In Their Words - Rosie Rolls Up Her Sleeves

Rosie the Riveter serves as an icon of World War II. She is the home-front equivalent of G.I. Joe. She represents the role female defense workers played in the war effort. For many women, she is an example of a strong, competent foremother.

Many of us have an image of a strong woman in a vibrant red bandanna rolling up the sleeve on her raised arm when we hear "Rosie the Riveter." This image was carefully developed and introduced into the American conscience at a crucial time when women were becoming as important to the war effort as their male fighting counterparts.

In early 1943 the song “Rosie the Riveter” by Redd Evans and John Jacob Loeb was released with lyrics that made a hero of the working woman:

"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. Keeps a sharp lookout for sabotage, Sitting up there on the fuselage. That little girl will do more than a male will do. . .There's something true about, Red, white, and blue about, Rosie the Riveter."

After the release of the song, “Rosie” received a huge boost in exposure. The May 29 issue of the Saturday Evening Post featured a cover by Norman Rockwell featuring the “Rosie the Riveter” image most Americans are now familiar with. The Saturday Evening Post went into four million homes on average. When Rockwell illustrated the cover the number grew even higher in response to his popularity among readers.

Two weeks after the Rockwell cover appeared on newsstands, the press picked up the story of a woman named Rose Hickey. She and her riveting partner drove a record number of rivets into the wing of a TBM Avenger at a Tarrytown, New York, plant. Other women named Rose gained media attention before the end of the war. Rose Monroe, a riveter in Michigan, made a film about selling war bonds and then a commercial movie called "Rosie the Riveter."

Sybil Lewis, an African-American riveter for Lockheed Aircraft in Los Angeles, gives this description of riveting:

"The women worked in pairs. I was the riveter and this big, strong, white girl from a cotton farm in Arkansas worked as the bucker. The riveter used a gun to shoot rivets through the metal and fasten it together. The bucker used a bucking bar on the other side of the metal to smooth out the rivets. Bucking was harder than shooting rivets; it required more muscle. Riveting required more skill."

The big changes that brought women into war work began in 1942. Men were going to war and industries were switching to war production. With growing needs, industries decided they were willing to hire women who could not be drafted for service. At first, there was reluctance on the parts of managers, husbands, male workers and many women, too.

It seems most women workers came from three main groups:

The first group consisted of women already working who changed to the higher paying, patriotic, defense jobs. So many women left laundries in 1942 that six hundred closed.

The second group included women who had worked, but lost their jobs during the Depression or when their factories converted from civilian to war work.

The final group, which attracted the most attention, was made up of first-time workers. About six million women entered the workforce for the first time. Many of these were married, white, middle-class women who had been encouraged to work. Working outside the home was a new idea for them.

This was a government-led effort to recruit women workers, to get women out of the home. Magazines were asked to write articles that appealed to the desire for glamour and good pay, but even more to a sense of patriotism. "Women, you could hasten victory by working and save your man." Rosie's appearance on the Memorial Day cover of the Saturday Evening Post implied that her work might help save soldiers' lives.

The number of working women never again fell to pre-war levels. The recognition that middle-class married women could work and run a home was significant.

Excerpts from the transcript of video presentation by Sheridan Harvey from
http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/journey/rosie-transcript.html

FACT: Arkansas women seized the opportunity for new manufacturing jobs, although a smaller percentage entered the workforce than did women nationwide. Seventy-five percent of the 13,000 workers at the Arkansas Ordnance Plant in Jacksonville were female.