Role Of Rosie The Riveter In Wwii Propaganda
This 17 by 22' brightly coloured WWII Propaganda poster depicts a young woman flexing while maintaining a confident forward gaze, with the phrase 'We Can Do It' stated boldly below. Dressed in masculine attire to elicit strength and ability, the figure's red, blue, and white clothing signifies US patriotism and integrity. Though the subject of the photo has been highly contested, both Geraldine Doyle and Naomi Parker Fraley have come forward claiming to have been the inspiration behind this animated work following the death of J. Howard Miller, the graphic designer who holds the answer. Both women were employed as war workers, with Parker assembling aircraft parts at the Naval Air Station Alameda, and Doyle at American Broach & Machine Co. operating a metal stamp press.
Rosie the Riveter, created in 1943 in Pittsburgh, was just one in a series of posters to be displayed in Westinghouse factories in the midwestern regions of the U.S. Though most predominantly seen in areas of East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where micarta helmet liners were being assembled, this poster was displayed for a total of ten workdays commencing on February 15th of 1943.
Under the jurisdiction on the National War Production board, the coordinating committee of Westinghouse Electric, a war equipment factory, sponsored a series of propaganda posters created by a graphic designer named J. Howard Miller. Born In Pittsburgh in 1915, Miller attended the art institute of Pittsburgh, ultimately graduating in 1939 and going on to create the iconic Rosie the Riveter poster in 1942.
There is great debate over the true target audience of this poster, neither of which can be definitively confirmed nor denied. The most common proposition is that Rosie the Riveter was directed towards all able-bodied women and teenagers to encourage them to enter the workforce to create military equipment in the place of war-bound men. Nonetheless, it has also been suggested that this poster series was intended to promote employee morale through positive reinforcement while female factory employment was at its peak. Most recently, Ed Reis, a Westinghouse historian, came forth with the theory that the Riveter poster was directed solely towards female factory workers assembling micarta based helmet liners. Alternate sources posit that it was not directed towards women at all; rather, their husbands were the ideal targets so that they could consent to their wives departing from their domestic roles to enter the workforce.
As WWII propaganda, Rosie the Riveter's iconic bicep flex was intended to empower women to take manufacturing jobs in the place of men serving in the war, instilling women with a duty to contribute to military efforts. In turn, this initiated a dual social movement. While only 29% of employers had originally believed women were capable of male work, this radically transitioned to 85% given the influx of females in the workforce which rose by 57% between 1940-1944. The dire need for workers lead to the employment of women of all races, which was a major step in surpassing social barriers, empowering previously repressed women, and ignoring racial difference by inviting diversity into factories jobs previously occupied by primarily white men. By 1980, Rosie the Riveter had been appropriated as a symbol of the second wave feminist movement as an icon of economic disadvantage faced by women.
