Women in Aviation

‘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.

When The World War II came quickie marriages was the all out norm for people for the men that was going overseas and fighting during that day and age . As the men fought the women went to work and volunteered for organizations . The women volunteered for the Women's army Auxiliary Corps , The Navy Women's Reserve , and others. But Rosie The Riveter was an assurance that everything would be alright and women's role will change forever .

Rosie the Riveter is a symbolic figure and has helped shape America into what it is today. The bright yellow back round, with bold words standing out in the navy speech bubble, “We can do it”. The focus of the poster is much more than the words written. This poster is of the women of the modern world Rosie. She is wearing a jean shirt with rolled sleeve as she flexes her arm to show her strength. She has a red bandana around her head holding up her hair. She gives a twist to what the traditional women looked like during the 1940’s. She was there to give women a sense of empowerment and motivation to go to work.

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.

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.

At the start of World War II the American people had a sense of unity. Men chose to leave their jobs and families to join the front line, while women, for the first time, were leaving the home and taking over those jobs that their husbands left behind. In 1943, many magazines chose to paint a picture of women hard at work. These articles focused their stories on working women, and glamorized the untraditional jobs they held. They thought perhaps, that if they made these smaller, hard working jobs exciting, and noble, that more women would begin to join the work force. For this reason, the media created a fake working woman named Rosie the Riveter, and she was illustrated as a hero for American women. These efforts to pull

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

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 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).