Gonna Be an Engineer"

[[Modern feminist songs|back]]

'''I'M GONNA BE AN ENGINEER'''

<br>When I was a little girl I wished I was a boy
<br>I tagged along behind the gang and wore my corduroys.
<br>Everybody said I only did it to annoy
<br>But I was gonna be an engineer

<br>Mamma said, "Why can't you be a lady?
<br>Your duty is to make me the mother of a pearl
<br>Wait until you're older, dear
<br>And maybe you'll be glad that you're a girl.

<br>Dainty as a Dresden statue, gentle as a Jersey cow,
<br>Smooth as silk, gives cream and milk
<br>Learn to coo, learn to moo
<br>That's what you do to be a lady, now.

<br>When I went to school I learned to write and how to read
<br>History, geography and home economy
<br>And typing is a skill that every girl is sure to need
<br>To while away the extra time until the time to breed
<br>And then they had the nerve to ask, what would I like to be?
<br>I says, "I'm gonna be an engineer!"

<br>"No, you only need to learn to be a lady
<br>The duty isn't yours, for to try to run the world
<br>An engineer could never have a baby
<br>Remember, dear, that you're a girl"

<br>She's smart --- for a woman.
<br>I wonder how she got that way?
<br>You get no choice, you get no voice
<br>Just stay mum, pretend you're dumb.
<br>That's how you come to be a lady, today.

<br>Well, I started as a typist but I studied on the sly
<br>Working out the day and night so I could qualify
<br>And every time the boss came in, he pinched me on the thigh
<br>Said, "I've never had an engineer!"
<br>"You owe it to the job to be a lady
<br>The duty of the staff is to give the boss a whirl
<br>The wages that you get are crummy, maybe
<br>But it's all you get, 'cause you're a girl"

<br>Then Jimmy came along and we set up a conjugation
<br>We were busy every night with loving recreation
<br>I spent my days at work so he could get an education
<br>And now he's an engineer!

<br>He said: "I know you'll always be a lady
<br>The duty of my darling is to love me all her life
<br>Could an engineer look after or obey me?
<br>Remember, dear, that you're my wife!"

<br>As soon a Jimmy got a job, I studied hard again
<br>Then busy at me turret-lathe a year or two, and then
<br>The morning that the twins were born, Jimmy says to them
<br>"Your mother was an engineer!"
<br>"You owe it to the kids to be a lady
<br>Dainty as a dish-rag, faithful as a chow
<br>Stay at home, you got to mind the baby
<br>Remember you're a mother now!"

<br>Every time I turn around there's something else to do
<br>Cook a meal or mend a sock or sweep a floor or two
<br>Listening to Jimmy Young - it makes me want to spew
<br>I was gonna be an engineer.

<br>I only wish that I could be a lady
<br>I'd do the lovely things that a lady's s'posed to do
<br>I wouldn't even mind if only they would pay me
<br>Then I could be a person too.

<br>What price for a woman?
<br>You can buy her for a ring of gold,
<br>To love and obey, without any pay,
<br>You get a cook and a nurse for better or worse
<br>You don't need a purse when a lady is sold.

<br>Oh, but now the times are harder and me Jimmy's got the sack;
<br>I went down to Vicker's, they were glad o have me back.
<br>But I'm a third-class citizen, my wages tell me that
<br>But I'm a first-class engineer!

<br>The boss he says "We pay you as a lady,
<br>You only got the job because I can't afford a man,
<br>With you I keep the profits high as may be,
<br>You're just a cheaper pair of hands."

<br>You got one fault, you're a woman;
<br>You're not worth the equal pay.
<br>A bitch or a tart, you're nothing but heart,
<br>Shallow and vain, you've got no brain,


<br>Well, I listened to my mother and I joined a typing pool
<br>Listened to my lover and I put him through his school
<br>If I listen to the boss, I'm just a bloody fool
<br>And an underpaid engineer
<br>I been a sucker ever since I was a baby
<br>As a daughter, as a mother, as a lover, as a dear
<br>But I'll fight them as a woman, not a lady
<br>I'll fight them as an engineer!