Description
Rosie the Riveter emerged as an emblem of the working woman during World War II, the center of a campaign aimed at recruiting female workers for defense industries. Visualized in the early 1940s by American illustrators J. Howard Miller and Norman Rockwell, Rosie represented women who entered the workforce in unprecedented numbers during the war as widespread male enlistment greatly diminished the industrial labor force. In 1943, when Rockwell painted his overall-clad icon, more than 310,000 women were employed in the U.S. aircraft industry alone, making up sixty-five percent of its total workforce compared to just one percent in the pre-war years. As a popular song by Redd Evans and John Jacob Loeb recounted: “All the day long whether rain or shine She’s a part of the assembly line She’s making history, working for victory Rosie the Riveter”
Disciplines
Publication Date
2018
Citation Information
James Kimble and R. Bradway. "Womanpower and the fight for the Four Freedoms" (2018) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/james-kimble/26/