Rosie the Riveter
During
World War II, when war production was expanding with the creation of
a defense industry and men were being shipped out to war, the United
States needed a replacement work force. When the number of employed
women equaled the national unemployment total in 1939, Norman Cousins
suggested we “simply fire the women, who shouldn’t be working
anyway, and hire the men. Presto! No unemployment. No relief rolls.
No depression”1.
This attempt of blaming women for the loss of jobs was around the
time of the Great Depression. Beginning in 1942 the U.S. government
urged women to work in spite of previous efforts, to exclude them
from the labor force. This transformation of the U.S. labor force was
aided by the careful, but strategic creation of the most ideal
worker-- patriotic, effective, beautiful, loyal, and fictional “Rosie
the Riveter”. The federal government used this character’s
bandanna and proud attitude as campaign propaganda to sell women the
significance of the war effort, and inevitably re-shaped the role for
women in the working class by granting them access to jobs that
pre-existed solely for men, and enabling them to carry these tasks
out with pride.
Long
before World War II, women participated in the labor force. During
the Great Depression era, however, women were discouraged from taking
jobs in the public that unemployed men could have. Yet lower class
and minority women had to work no matter what the circumstance out of
economic necessity (since racial minorities tended to make less
wages, etc.) It was white, middle class women who were bound by
conventional gender norms and expected to stay at home and raise the
family, while men dealt with supporting their families financially.
Propaganda
used to lure women into the patriotism of the World War II era was
pervasive in American society and did not always come in pictorial
form. In 1942 a song called Rosie the Riveter, which served a
similar purpose as the posters that were advertised during the time
of World War II. One of the Rosie the Riveter posters that was
advertised quoted, “I’ve found the job where I fit best!”2
This one specifically advertised Rosie in the garment industry, but
there are others that showed her operating machinery and tools such
as hammers, to perform the job of a riveter. Each propaganda poster
served as a different method of persuading and also informing woman
the many different ways to get involved in war production. Whether it
was growing extra food on their farm, enrolling in the army, becoming
a nurse, or a factory worker, most of these opportunities were
presented using the same female figure of Rosie the Riveter3.
This fictional character was portrayed as a beautiful white woman,
wearing a bandanna with her hair pulled back, and an outfit that
represents a blue-collar worker. Her figure and demeanor demonstrate
the strength that was expected from any woman that decided to take on
the responsibilities of these jobs. These posters did not display the
actual conditions of working, but rather glorified the idea of
working as a form of patriotic servitude.
Just
as Uncle Sam served as nationalistic figure to instill a sense of
pride for the United States, Rosie the Riveter’s purpose was almost
identical. The main motivator for women joining the workforce was in
fact their pride in their nation, which can almost explain why most
women willfully resumed their roles as a housekeeper or to their more
feminine jobs after their husbands and men returned after the end of
the war. Though, when the war was still in place, women had more
reason to gain pride in their country when they were being offered
jobs that involved military positions. With the loss of students
going into in the armed forces, women were now being easily accepted
into colleges in order to obtain skills in foreign language, learning
about our economy and other sciences, and even in some cases
receiving military training. Women were allowed to join the Army
Corps, the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps, and began training at a
center called the WAAC.4
Educated women led to specialization of labor for this new class of
a workforce.
Many
women who had previously been first and foremost wives and mothers
were now spending their days working. According to statistics, “more
than 6 million women entered the labor force during the war, bringing
the number of employed women to 19 million.”
5
It was also said that the numbers of women workers went from less
than a quarter of the U.S. worker population in 1940, to over a third
of all workers in 1945.
6
Knowing that the majority of workers also had responsibilities and
children to care for at home, one of the biggest fears of the time
was an increase in juvenile delinquency. Family disintegration was
another concern particularly when it came to the typical U.S. working
class family. Despite the pressure that was placed on women to work,
the Department’s Children Bureau clearly stated, “a mother’s
primary duty is to her home and children”.7
This expectation of women to retain their responsibility of
maintaining the house, and children, while also maintaining a job
created an era of contradictions for working class women. The
struggle of raising a family as well as performing good work must
have impacted many “Rosies”’ job performance. Although there
was a heavy plate of responsibilities for mothers, they were more
favored due to their dedication. It was also crucial to find
unmarried or childless women who did not have as many home and family
obligations.
The
idea that women were going to help out during wartime was considered
only temporary in the eyes of men. Little did women war workers
realize that once they had acquired new work skills, they would
quickly be replaced by returning male veterans? From their
experiences working a man’s job, Rosie the Riveters gained insight
to how fulfilling it was to help the greater good. Most notably,
women learned the satisfaction of performing a previously gendered
and masculine job, and the kind of satisfaction that knowledge that
one earned one’s own living brought.
8
In a process historians have called “reconversion” women were
forced back into their household duties as soon as the war ended. The
men returned and suddenly society was back the way they left it.
Rosie the Riveter propaganda proved to have a negative and positive
effect on women and society, and war proved to be both complex and
conflicting to them. The contradiction of the expectations placed on
women for their double role as a housemother and a worker, and the
challenges of still being considered inferior to men demarcated this
time period of changing values. It can also relate to the notion of
the dialectic, and how in order to understand the nature of this time
period one must examine women working and the conditions out of work
that they faced.9
Women were granted jobs, but denied support for their families. They
were told to work in support of their country, but then reminded that
their duty is mainly to their household, as well as being refused
funding to open up childcare centers. These inconsistent patterns of
standards placed on women are all still evident today. If Rosie had
never been introduced, however, it is certain when in history women
would have been exposed to the reality that they were just as capable
of a “masculine” job as any man.
1
Susan Ware, “Women and the Great Depression,” The
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, accessed May 1, 2013,
http://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/gr.eat-depression/essays/women-and-great-depression
2
“Beyond Rosie: Women in World War II,” Museum
of History & Holocaust Education,
April 20, 2013, 9-14,
http://www.kennesaw.edu/historymuseum/pdf/beyond_rosie_9-12_grade_TG.pdf.
3
“Beyond Rosie: Women in World War II,” Museum
of History & Holocaust Education,
April 20, 2013, 9- 14,
http://www.kennesaw.edu/historymuseum/pdf/beyond_rosie_9-12_grade_TG.pdf.
4
Judith A. Bellafaire,
“The Women’s Army Corps: A Commemoration of World War II
Service,” CMH Publication 72-15, accessed May 1, 2013,
http://www.history.army.mil/brochures/WAC/WAC.HTM
5
Paul S. Boyer, Clifford E. Clark, Joseph F. Kett, Neal Salisbury,
and Harvard Sitkoffet, The
Enduring Vision: A History of the American People Volume II
(1865), 626.
6 Paul
S. Boyer, Clifford E. Clark, Joseph F. Kett, Neal Salisbury, and
Harvard Sitkoffet, The
Enduring Vision: A History of the American People Volume II
(1865): 625.
7 Allan
C. Carlson, “Sanctifying
the Traditional Family: The New Deal and National Solidarity,” The
Howard Center for Family, Religion, and Society,
May, 2002, http://www.profam.org/pub/fia/fia_1605.htm.
8
“The Image and Reality
of Women who Worked During World War II,” Rosie
the Riveter: Women Working During World War II, April
20, 2013, http://www.nps.gov/pwro/collection/website/rosie.htm.
http://www.cf.ac.uk/socsi/undergraduate/introsoc/hegel.html
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