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Rosie the Riveter is one of the most famous icons in American history. She stands as a powerful reminder of the American women’s essential contributions to victory during World War II. Rosie was not an actual person, but a symbol for millions of American women who stepped up to help during the war effort, challenging the traditional female role as homemaker. The Rosie character was used in many war marketing efforts including an oil painting done by the famous painter, Norman Rockwell, called “Rosie the Riveter.” His painting was distributed to millions via the cover of the Saturday Evening Post on Memorial Day in 1943 (History.com Staff). Norman Rockwell’s masculine depiction of Rosie the Riveter challenges gender roles while supporting the …show more content…
A traditional woman’s normal tasks consisted of raising the children, cleaning the home, and preparing each meal (Ciulla 508). Many husbands would not have tolerated their wives getting a job during the depression, but patriotic duty during the war provided the justification for temporarily transcending these traditional roles (Gluck 156). When the war came along the men went to war leaving behind many jobs on US soil that needed to be filled. This necessitated a dramatic reassessment of a woman’s role in American life (Honey 1). The government started marketing these jobs to women. The patriotic need for women to enter the workforce was stressed through posters, photographs, music, movies, newspapers, and articles. Approximately six million women answered the call to enter the workforce. Between 1940 and 1945 women in the workforce went from 27% to 37% (History.com Staff). Women began to embrace and make changes in their work and family roles that substantially challenged conventional notions of femininity (Anderson …show more content…
Rockwell displays Rosie cradling her riveter instead of a child, but it has been said that the pose of Rockwell’s haloed Rosie cradling her riveter resembles the painting from the Renaissance called “Madonna and Child with two Angels,” by Fra Filippo Lippi. Rosie’s face mask sitting on top of her head could also symbolize a traditional headdress like the Madonna may have worn. Just as Rockwell painted Rosie cradling her hydraulic gun, so did propagandists portray production workers in a maternal light. Women who were in the workforce prior to World War II were viewed as sexual sirens so in order to accommodate the recruitment campaign, the government made an effort to portray women as temporary workers whose families came first, and they found congenial nuances in motherhood (Honey 481). Rockwell’s Rosie appears to be wearing a Blue Star Flag pin. This pin implies that she has a son in the war, which is another way to portray her in a maternal or feminine
Rosie the Riveter is a cultural icon of the United States whom represented the women who worked in factories during World War II, many of whom produced military equipment and war supplies. These women sometimes took entirely new jobs replacing the male workers who were in the military. The symbol of feminism and women's economic power was often amplified through Rosie the Riveter. "Rosie the Riveter" was a popular phrase first used in 1942 in a song of the same name written by Redd Evans. Auto factories were converted to build airplanes, shipyards were expanded, and new factories were built, and all these facilities needed workers. While the men were busy fighting in war, women were dominant in assistance. Companies took the idea of hiring women seriously. Eventually, women were needed because companies were signing large, lucrative contracts with the government just as all the men were leaving for the service. The various elements or figures of Rosie was based on a group of women, most of whom were named Rose. Many of these women named "Rose" varied in class, ethnicity, geography, and background diversity. One specially, who's had the biggest impact of all Rosie's was Rose Will Monroe. Rose Will Monroe, the most influential "Rosie" at the time, represented women during World War II by working most of her time in a Michigan factory.
Prior to World War II women were expected to be housewives by cleaning, cooking, and taking care of children. Women were discouraged to work outside of the home and often judged by the rest of society. Bobbie Ann Mason gives great examples of the duties expected by women of the time period and her grandmother is a perfect model of domesticity. At one point Mason talk about a conversation between her grandmother and mom. Mason’s mom, Christy, decides to go back to work, but her grandmother disapproves and says she should be home taking care of her girls (Mason, 116). Christy on the other hand is an example of the modern woman. A woman willing to go to work outside of the home to help support her family when needed. Christy gets a job at a clothing company. Mason says that many women were leaving the farm and taking work in factories (Mason, 83). During and after World War II many women began to work outside of the home changing the idea of what it meant to be a women and the duties that accompanied.
When all the men were across the ocean fighting a war for world peace, the home front soon found itself in a shortage for workers. Before the war, women mostly depended on men for financial support. But with so many gone to battle, women had to go to work to support themselves. With patriotic spirit, women one by one stepped up to do a man's work with little pay, respect or recognition. Labor shortages provided a variety of jobs for women, who became street car conductors, railroad workers, and shipbuilders. Some women took over the farms, monitoring the crops and harvesting and taking care of livestock. Women, who had young children with nobody to help them, did what they could do to help too. They made such things for the soldiers overseas, such as flannel shirts, socks and scarves.
These questions are still being studied and debated by historians today. Several books have been written on the subject, including "Rosie the Riveter Revisited" by Sherna Berger Gluck, "The Home Front and Beyond: American Women in the 1940s" by Susan M. Hartmann, and "Creating Rosie the Riveter" by Maureen Honey. Additionally, scholarly articles such as "Working Class Rosies: Women Industrial Workers During World War II" by Sherrie A. Koussoudji and Laura J. Dresser and "Beyond the Feminine Mystique: A Reassessment of Postwar Mass Culture, 1946-1958" by Joanne Meyerowitz have contributed to the ongoing discussion.
As scores of men left the country, they left behind massive gaps in the United States workforce. The government noticed this problem, and drafted their infamous Rosie the Riveter posters (A&E Television Networks). Rosie the Riveter immediately became famous. The poster depicted a muscular, independent woman. The United States Government’s posters showed the necessity for female workers in the absence of men (A&E Television Networks). That being said, Rosie the Riveter became the most important advertisement for the production of materials for the war materials (A&E Television Networks). As more women joined the working class, the press strived to persuade them that they could do the work typically regarded as a man’s job and still be considered feminine(A&E Television Networks). It may seem like a silly idea, but women were still overall regarded as the weaker sex. Until World War II, they had not yet had the chance to prove themselves to society.
The idea of a woman's roll in society has been ever changing. In Pat Kaufman's article "Rosie the Riveter Remembers" gives insight to the role women played in society during World War II and the diversity they faced. For years women have been suppressed by the government, for instance during the Great Depression when they were told not to take available jobs away from men. Ironically, it would be women who were needed to help to country survive in World War II. A campaign was launched with the purpose of encouraging women to join the work force and thus Rosie the Riveter was born. Throughout the article, Kaufman focuses on four different women and their experiences joining the war effort. When America needed help the most, women stepped
Some new responsibilities that were taken over were becoming telephone operators, drivers, engineers, mechanics, and other jobs in the factories or shipyards. This is the birth of the widely known icon, Rosie the Riveter. Rosie was first introduced in a song in 1942 by Redd Evans and John Jacob Leob. The most familiar line from the song was "that little frail girl can do more than a man can do" (u-s-history.com). The real life version of the icon was Rose Will Monroe who was discovered by Walter pigeon, Hollywood star, while visiting the ford motor company assembly plant. Upon his discovery of Rose, she was lead in a government film that promotes war. Following that, a teen aged telephone operator, Geraldine Hoff, then posed for a painting that was going to be created an artist by the name of Norman Rockwell. On May 29, 1943, Geraldine saw herself in the Saturday evening post as propaganda. The picture featured a woman with a red polka dotted bandana tied in her head, pulling the sleeves of her jean jacket. With a stern face, she appears to be tough saying "we can do it". A little time after, articles
the Riveter is the female icon of World War II….She represents any women defense worker. And for many women, she’s an example of a strong, competent foremother” (“Rosie the Riveter: real
According to an article on Encyclopedia, it is stated, “‘Rosie’ represented the superb skill, ability, and patriotism of all U.S women working on behalf of the domestic , industrial efforts on the “home front” during World War II. This reflects Rosie the Riveter’s self-confidence about women’s power and capability since she had proved to the world that women can do and do well what the men can do. Additionally, in the article, “Rosie the Riveter: Real Women Workers in World War II,” on the website The Library of Congress, it states, “She and her partner drove a record number of rivets into the wing of a TBM Avenger at Tarrytown, New York, plant.” Through this textual evidence, the audience can learn that with her self-confidence, Rosie the Riveter did not hesitate to step in the male-dominated fields and did many jobs that were previously done by men to support the war. By reflecting on the textual evidences that were mentioned above, readers can learn that self-confidence is part of leadership and it is one of the steps that leads a person to success because a one cannot do anything if one does not believe that they are capable of doing
During the six years of World War II more and more women were joining into the public workforce. “Rosie The Riveter” became a main campaign in order to persuade women to work. In movies, newspapers, posters, photographs, articles, and even a Norman Rockwell-Painted Saturday Evening Post cover, the Rosie the Riveter campaign stressed the patriotic need for women to enter the workforce. Which they did in massive numbers. Though women were crucial to the war effort, their pay continued to lag far behind their male counterparts. Female workers rarely earned more than 50 percent of male wages. With twelve million men fighting overseas, women were inserted into the workforce of
Rosie the Riveter is a cultural icon of the United States. She represents the American women who took the jobs of the men during world war 2. They sometimes got entirely different jobs because the spot needed filled. Rosie the Riveter is used as a symbol of feminism and women?s economic power. The world wars were total wars that required governments to utilize their entire populations to defeat the enemies. This meant that millions of women were encouraged to work in industry and take over jobs previously done by men. Both world wars were similar in these ways because most of the men went to war. Nearly 19 million women held jobs during world was 2. Many of these women were already working before the war. Only three million new female workers
The accuracy of Rosie the Riveter was in The Saturday Evening Post in 1943. The propanga by Norman Rockwell portrays a “muscular Rosie taking a sandwich break, with her feet resting on a copy of Hitler's Mein Kampf, while her riveting gun is temporarily idle.” “This image of Rosie was hypothetical, based on Michelangelo's Isaiah from the Sistine Chapel, and the model was not a riveter, but a dental hygienist.”(Strobel,3). At the posting of
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 duties were fulfilling the patriotic and feminine role. After the war the government and media had changed their message as women were to resume the role of the housewife, maid and mother to stay out of the way of returning soldiers. Thus the patriotic and feminine role was nothing but a mystified tactic the government used to maintain the American economic structure during the world war period. It is the contention of this paper to explore how several groups of women were treated as mindless individuals that could be controlled and disposed of through the government arranging social institutions, media manipulation and propaganda, and assumptions behind women’s tendencies which forced “Rosie the Riveter” to become a male dominated concept.
For instance, “Section 213 of the 1932 Federal Economy Act prohibited more than one family member from working for the government, barring many married women from federal employment. Even positions that were traditionally held by women, such as teacher and librarian, were affected” (Working Women in the 1930s). Women lost their jobs because the men earned much higher wages. This caused many women to lose their jobs and they were forced to stay home. “According to the 1930 census almost eleven million women, or 24.3 percent of all women in the country, were gainfully employed. Three out of every ten of these working women were in domestic or personal service. Of professional women three-quarters were schoolteachers or nurses” (Working Women in the 1930s). This authenticates the fact that women had limited career options. 75% of professional working women were in the same two jobs, teaching and nursing. 30% of working women worked in homes as the help. Many women joined the military when war broke out. These women were called “she-soldiers”. “To recruit she-soldiers, the War Department created a woman's branch of the army, called the Women’s Army Corps, or WACs for short. She-soldiers could not shoot a gun, but they could do clerical and technical work” (Gourley 105). Since many men left to fight in the war, women were needed to fill in the jobs they left. Women were as effective as men in the military because they
During America’s involvement in World War Two, which spanned from 1941 until 1945, many men went off to fight overseas. This left a gap in the defense plants that built wartime materials, such as tanks and other machines for battle. As a result, women began to enter the workforce at astonishing rates, filling the roles left behind by the men. As stated by Cynthia Harrison, “By March of [1944], almost one-third of all women over the age of fourteen were in the labor force, and the numbers of women in industry had increased almost 500 percent. For the first time in history, women were in the exact same place as their male counterparts had been, even working the same jobs. The women were not dependent upon men, as the men were overseas and far from influence upon their wives.