A Woman Carpenter (1937)
Give me some nails and a hammer,A saw, and a chisel and rule,
I'll make you a chair and a table,
With carpenters' tools I'm no fool. I'm only a woman, I will admit,
I wish I'd been born a man ;
And learnt to be a carpenter,
I try well, and find I can. I turn out quite good furniture,
Though rough for want of a plane,
A bit of paint covers all faults
Of big weights they stand the strain. Why can't we women be carpenters
And learn like the other man ?
Give us training and the tools,
You'll find we will and we can.
"MLEE." Notes From the Queensland Newspaper The Central Queensland Herald 8 Jul 1937 p. 12. Wartime and the Great Depression of the 1930s began to change the outdated attitudes about women and work. This song clearly reminds us of that as the war against fascism approached.