Rosie the Riveter became an iconic symbol of women's participation in the workforce during World War II when millions of women took jobs normally reserved for men while they were away fighting. This opening of opportunities led many women to seek more equal rights in the postwar era. Though progress was made through movements in the following decades, full equality has yet to be achieved as women still earn only 77-80% of men's wages for equivalent work today. Rosie came to represent the changing roles of women during and after the war, fueling ongoing efforts to gain equal pay and opportunities.

1. Rosie the RIVETing
WOMEN’S RIGHTS THEN & NOW Rockwell, N. (Painter). (1943). Rosie the
Riveter [painting]. Retrieved from
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/
02/RosieTheRiveter.jpg

2. Introduction:
Rosie the Riveter, an icon still recognizable sixty years after her
inception, has been a pop-culture artifact that holds just as
much meaning today as she did during World War II. Women’s
rights were not at the forefront of conversation as things were
just as they were, but due to the war, women had been given
opportunity to learn skills in jobs typically help only by men. This
equalization of roles had sparked a change in what was to be
considered the status-quo. Men were supposed to work out in
the world and women within the home, but Rosie offered
change during wartime. These changes were not something
that all women were willing to give up in peace time, they had
received a taste of equal representation in the workforce and
wanted more. Eventually Rosie even became adopted by
women’s rights movements as a symbol that women could
perform just as well as men. These movements have propelled
us into a better standard for women’s rights, even if that
standard still needs work. Rosie’s role in equality, post and pre-
war expectations of women, as well as how things have
changed today will be analyzed. Rosie was to be used to
generate thoughts of equality and bring women into the
workforce temporarily while men were at war, propaganda was
being used to construct a myth about change for women, but
Rosie and women’s rights movements took this opportunity and
made it their own.
We Can Do It! 1942 poster by J. Howard Miller National Museum of
American History, Smithsonian Institution

3. Women Pre World War II
Historpedia states that “Women had
long been seen as stay at home
mothers before World War Two and
only that. The stereotypical, perfect
American family had the father that
brought home the bacon each day
during the week and the mother who
raised their children. The fact of the
matter is, women always worked
outside the house but it just wasn’t
glorified as much” (2012, para. 1).
While the comic strip on the left
demonstrates that being “just a
housewife” is more than it seems, even
it doesn’t do justice to the fact that
women of the time, pre WWII, were
super-wives and many still maintained
jobs.
Keane, B. (Artist). (2010). The Family Circus: Just a Housewife [cartoon]. Retrieved from
http://thecomicssection.blogspot.com/2010/03/family-circus-occupation-just-housewife.html

4. Women Needed in War Time
From left to right:
“She’s a WoW (Woman Ordinance Worker)” [poster] (1942) retrieved from http://www.forgeofinnovation.org/springfield_armory_1892-
1945/Themes/People/Women/World_War_II/Introduction/index.html
“Find Your War Job” [poster] (1943) retrieved from http://www.peterpappas.com/2013/07/work-duty-glamor-selling-war-work-to-housewives.html
“Do the Job He Left Behind” [poster] (1943) retrieved from http://teaching.msa.maryland.gov/000001/000000/000109/html/t109.html
Once America had joined World War II, every able bodied man was called to arms. As a result, America lost a
lot of workers in industrial factories that were still needed to support our efforts overseas. “American government
and popular media made a concerted effort to portray civic service as a woman's duty, using glamorized
images of female workers to promote factory employment” (Perkins, 2015, para. 3), the images above are a
result of those efforts and the woman portrayed would come to be known as Rosie the Riveter.

5. A Call to Arms, Answered
America’s women answered the call for workers as
over six million began to fill jobs left by men. “The
women that volunteered in factory jobs worked in
welding, machining, building aircraft’s, repairing
tank’s, and armament factories, jobs once held by
men who were called away to fight in the war”
(Bryant, 2009, para, 38). It was not an easy transition
though as many “struggled with new horizons, social
discrimination, gender harassment, and physical pain
from long hours and poor working conditions. The
women were very important during the war in
keeping the home countries in line and allowing the
men to leave by taking over their jobs” (Bryant, 2009,
para. 43). The skills that women obtained during this
time would forever change their role within society,
many women may have been happy returning to
working within the home, but many were ready for
more.
Women welders in New Britain, Connecticut, 1943. Retrieved
from http://www.pophistorydig.com/topics/rosie-the-riveter-
1941-1945/
Women working at the Redstone Arsenal in Alabama, 1940s.
Retrieved from http://www.pophistorydig.com/topics/rosie-
the-riveter-1941-1945/

6. Activists supporting the Equal Rights Amendment during a 1978 rally in Chicago. Photo
credit: Chicago Sun-Times file photo. Retrieved from
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tabby-biddle/wait-women-dont-have-
equa_b_6098120.html
Equal Rights for Women
After World War II was over, and men returned home to resume the lives
they had left behind, many women found themselves wanting to do
more. The war had opened a door for them to live a life with more
opportunity, they “had their own money and could do with it what they
pleased. They became more independent. War taught them how to
stand on their on two feet. Though relatively short-lived, World War II
provided a way for women to do what they wanted” (Bryant, 2009,
para. 46) and it wasn’t something they were willing to let go. In the
coming years women would fight for equal rights as shown in the image
to the left, it was during this time that Rosie made her second
appearance “as images like that one called women to action for the
war effort, in the 1980s women's rights advocates brought them out of
the archives to encourage women in the workforce” (HISTORYNET, 2014,
para. 7). While equal rights were being fought for in America, World War
II had an impact in other nations as well, regarding Women’s Rights.

7. Equal Rights for Women in the UK
The UK was experiencing it’s own Women’s
Rights movement after World War II, as
their workforce had undergone much of
the same changes as the US. During the
50’s many employers had a rule of sorts
referred to as the “Marriage Bar”, it
prohibited entry into certain professions if
you were a married woman or would
terminate you upon becoming married. As
time passed this began to change, but
women were still being paid less then men
for doing the same job and continued to
be fired upon becoming pregnant. In 1968
female machinists working at a Ford
Company, seen on the right, fought for
equal pay, rising to 92% of what a man’s
wage was, this win brought about The
Equal Pay Act of 1970. It was the first of it’s
kind in the world to strive and end pay
discrimination between men and women
(Striking Women, 2014).
A Labour pamphlet after the
response of the report of the
Royal Commission for equal
Pay 1946, which concluded
tentatively that teachers and
some civil servants might
benefit from equal pay, but
also argued that unequal pay
was necessary to secure
motherhood as an attractive
vocation compared to paid
work.
Credit:
TUC Collections, London
Metropolitan University
Retrieved from
http://www.striking-
women.org/module/women-
and-work/post-world-war-ii-
1946-1970
Women machinists at the Ford Motor
Company plant in Dagenham took
strike action on 7 June 1968 for equal
pay. The women won a pay increase to
92% of men's wages.
Credit:
Pat Mantle TUC Collection, London
Metropolitan University

8. Today, Equality is Still Only a Percent
During World War II “the average woman’s
salary was $31.21 a week for her labors,
even though the men that still remained
made $54.65 a week” (Bryant, 2009, para
38), this meant that women made roughly
57% of what men did at the time for the
same job. “An International Labour
Organisation (ILO) study of 83 countries
found that women earn 10%-30% less than
men. Even in the US in 2010, women
working full-time still earned only 77% of the
male wage” (van der Gaag, 2014, para.
18), this figure still holds true today. The
wage gap between men and women has
decreased over the last seventy years, and
while 20% is a large step towards equality, it
still isn’t equal. Women from World War II
had stepped into the workforce to help our
country, and have been fighting for equal
pay ever since.

9. Conclusion:
Rosie the Riveter may not have been the reason
for the Women’s Rights Movements, but she did
play a large part. First, she was used to bring
women into the workplace in a temporary
capacity, by means of propaganda. The ability
for women to work in fields normally closed off to
them developed a sense that women could
work where they chose to and planted a seed
for change. When that seed sprouted into what
women, as a whole, were seeking in life, they
began to seek equality through rights. Next,
Rosie came to be used as a symbol for equal
rights to represent that women could do as men
did, and should be treated the same. While
equality is still being sought after today, Rosie
may come back once again to push those
rights one step further. The riveter started as a
ploy to encourage government benefit, but
became an inspirational icon for womankind.
She may be older, but she can do it.
Retrieved From
http://redefiningbodyimage.tumblr.com/post/340483
01201

10. Annotated Bibliography
 Bryant, J. (2009, February 3). How War Changed the Role of Women in the United States.
Retrieved from http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/2002/3/02.03.09.x.html
 This is a basic history lesson providing essential facts in how things changed for women from WWI
through WWII.
 HISTORYNET. (2014). Rosie the Riveter. Retrieved from
http://www.historynet.com/rosie-the-riveter
 Discusses the identity of Rosie, and makes mention of her poster use beyond World War II.
 Historpedia. (2012, Fall). A Change in Gender Roles: Women’s Impact during WWII in the
Workforce and Military (Fall 2012). Retrieved from
https://sites.google.com/a/umn.edu/historpedia/home/personal-group-
identities/a- change-in-gender-roles-women-s-impact-during-wwii-in-the-workforce-
and-military- fall-2012
 Reviews what the social “norms” were during and after World War II and how the gender roles were
challenged.

11. Annotated Bibliography Cont.
 Perkins, G. (2015, April 23). Women's Roles: Who was Rosie the Riveter. Retrieved from
http://washingtonhistoryonline.org/suffrage/Times/workers.aspx
 Examples of who was being represented at the time by Rosie as well as other informative
statements about the time.
 Striking Women. (2014). Post World War II: 1946-1970. Retrieved from http://www.striking-
women.org/module/women-and-work/post-world-war-ii-1946-1970
 Examples of what women’s rights were like post WWII, outside of the USA. Discusses a few different
topics from the “marriage bar” to striking for equal pay .
 van der Gaag, N. (2014, September 29). Women are better off today, but still far from being
equal with men. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/global-
development/2014/sep/29/women-better-off-far-from-equal-men
 Takes a look into the standing of equal rights between men and women in today’s economy,
includes percentages, dollar amount figures, as well as current positives and negatives found in the
workplace.