Peggy Seeger - You Men Out There lyrics

You men out there, you've shown real strength
Listening to me going on at length
About women this and women that
Almost as if the other half, well 48%
Of the human race wasn't worth the
Time and space they occupy

Stop surreptitiously checking your watches
Hands instinctively covering crotches
Inspecting your nails and
Rearranging your shoes
It's understandable, you're confused

And your father's father and
His dad's dad and his pop's
Poppa and all the lads
And the uncles, sons and brothers too
They probably felt the same as you confused

But from where we're at here's how it looks
Long before the time of books
Women were magic women were mystery

Way before the start of history
Before space travel and mega cities
Females were heading planning committees
Women searched the fields and hedges
Hunting flowers, herbs and sedges
Roots for soups, leaves for healing
Plants to enhance loving feelings

Wise women now called "witches"
And powerful women now called "bitches"
Managed life and death and birth
Cared and shared with planet earth
When the golden age came to a stop
There were the men up on top

I guess it starts with lust and love
Where a man spends a lot of time up above
But somehow women got redefined
And got accustomed to tagging behind
Got used to living by manners and graces
And being judged by our figures and faces

And before long you were peelin' our bananas
Opening doors for us and moving our pianos
Then you got busy
You had a ball making and breaking
And rearranging it all

The taj mahal, the game of chess
Safety pins, the printing press
Chemotherapy, burglar alarms
Money, ice cream, nuclear arms
X rays, battery farms, wired bras
Designer cars, opera houses
Disco bars, income tax
Revolving doors, glass ceilings war

We all admit that you've done wonders
And if at times they seem like blunders
And look like a recipe for global death
Women everywhere will have to accept
That we didn't stop you or slap your hand
As we travel the road to no mans land

Still you're up there in the drivers seat
And we're down here with a balance sheet
We're answering a question you didn't ask
We want to go forward into a past
Where humans were part of a natural whole
Where we didn't hunt
Exploit or control every plant
And animal species
Where we didn't cover the world with
Feces of one sort or another

As for the vote
Well it's not the answer to a woman's prayer
But, it's a start and it's kind of fair
And as women living in the world of man
We have to use every tool we can

So forward to the past
With attitude and backward to the future
With gratitude for the battles our
Fore-mothers fought and won
For the battles we're winning one by one
Informative action
And I do believe in what we
Women are going to receive
And what we women, if we want, can take
52% of the cake, 52% of control

And in terms of democracy as a rigmarole
That's only one person, one vote
You men out there it's a time of change
Of redirection and it does feel strange
It'll get less so hour by hour
But remember it isn't
Easy relinquishing power we know