Rosie the Riveter is a cultural icon of the United States, representing the six million women who worked in the manufacturing plants that produced munitions and material during World War II. These women took the places of the male workers who were absent fighting in the Pacific and European theaters. (Many "Rosies" included Rose Bonavita, who drove a record 3,345 rivets into a torpedo bomber in 1943.) The character is now considered a feminist icon in the US, and a herald of women's economic power to come. Rosie and her slogan were featured on newspapers, magazines and posters.
Rosie the riveter was inspired by a real woman, Ms. Rose Will Monroe, who was born in Pulaski County, Kentucky in 1922[citation needed] and moved to Michigan during World War II. She worked as a riveter at the Willow Run Aircraft Factory in Ypsilanti, Michigan, building B-29 and B-24 bombers for the U.S. Army Air Forces[citation needed].
Monroe was asked to star in a promotional film about the war effort at home and was featured in a poster campaign. She became known as Rosie the Riveter, perhaps the most widely recognized icon of that era. The films and posters she appeared in were used by the U.S. government to encourage women to go to work in support of the war effort. Monroe died at the age of 77 on May 31, 1997 in Clarksville, Indiana[citation needed].
In 1940, only 11% of women who worked were employed by factories, but by 1944, the figure was up to 30%. (In 1942, just between the months of January and July, the estimates of the proportion of jobs that would be "acceptable" for women was raised by employers from 29 to 85%.) Conditions were sometimes very poor and pay was not always equal—the average man working in a wartime plant was paid $54.65 per week, while women were paid $31.21 per week. Nonetheless, women quickly responded to Rosie the Riveter, who convinced them they had a patriotic duty to enter the workforce. Some claim that she forever opened up the work force for women, but others dispute that point, noting that many women were discharged after the war and their jobs given to returning servicemen.
After the war the "Rosies" and the generations that followed them knew that working in the factories was in fact a possibility for women, even though they did not reenter the job market in such large proportions again until the 1970s—by that time factory employment was in decline all over the country.
On October 14, 2000, the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park was opened in Richmond, California, site of four Kaiser shipyards, where thousands of "Rosies" from around the country worked. Over 200 former Rosies attended the ceremony.
Actually
The image most iconically associated with Rosie is J. Howard Miller's famous poster for Westinghouse, entitled We Can Do It! (above right), which was modeled on Michigan factory worker Geraldine Doyle in 1942.
But the woman in the painting bore no name. In fact, this picture was not meant to represent Rosie the Riveter at all. Penny Colman writes that "Since the 1970s, this poster has been mistakenly labeled Rosie the Riveter and has been reprinted on posters, magazine covers, and many other items."[1] It wasn't until several years later that the connection was made between the name "Rosie" and the image. In early 1943, Redd Evans and John Jacob Loeb's song Rosie the Riveter was released.[2] Finally, Norman Rockwell used the name for his cover for the May 29, 1943 Saturday Evening Post, which depicted a different Rosie (model Mary Doyle Keefe).[3] [4] It is not clear whether Rockwell had seen the Miller poster but he admitted that "I made a mistake in the detail that people will be calling me down for. The cover shows Rosie with goggles on and a risinglass protective shield." For two mornings, Keefe was paid $5 a day for the two sittings. On May 22, 2002, Rockwell's painting of Rosie the Riveter was auctioned by Sotheby's for $4,959,500.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosie_the_Riveter
