Remembering Rosie the

RiveterHannah Chapman

The Rosie We Know

• Rosie the Riveter is an image of a strong woman who fought for her country and at the same time paved a path for herself in the workforce.

The Unknown

• Created for Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing

• Westinghouse did not employ riveters

• The work does indicate “Rosie” at all

• Internal bulletin board work

• Displayed for two weeks (Feb 15-28 1943)

Recovery from the Archival Abyss

• Created by J. Howard Miller

• Not widely seen

• Image part of a large series

• Rediscovered and published in 1982 Washington Post Magazine article

• Featured Geraldine Hoff Doyle, Doyle unaware until the 1980’s

• Doyle worked briefly as a metal presser at an inkster in Michigan

How the Real Rosie Began

• A song written by Redd Evans and John Jacob Loeb entitled “Rosie the Riveter”

• Performed by many groups over the years, but made popular in versions by The Four Vagabonds and James Kern “Kay” Kaiser

• The Four Vagabonds Version

• 1942 song, released early ‘43

Real Original Rosie?

• The song was based on Rosalind P. Walter

• Rosie (Rosalind) was actually a riveter

• Returned to life after the war as homemaker

• Prospered on the wealth of her family

• Not the traditional Rosie story as it is remembered today

Rockwell’s Rosie

• Norman Rockwell created this Rosie

• Impacted by the song, just months after May 29, 1943

• Clearly an image of Rosie the Riveter

• 3 million copies a week, plus some due to Rockwell’s status

Powerful Elements of Rockwell’s Rosie

• Uncanny resemblance to Michelangelo's Isaiah

An enemy is indicated and war is

depicted

Masculine and Feminine

• Rouge and Lipstick

• Huge riveter

• Eating

• Resting (not on the job)

• Loafers

• “Brawny and dirty looking”

• Angelic feminizing halo

• Compact and handkerchief

Rockwell Liberty Girl

• Just 3 months after Rosie was published

• Liberty Girl to identify that all jobs were war jobs for women

• Liberty Girl did not have the same lasting popularity

More Real Rosies Spring Up

• June 1943 Rose Bonavita and her riveting partner or bucker, Jennie Florio set record of 900 holes and 3300 rivets in one 6 hour night shift

“The Real Rosie”• Rose Will Monroe a riveter

from Michigan starred in War Bond promotional clips and a movie, in both she was portrayed as Rosie

Post War Life

Rose Will Monroe

• Seamstress

• Beauty Shop Owner

• Taxi and Bus Driver

• Real Estate Agent

• Pilot

Wages v. Patriotism

• Undoubtedly a bit of both, yet wages played a tremendous role

• Wages were enticing• $35 weekly war plants• $25 weekly manufacturing• $15 weekly sales clerk

• Smithsonian Oral History Clip 1:55

3 Types of Rosies

1. Women who were already in the workforce and who remained in it afterwards, changed positions to higher paying and patriotic defense jobs

• Generally lower class and had to work to support families

2. Women who had worked in the past, but lost their jobs to the Depression

• During the Depression women were discouraged from trying to have jobs, a lot of women who had jobs in another wartime, WWI

3. First time workers• Primary targets of ad campaigning

Black Rosies

• Black women had for the most part already been on the workforce

• Wartime presented better job opportunities and higher wages

• Although black women represented Rosies they were not depicted in the propaganda

Post War Jobs?

• Once men returned from the war women were encouraged to head back home

• Higher wages did not continue• Baltimore: $50 per week 1944, $37 in 1946

• Rose Will Monroe – continued working in just about every capacity (rare case)

• Most of the iconic Rosie women returned to family life

Rosie Truly?

• During the mid-70’s to mid-80’s and 6 or 7 years ago, surges of scholarship denying the symbolic feminist nature of the Rosie image came to fruition

• Criticizing both the origins of the Miller “Rosie” and the legitimacy of the propaganda being reclaimed as a women in the workforce movement

Rosie the Riveter Today

• Rosie, the icon and the ideology, represents a figure that sparked rapid growth in women joining the workforce and in brand new capacities

One thing is for certain, levels of female employment in America have never fallen

below the levels at the beginning of the war

Commemoration

• Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historical Park

• Richmond, California on the site of a former Kaiser shipbuilding location sits the “Rosie the Riveter memorial”

• Dedicated Oct. 14, 2000

Rosie in Archives

• Many of the Rosie the Riveter Collections are oral histories describing the experiences in individual Rosies• Eastern Oklahoma

County Regional History Center – Over 60 oral histories

• J. Howard Miller’s image has ranked in the top ten requested historic images from the national archives

Rosie Organizations

• American Rosie the Riveter Association (ARRA)• Rosies• Rosebuds• Rivets

• All of ARRA’s merchandise features J. Howard Miller’s “Rosie”

The Many Faces of Rosie

• Rosie has taken on many roles being a popular and unregulated copyright-wise image

Questions:• Is Rosie the Riveter still a positive symbol for working women to identify

with?

• What are the apparent differences between the Rockwell and the Miller Rosie?

• Should archivists be actively seeking out more information on this iconic Rosie ideal rather than focusing on oral histories?

• After seeing this presentation who is Rosie to you?• Working class women, wartime work only middle class housewives, anyone

involved with war efforts, women who worked in men’s jobs

• Do the working class women in wartimes have a claim on the title of Rosie?

• Do you think the Rosie praising reflectors seek to cover up or ignore the financial gains of taking a wartime defense position?

• Why do you think Rosie the Riveter’s image has been taken and transformed so readily in the recent past?