Rosie The Riveter Movement

In movies, pictures, posters, newspapers, articles, and a painting by Norman Rockwell on the Saturday Evening Post Cover, Rosie the Riveter, encouraged women to start working. The campaign was a huge success as women entered the workforce in big numbers. Although, women were an important part of the war, they were not paid the same as their male partners. Women barely earned more than 50% of men’s pay. Though Rosie The Riveter was the poster girl, there were 11 Women Warrior icons in the World War II , even though there were many more these 11 women stood

Throughout time, women have been considered housewives and mothers. Not all women stayed home, throughout history women have worked, mainly clerical jobs, teaching, charity workers, and other less demanding physical work. It was never a new thing that women were in the work force, it was the impact the propaganda posters and WWII made on the women in that workforce. This propaganda poster; titled “We Can Do It” features a beautiful women with her arm flexed and she is in her work coveralls, above her it say “We can do it.” the author is J. Howard Miller, he uses pathos and ethos to inspire a social movement that increased the number of working women, and changed the face of the workforce.

The role of women in American history has evolved a great deal over the past few centuries. In less than a hundred years, the role of women has moved from housewife to highly paid corporate executive to political leader. As events in history have shaped the present world, one can find hidden in such moments, pivotal points that catapult destiny into an unforeseen direction. This paper will examine one such pivotal moment, fashioned from the fictitious character known as ‘Rosie the Riveter’ who represented the powerful working class women during World War II and how her personification has helped shape the future lives of women.

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.

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.

World War II was the catalyst that changed the opportunities available to women and eventually the way they were regarded as a viable workforce. Suddenly women throughout the United States were pushing themselves to their limits to support the war effort. Women were fulfilling jobs and responsibilities that many previously believed to be impossible for their gender. Opportunities were opened in steel plants, ammunition factories, and even the United States military. As the war progressed the number of male workers declined dramatically. Society had no choice but to turn to the mothers, sisters, and daughters of our nation for help. The results for each woman varied

The war changed the lives of all Americans, especially women. They had to be self-reliant because fifteen million men were obligated to serve the country. During this time, the nation witnessed a number of women take over the industrial jobs usually occupied by men. When Hollywood generated new films they worshipped the independent woman and OWI publications urged them to work. Rosie the Riveter is recognized for being on Norman Rockwell’s magazine cover as an autonomous and powerful industrial laborer. Many of the ads seen at this time had pictures of females working on industrial machinery. In some of the pictures they still had perfect hair and makeup in place. In 1944, 350,000 women helped in military units and made up more than one-third

Not a whole lot changed for women from World War I to World War II. During World War II the women were still needed to fill the empty job spots left by men. Between 1940 and 1945, the female percentage of the U.S. workforce increased from 27 percent to nearly 37 percent, and by 1945 nearly one out of every four married women worked outside the home. They recruited women by using the “Rosie the Riveter” propaganda campaign. Based in small part on a real-life munitions worker, but primarily a fictitious character, the strong, bandanna-clad Rosie became one of the most successful recruitment tools in American history, and the most iconic image of working women during World War II.During World War II, about 350,000 women served in the U.S. Armed Forces, both at home and abroad. The First Lady Eleanor

Throughout American history, men have dominated over women, especially in the work force. However, the nation has progressed to a future that is reaching gender equality, but is not quite there yet. As I looked at J. Howard Miller’s propaganda poster, We Can Do It, from 1942, it got me thinking how women came together to do “men’s work” in order to help the US survive during World War II and disregarded gender roles in the process. And as I read Richard Nixon’s Address to the Nation on Labor Day, I wondered how American female stereotypes affected the treatment of women in the workplace. How can women work if they are constantly bombarded with the idea that they should be at home doing “women’s work”? Gender roles have negatively affected

Before America was involved in the well-known wars of our time, many women were living their lives as oppressed housewives. With the changes that occurred throughout the two world wars, women had the chance to break out of their ordinary lifestyles and prove themselves worthy of something more than the housewife stereotype. Each world war brought on a different opportunity for the women of that time period. Women’s increasing roles during the two world wars were made apparent through their lifestyles, the media, and the public feedback to certain changes.

Rosie the Riveter was a painting by Norman Rockwell that was published on the cover of Saturday Evening Post, but it soon became much more than a magazine cover. However, his original cover did not resonate with women, so he had to make major adjustments. Originally she was too masculine and too muscular and nobody could relate to her (Lecture Notes March 2nd ). So, he changed her to a softer, more feminine version and this became a huge propaganda tool aimed towards women. Contrary to what had been told to women in the past, they were now being told to go to work. They were being told “if not for you do it for your family and your country” (Lecture Notes March 2nd). So, going to work became the patriotic duty of a woman, it was her way to

It’s no question that women have been put under very specific stereotypes, specifically since the 1800s, women are to “stay home to take care of their children and perform household chores, while the men were the bread earners” which, over the next century, would turn out to be a hard stereotype to break (“The Evolution of Women in the Workforce”). After the Civil War, African American women had to provide for themselves and loved ones, post freedom of slavery, which would result in the joining of the workforce. Married white middle class women would soon join but it wouldn’t come to make a huge impact up until World War II: 1939, where it became vital for women to start working. The Draft of World War II was issued on September 16th, 1940 for men to leave their jobs behind, as well as their families and go on to fight for America’s freedom (The National WWII Museum). After a drastic decrease in the workforce the government then saw an opportunity for the use of women to help with the shortage of supplies and resources used during the war. Propaganda posters would come into play to encourage women to get up and join the working forces, such as Rosie the Riveter. Rosie the Riveter displays a

According to AMH 2035: America Since 1945 “[this] specific posters depict[s] women as females who are strong and capable of doing man's work.” This poster was a poster of change to the women

During World War II men were sent to war and women were in charge of maintain things while there were gone. This created an idea where these roles of man working and women at home customary. Women didn’t start seeing any change in their rights until the 1920s with the 19th amendment giving them hope helping out the suffrage movement gave women independence. Fast forward 20 years men are going to war and commercials and ads are different. During World War II women have to start doing the “manly” jobs women become factory workers. Different advertising being release with the icon of women like Rosie the Riveter strong and hard working. “When the United States entered the war, 12 million women (one quarter of the workforce) were already working and by the end of the war, the number was up to 18 million (one third of the workforce). While ultimately 3 million women worked in war plants, the majority of women who worked during World War II worked in traditionally female occupations, like the service