When I was a little girl
I wished I was a boy
I tagged along behind the gang
and wore me corduroys
Everybody thought I only did it to annoy
But I was gonna be an engineer
Mama told me, can't you be a lady?
It's your duty to make me
the mother of a pearl
Wait until you're older,
dear, and maybe
You'll be glad that you're a girl.
Dainty as a Dresden statue,
gentle as a Jersey cow.
Smooth as silk gives creamy milk.
Learn to coo, learn to moo.
That's what you do 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 it's time to breed
And then they have the nerve to say
what would you like to be?
I says, I'm gonna be an engineer
No, you only need to learn to be a lady
The duty isn't yours
for to try and run the world
An en gineer could never
have a baby
Remember, dear, that you're a girl
So I became a typist
and I studied on the sly
Working out the days and nights
so I could qualify
And every time the boss came in
he pinched me on the thigh
And said, I've never had an engineer
Well, you owe it to the job to be a lady
It's the duty of the staff
for to give the boss a whirl
The wages that you get are
crummy maybe,
but it's what you get
cuz you're a girl
She's smart for a woman
Wonder how she got that way
You get no choice.
You get no voice.
Just stay mum.
Pretend you're dumb
That's how you come
to be a lady today me.
Then Jimmy came along
and we set up a conjugation.
We were busy every night
with love and recreation.
I went back to work
so he could get his education.
And now, he's an engineer.
He says, I know you'll
always be a lady.
It's the duty of my darling
to love me all my life.
Could an engineer look after
or obey me?
Remember, dear, that you're my wife
as soon as Jimmy got a job
I studied hard again busy at me
turret lay the year or so
and then the morning that
the twins were born
my Jimmy says to them kid
your mother was an engineer
you owe it to the kids to be a lady
dainty as a dish rag
faithful as a chow
stay at home
you've got to mind the baby.
Remember you're a mother now.
I really wish that I could be a lady.
I could do the lovely things
that a lady's supposed to do.
I wouldn't mind if only they would pay me
and 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.
You get a cook and a nurse,
for better or worse.
You don't need a purse
when a lady is sold.
But now that times are harder
and my Jimmy's got the sack,
I went down to Vickers,
they were glad to have me back.
I'm a third class citizen,
my wages tell me that,
but I'm a first class engineer.
The bossy says I pay you as a lady
You only got the job
cause I can't af ford a man
With you I keep the profits
high as maybe
You're just a cheaper pair of hens
You've got one fault,
you're a woman
You're not worth the equal pay
A bitch or a tart,
you're nothing but heart
Shallow and vain, you got no brain,
you even go down the drain
like a lady today.
I listen to my mother
and I join the typing pool,
I listen to my lover
and I put him through his school.
If I listen to the boss
I'm just a bloody fool,
at an underpaid engineer.
I've been a sucker
ever since I was a baby,
as a daughter, as a wife,
as a mother and
But I'll fight them as a woman,
not a lady,
I'll fight them as an engineer.
Bobbie Mcgee 
