I'm Gonna Be an Engineer

[00:05.80] When I was a little girl I wished I was a boy
[00:08.27] I tagged along behind the gang and wore my corduroys.
[00:11.51] Everybody said I only did it to annoy
[00:14.23] But I was gonna be an engineer
[00:17.82] Mamma said, "Why can't you be a lady?
[00:21.01] Your duty is to make me the mother of a pearl
[00:24.08] Wait until you're older, dear
[00:25.80] And maybe you'll be glad that you're a girl.
[00:30.35] Dainty as a Dresden statue, gentle as a Jersey cow,
[00:36.35] Smooth as silk, gives cream and milk
[00:39.36] Learn to coo, learn to moo
[00:42.56] That's what you do to be a lady, now.
[00:47.99] When I went to school I learned to write and how to read
[00:50.62] Some history, geography and home economy
[00:54.02] And typing is a skill that every girl is sure to need
[00:56.83] To while away the extra time until the time to breed
[01:00.38] And then they had the nerve to ask, what would I like to be?
[01:03.23] I says, "I'm gonna be an engineer!"
[01:06.20] "No, you only need to learn to be a lady
[01:09.52] The duty isn't yours, for to try to run the world
[01:12.53] An engineer could never have a baby
[01:15.69] Remember, dear, that you're a girl"
[01:18.68] She's smart --- for a woman.
[01:21.65] I wonder how she got that way?
[01:24.70] You get no choice, you get no voice
[01:27.63] Just stay mum, pretend you're dumb.
[01:30.78] That's how you come to be a lady, today.
[01:35.96] Then Jimmy came along and we set up a conjugation
[01:39.46] We were busy every night with loving recreation
[01:43.04] I spent my days at work so he could get an education
[01:46.46] And now he's an engineer!
[01:49.64] He said: "I know you'll always be a lady
[01:52.50] The duty of my darling is to love me all her life
[01:55.66] Could an engineer look after or obey me?
[01:58.67] Remember, dear, that you're my wife!"
[02:05.41] Well as soon a Jimmy got a job, I began again
[02:08.38] Then happy at me turret-lathe a year or so, and then
[02:11.85] The morning that the twins were born, Jimmy says to them
[02:14.82] "Your mother was an engineer!"
[02:18.13] "You owe it to the kids to be a lady
[02:21.11] Dainty as a dish-rag, faithful as a chow
[02:24.48] Stay at home, you got to mind the baby
[02:27.59] Remember you're a mother now!"
[02:30.89] Every time I turn around there's something else to do
[02:33.79] Cook a meal or mend a sock or sweep a floor or two
[02:37.02] Listening to Jimmy Young - it makes me want to spew
[02:40.03] I was gonna be an engineer.
[02:44.09] Though I only wish that I could be a lady
[02:47.16] I'd do the lovely things that a lady's s'posed to do
[02:50.25] I wouldn't even mind if only they would pay me
[02:53.10] Then I could be a person too.
[02:56.59] What price for a woman?
[02:59.33] You can buy her for a ring of gold,
[03:02.58] To love and obey, without any pay,
[03:05.25] You get a cook and a nurse for better or worse
[03:08.22] You don't need a purse when a lady is sold.
[03:13.21] Oh, but now the times are harder and me Jimmy's got the sack;
[03:16.82] I went down to Vicker's, they were glad to have me back.
[03:20.09] But I'm a third-class citizen, my wages tell me that
[03:23.08] And I'm a first-class engineer!
[03:26.65] The boss he says "We pay you as a lady,
[03:29.44] You only got the job because I can't afford a man,
[03:32.51] With you I keep the profits high as may be,
[03:35.65] You're just a cheaper pair of hands."
[03:38.80] You got one fault, you're a woman;
[03:41.78] You're not worth the equal pay.
[03:45.06] A bitch or a tart, you're nothing but heart,
[03:47.99] Shallow and vain, you've got no brain,
[03:50.65] Or you can go down the drain like a lady today
[03:56.38] Well, I listened to my mother and I joined a typing pool
[03:59.33] Listened to my lover and I put him through his school
[04:03.15] But if I listen to the boss, I'm just a bloody fool
[04:05.96] And an underpaid engineer
[04:09.31] I been a sucker ever since I was a baby
[04:12.45] As a daughter, as a wife, as a mother and a dear
[04:16.15] But I'll fight them as a woman, not a lady
[04:19.14] I'll fight them as an engineer!
[04:25.99]