you wanna be a WHAT ?

what kind of messages ( "tapes" / "shoulds" / "scripts" do little girls "get" in life ? Let's go to the Broadway Musical CHORUS LINE -- and listen to one of the songs . .

when i was a little girl --- i wished i was a boy
i tagged along behind the gang --- and wore my (courdroy)

everybody said i only did it to annoy ---
but i was going to be a engineer
mama said "well can't you be a la---dy"
your duty is to make me the mother of a pearl
= and 8 year old and here and maybe ===
you be glad that you're a girl

when i went to school i learned to write and how to read
history, geography and home economy
and typing is a skill that a girl is sure to need
to file a way the extra time --- until the time to breed

and then they had the nerve to ask me what little i could be
and I said "i'm going to be a engineer"

tho you only need to learn to be a lady
the duty isn't yours for to try to run the world
an engineer can never have a baby
remember dear that you're a girl

well i started as a typist -- but i studied on the sly
working out the day and nite so i could qualify
every time the boss comes in he pinched me on the thigh
said, "i never had an engineer."

you owe it to the job to be a lady
the duty of the staff is to give the boss a whirl
the wages that you make are crummy maybe
but its all you get 'cuz you're a girl

then jimmy come along and we set up a conjugation
we were busy every nite with love and recreation
i spent my days at work so he could get an education
and now he's an engineer

he said, i know you'll always be a lady
the duty of my darling is to love me all her life
but can an engineer look after a baby
remember dear that you're my wife

as soon as jimmy got a job -- i studied hard again
then busy at my turrent lathe -- a year or two again
the morning that the twins were born -- jimmie says to them
"kids your mother was an engineer"

you owe it to the kids to be a lady
-- as a dishrag .... faithful as a towel
stay at home you've got to mind the baby --
remember you're a mother now

everytime i turn around there's something else to do
cook a meal; mend a sock; sweep a floor or two
listening to jimmie young, it makes me want to spew
i was going to be an engineer

i only wish i could be a lady
i do the lovely things that a lady supposed to do
i wouldn't even mind if they would only pay me
then i could be a person, too

well i listened to my mother and joined the typing pool
listened to my lover and put him thru his school
if i listen to the boss i'm just a bloody fool
and i learned to pay an engineer

i've been a sucker every since i was a baby
as a daughter, as a mother, as a lover, as a peer
but i'll fight 'em as a woman not a lady
i'll fight them as an engineer

solidarity forever -- i'll fight 'em as an engineer