I don't know if anyone will agree with me, but I always understood this song to be a sort of feminist cry.
If you listen to what the words mean, they're saying, "Do what's unexpected! Don't just follow with what you're 'supposed' to do, be a change." Sheila wants to "live on her own", in other words, live independently, support herself. She is "not always glad", which means she isn't just satisfied with what she is and what she will become, she wants more, she wants to be more.
Then in the end, when it says, "I'm a girl and you're a boy", I think it's supposed to mean that our gender doesn't matter, whether I'm a girl or you are, whether you're a boy or I am, we're the same, and we can be happy together ("Off we stride").
I don't know if anyone will agree with me, but I always understood this song to be a sort of feminist cry. If you listen to what the words mean, they're saying, "Do what's unexpected! Don't just follow with what you're 'supposed' to do, be a change." Sheila wants to "live on her own", in other words, live independently, support herself. She is "not always glad", which means she isn't just satisfied with what she is and what she will become, she wants more, she wants to be more. Then in the end, when it says, "I'm a girl and you're a boy", I think it's supposed to mean that our gender doesn't matter, whether I'm a girl or you are, whether you're a boy or I am, we're the same, and we can be happy together ("Off we stride").