Rosie The Riveter Research Paper

The sheer military power of the United States, and their appearance in the war, both had a major impact on the outcome of the war, striking fear into the opposing military forces. America was and has always been a very wealthy and large economy with an abundant supply of resources. This gave America the ability to mass-produce war machines such as planes and tanks to give them a large advantage over the Axis Powers. The US had an over-supply of war vehicles, which were later shared with Britain and France, providing a huge advantage over the Axis Powers. According to Historynotes, over “10 million American soldiers were ready to be deployed to help fight against the Axis Powers”. This statement clearly proves just how much military power America had over their opponents put together. German and Italian spies were reporting back to their country about the dramatic

World War II is one of the most recognized battles in the history of the world. The battle originated with Germany’s invasion of Poland. This sparked the beginning of the war, though the United States was not yet involved. The U.S. came into the picture after the attack on Pearl Harbor on the morning of December 7, 1941. Though Japan was the more “direct opponent”, the United States Army Rangers, Marine Corps., and every other branch of military took on Japan and Germany.

Rockwell’s ‘Rosie’, which appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post in the 29th of May, 1943, was inspired by a real woman by the name of Mary Doyle. It shows a muscular feminine figure in front of an American flag, on her lunch break, sitting on a stump, riveter gun on her lap, factory goggles pushed up on her forehead and wearing dirty overalls. She looks confident, strong and comfortable in this environment, doing this job freely and willingly to support the US war effort. The illustration resembles a Michelangelo’s painting from

Two years earlier, America’s military preparedness was not that of a nation expecting to go to war. In 1939, the United States Army ranked thirty-ninth in the world, possessing a cavalry force of fifty thousand and using horses to pull the artillery. Many Americans — still trying to recover from the decade-long ordeal of the Great Depression — were reluctant to participate in the conflict that was spreading throughout Europe and Asia. President Roosevelt did what he could to coax a reluctant nation to focus its economic might on military preparedness. If the American military wasn’t yet equal to the Germans or the Japanese, American workers could build ships and planes faster than the enemy could sink them or shoot them

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

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.

The first visual image of Rosie was seen on the front of the May 29, 1943 edition of the Saturday Evening Post. Painted by Norman Rockwell, she was depicted as a larger woman and the

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

As the war in Europe was heating up, the United States government initiated a state of preparedness. It began increasing the size and strength of its military, enhancing its global politics, and promoting patriotism amongst the public. Industrially, manufacturers changed tooling and operations, gearing up to produce the tools of war that would become more essential than the common consumer goods they had once produced. Labor unions also played a role in this process, advocating conversion in industries that were less eager to change their ways. The marine industry was among the first of the industries to convert to wartime production, cranking out ships not only to fight, but especially to haul the much needed weapons, munitions, and food across Atlantic to the British and the Soviet Union. The Lend Lease act provided these supplies, playing an extremely important role in the resupply and refitting of our allies.

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

By mid-1942, World War II was looking bleak for the Allied powers. The German Wehrmacht was blitzing through Soviet Russia, the Luftwaffe had laid waste to much of London, Rommel was about to take Africa, and the Japanese nearly had control of the Pacific. Fortunately, as the Axis started running low on materiel, America was increasing the Allied supply dramatically. This enormous production capacity displayed by the U.S. was the product of their new military-industrial complex, as plants across the country geared up production of weapons and combat vehicles and the government began pumping resources into the creation of new military-oriented production facilities. The American

When World War II began, the United States was not initially apart of it. What sparked the beginning was Nazi Germany’s attack on Poland in September 1939. Even though we were not at the center of the action, our country did take steps to assist and protect weaker countries, like the United Kingdom. Roosevelt felt it was important to “be the great Arsenal Democracy…[he believed] we must apply ourselves to our task with the same resolution, the same sense of urgency, the same spirit of patriotism and sacrifice as we would show were we at war.” Because of this, the zeal and patriotism America showed was greatly increased. We took advantage of the power we had and the American Industry began to put forth collective efforts in supporting the Allies.

Rosie the Riveter was a metaphoric figure used to represent the strength, dirty jobs, and work women provided for the war effort. Penny Colman states “Rosie the Riveter was supposedly based on Rose Bonavita, a riveter in the United States.”

Following World War I, and into the beginning of World War II, the United States of America was still recuperating from the first war, and therefore did not engage. The focus was reestablishing the military in the form of personnel and equipment. It was becoming evident that the forward shift in technology was forcing