Rosie the Riveter In order to get more women to join the workforce during World War II, the government used a variety of tactics to motivate them. Propaganda posters of a character named Rosie the Riveter was one of the most successful ways. Rosie the Riveter represented all the women who worked in defense industries, in factories and shipyards, to fill the positions of men who were fighting in the war. Rosie the Riveter was used as an effective tool for propaganda to get women into the workforce. Yet, despite the fact that millions of women proved themselves to be good workers, Rosie disappeared when the war ended, proving that she was regarded as purely a recruitment aid by the government who never really wanted women in the workforce.
Out of the six million women who joined the workforce, half worked in defense industries. These women were all referred to as “Rosies.” Some of the most significant Rosies were what inspired the creation of the strong Rosie the Riveter character. One of these significant Rosies was Rose Bonavita who worked as a riveter at the General Motors Eastern Aircraft Division in New York. She is known for setting a production record by drilling 900 holes and driving 300 rivets in a torpedo bomber in one six-hour shift. Rosalind P. Walter was also a riveter, who was the inspiration of the song “Rosie the Riveter” that was written in 1942 and became very popular (Strobel). The first image of Rosie the Riveter was created in 1943 by Norman Rockwell. Mary Keefe, the model, was actually not a riveter, but a dental hygienist. Norman’s image was speculative and was based on Michelangelo’s Isaiah from the Sistine Chapel. The actual image is of a muscular Rosie who is taking a lunch break which appeared on the cover of the Memorial Day issue of the Saturday Evening Post (Strobel). Geraldine Hoff Doyle is probably the most well known faces out of all the Rosies because she was the model for the We Can Do It! poster. During her one week as a metal presser in a defense factory in Michigan, she was photographed by an unknown journalist. J. Howard Miller, a graphic artist, turned this photo into the famous We Can Do It! poster for the Westinghouse Electric Company in 1942. The shop poster was
‘Rosie the Riveter’ is the name of a fictional character which was created to represent and symbolize the millions of real women who were encouraged by the North American government to join the work force in factories, munition plants and shipyards during World War II, while most men were called to duty to serve in the army during the war.
During World War II, approximately 350,000 women served in the United States Armed Forces. There are many women that people still think of today that is inspiring to them, but many of them know the main person that was popular on the poster board and films which is Rosie The Riveter.
Rosie the Riveter is considered a feminist icon in the US. During the nineteenth and twentieth century feminism grew big they fought for the equal rights of women, against domestic violence and abortion rights. More than a poster Rosie the Riveter was known to represent a real woman. According to the Encyclopedia of American Women Rosie relates the closest To Rose Will Monroe who worked as a riveter at the Willow Run Aircraft factory in Michigan and build airplanes such as the Boeing 29 also known as B-29 and B-24 bombers for the Us Army Air force. As hard as she tried to achieve her dreams and accomplished them Rosie became Rosie the Riveter and was an ideal for many. Not only does this poster stand up for women but it’s important because it increased the number of women working, 22 million in 1941 that’s a 57% increase. Another organization was the ninety-nines, an international association of
Women had different perspectives during World War 2. Many served in different branches of armed forces. Some labored in war productions plants. Most women stayed at home and had other responsibilities to raise children, balance check books, and some labored in war-related office jobs, while the men went to war. In addition to factory work and other front jobs about 350,000 women joined the Armed services, serving at home and abroad. “Rosie the Riveter,” later became a popular propaganda for women. While women worked in a variety of positions closed to them the industry saw the greatest increase in female’s workers. More than 310,000 women worked in the U.S. aircraft industry in 1943,
Howard Miller was hired by Westing House Company’s, War production committee to create a poster for the war efforts. He used pathos to express a women with confidence and beauty to show people a woman can be beautiful and work in factories, he also used the slogan, “we can do it” this is using ethos to show that they had the capabilities to go above and beyond what any person believed they could do, they proved that they had the skill and determination to accomplish the jobs in the factories. Although maybe not a true celebrity like people we may consider famous, the author uses Geraldine Doyle in the propaganda poster “we can do it”, she was a factory worker in Lansing, Michigan. She died on December 26, 2010 at age 86. She was remembered as an unwitting feminist hero as a model for the ionic poster of WWII. On this poster Geraldine became known as Rosie the riveter, as did many of the women in that time, there was also a Rosie the Riveter song out in 1942. Soon after, the once fictional ‘Rosie the riveter’ came to life, her name was Rose Will Monroe, widow with 2 girls, and she moved to Ypsilanti, Michigan to work in the aircraft factory, she was noticed during a bond drive at the factory and was asked to do bond commercials, although she never capitalized on that, she was always known as a feminist icon. After the war she didn’t go back to being a house wife, she had a variety of jobs such as taxi driver, hair salon operator, and she even opened her
As young men responded to their call of duty and enlisted in the armed services, this left the American war industry with a severe labor shortage. With so few men left to satisfy the labor needs, a call went out to women to fill this void. However, the initial response to this request was not satisfactory . As a result, the government devised a propaganda enriched advertising campaign to motivate the masses of women by appealing to their sense of patriotism as well as telling women their labor efforts would help end the war and bring soldiers home more
Even though Rosie the Riveter is an image frequently synonymous with the contemporary women’s movement, she was not designed to promote social change or improve the role of women in the workplace during World War II. In reality, she was promoted as the ideal female worker and was patriotic, confident, capable, and beautiful in a large propaganda campaign by the United States government. Since the war caused many men to answer the call to serve in the military, both at home and abroad, the United States was faced with the urgent challenge of recruiting women into the workforce. Rosie the Riveter was their solution to this problem.
Rosie the Riveter- Considered a cultural icon of the United States, "Rosie the Riveter" represented the American women who worked in industrial factories and shipyards in World War II. She was a star in the government campaign aimed at recruiting female workers, many of these women produced munitions and war supplies.
The film titled, “The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter”, looks at the roles of women during and after World War II within the U.S. The film interviews five women who had experienced the World War II effects in the U.S, two who were Caucasian and three who were African American. These five women, who were among the millions of women recruited into skilled male-oriented jobs during World War II, shared insight into how women were treated, viewed and mainly controlled. Along with the interviews are clips from U.S. government propaganda films, news reports from the media, March of Time films, and newspaper stories, all depicting how women are to take "the men’s" places to keep up with industrial production, while reassured that their
Before the war, women in America had typical lives, and many were wives and mothers. America was brought into the war unexpectedly when Pearl Harbor was bombed in 1941. Hundreds of thousands of men were drafted into the war, leaving the women behind. America lost a lot of valuable, hard-working men to fight, and they needed people to fill their positions. According to history.com’s article, “American Women in World War II”, it was then when Rosie the Riveter was created to recruit women to become part of the “work force” (“American Women in World War II”). Rosie the Riveter was a fictional character who motivated women across the U.S. to take jobs in different industries, many of which were previously all-male positions.
Gilderlehrman.org announced, “The number of working women rose from 14,600,000 in 1941 to 19,370,000 in 1944. In the later year, 37 percent of all adult women were in the labor force. At the peak of the industrial effort, women constituted 36 percent of the civilian work force.” ("The World War II Home Front"). The total population of women workers were growing majorly. Women were making movements across the country due to working in factories. More women actually enjoyed working in factories rather than their housewife job. More women started expanding their culture due to it. A major impact to women was Rosie the Riveter. Rosie the Riveter was a woman figure who was all over articles to encourage women of any age to step out of their comfort zone, and encouraged them to take a part in helping out with the war. Gilderlehrman.org states “But then the
Ever since then women proved that they can work in a man’s workplace and do just as well. Any job that was a man’s, was a women’s as well. Women were soon “the most needed workers of all” according to Brenda Ralf Lewis. Factory workers became known as “the soldiers without guns”. If women hadn’t stepped up to the line, winning the war wouldn’t have been as easy as it was for us. Not only did the women in factories and shipyards have a big part in doing their part in the war contributions, but so did the women who were out on the field fighting alongside with their men risking their very life.
More than six million women took employment outside of the home, and many of the women had never been paid for working. Rosie the Riveter was an iconic figure during the war she showed women a sense of independence by taking them from the household into the workforce. Adult women in Oklahoma frequently went to work in oil fields, gas wells and built airplanes or even worked at-large ship yards. During the war-time, the women were able to prove to America that ladies were just as physically strong as the men were and would do anything to support their country. Mothers would generally barter with family members or neighbors on whose turn it was to watch the children while at work. "Mothers being taken out of the home to work is where child delinquency began, children were not getting the love and the discipline they needed from their parents," said Sharla
During the war in the 1940s, an aggressive media campaign urged more than six million women into the workforce. It is astonishing seeing each year; there were better accomplishments that women were making. Many learned new techniques such as working in steel plants, shipyards, and lumber mills. Sports also became a new and admired era in this time. The famous “Rosie the Riveter”, “We Can Do It!” was a part of the governor campaign that brought women into the workplace during the war. Following the end of WWII, most of these jobs went back to the men, and women were encouraged to either return back home or find a “female” job. This reveals that women were used. They were only needed when most of the men were in the war. In
During World War II, many people moved in to new jobs for the war effort. This included women by the millions. “Rosie the Riveter” was a national symbol of women taking jobs in the industrial field while the men were away fighting the war. “She was fictional, but represented the ideal government worker, including being loyal, efficient, and patriotic”, (Bowles, 2011).