Hardly any graphic or pose has been copied as often as the picture of Rosie the Riveter. Everyone knows the red bandana, the rolled up sleeves, the determined look and the tense biceps. It became emblematic of the American war effort on the home front and of what women can do when men don’t stand in their way.
The absurdity of the story: Hardly anyone saw the poster during World War II. J. Howard Miller designed it for the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company. It hung briefly in the Westinghouse factories and then disappeared into oblivion for decades. It was only after it was dug up that Rosie became an icon.
Women in armor
After entering the war in 1941, the US ramped up the production of war essentials in an unprecedented manner. Even the USSR under Stalin did not reach these standards. In its own country, the USA was able to produce almost under peace conditions. The factories of the Third Reich acted like craft sheds against the armaments programs with which the Liberty ships or the B-29 bombers were built.
But that could only succeed because countless women worked in the armaments factories. And like the famous riveter, they took on classic male jobs. Working with the heavy riveting hammer, driven by compressed air, had the image of a real tough job. Even if the equipment in the aviation industry was nowhere near as heavy and bulky as the equipment used in construction or a shipyard.
A mix of influences
The poster has its own history. The name comes from a song written in 1942 about a woman who works in an aircraft factory. A year later, Norman Rockwell created a cover for a newspaper that featured a jeans-clad worker with a headscarf.
From this and from a newspaper photo, J. Howard Miller created the poster. But it only hung in the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company’s factories for two weeks. Contrary to what is often assumed, it should not recruit volunteers, but motivate existing workers. In the 1940s, the Rockwell cover was much better known.
Harry Rubenstein, curator of the American History Museum, told Smithsonian Magazine that the picture didn’t really spread until 50 years after the war ended. In the early 1980s, the first copies appeared that somehow found their way out of the National Archives in Washington. At the time of the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II in 1995, merchandise with the motif was everywhere and then Rosie became world famous and a feminist symbol. And only now was the name “Rosie the Riveter” associated with the poster. The name was actually the title of a propaganda film about women in the defense industry. “The picture shows an individual empowerment – it shows that women can play any role they choose and that they have the power to do it,” said Rubenstein.
No housewives in the factories
During the Second World War it was by no means primarily housewives who rushed into industry to ensure the war’s success. Most of the “Rosies” worked before. They only switched from low-paying jobs to the very high-paying arms industry. Office assistants, waitresses and nannies became welders and riveters. “In general, women had the opportunity to move from low-paying jobs to higher-paying factory jobs during World War II,” said Peter Liebhold, also a curator of the American History Museum. “It was seldom that they were paid as much as the men, but they were paid significantly better than before.”
For the real Rosie, Naomi Parker Fraley, it was her first job when she was 18. She wasn’t a riveter in the factory, but worked on a lathe. There she was photographed with the eye-catching headscarf. The turner had to wear the cloth to keep the long hair away from the rotating spindle of the machine.
After the war she worked as a waitress at the Doll House, a restaurant in Palm Springs that was popular with Hollywood stars. Naomi Parker Fraley died in 2018 at the age of 95. She could no longer live to see Rosie the Riveter and with her all women in the arms industry being honored by Congress with the Gold Medal.
Donald Trump, of all people, signed the law in December 2020.
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