Rosie The Riveter Was The Preeminent Icon For The Women 's Rights Movement

During World War one, the United States Navy Recruiting Bureau, and the United States Treasury Department each commissioned posters featuring women who encouraged citizens to participate in the war effort. The two posters, despite being intended for the same purpose, depict women in particularly contrasting light. Analysis of the contrasting war posters can help illustrate society’s perspective about women during the early 1900’s, their expected roles pertaining to the war effort, the strategies used to engage citizens and encourage them to become involved, and the use of imagery and symbolism that were used to achieve the posters’ objective.

‘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.

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

During time of war propaganda was spreading telling women that it was their time to shine in the world of work. Posters, film, and radio were primary sources of using propaganda. A famous propaganda poster is one called Rosie the Riveter showing a woman flexing her

Women were taking jobs in factories, built planes, made war supplies, worked on assembly lines. This poster was not just directed at women to inspire them to join the workforce during the war, it was directed at husbands as well, to show them that women can do it. During this time one of the down falls was, pay was never equal, men were receiving $54.65 a week, and women were making $31.50. But more good than bad came out of working in factories and assembly lines. African American women were really affected by these changes, they were now working alongside white women and this forced a break in social barriers, and brought the equality brought on from the civil rights movement to reality. Entering the war there were 12 million women in the work force, at the end of the work about 20 million women were in the work force, 3 million of those women were factory

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

It gave them a taste of what was out in the world and got them to think of themselves as workers instead of just homebodies. At first they were hesitant because it was a new domain, but once they grew accustomed to this new role they weren’t about to evacuate and instead embraced their new power with Rosie the Riveter, the new face of activism. Rosie stood for everything these women fought for and was a symbol of hope and persistence. Her famous words echoed through the streets of the United States, “We Can Do It!” Some of the more daring women wanted to help even more, so they enlisted to go fight alongside the men of their country. These brave women were now soldiers and proved that they could enter dangerous situations and do the job right. For the women of this time there was no going back to the docile housewife of the past. From this point on they were looking for a future outside of the house. Then, in 1945 the war drew to a close and men who had been away began to file home. They were anticipating returning to their old jobs that women had occupied when they were away, however women were resisting to leave.

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

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.”

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).