Rosie The Riveter
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Rosie the Riveter was a fictional character that was created to encourage women to join the work force during World War II. Men were sent off to war and they left production jobs, factory jobs, and many other positions that needed to be filled. Unprecedented numbers of women entered the world of work, marking the beginning of a major movement of women in industry.
The United States on the Eve of World War II:
In December 1941, the United States economy was still recovering from the hard-hitting depression. The Great Depression reinforced the system of women as the backbone of the family, who was to stay home and take care of the household duties and raise the children. These duties often had to be carried out through unsophisticated means, as the benefits of technology had not yet entered the average home. In 1941, one-third of all households were still cooking with wood or coal; and water often had to be carried from an outside source. (1) The hardships that women faced day in and day out began to take their toll, but all too often there was no other option. Most women that did have jobs were either unmarried or were forced out of economic necessity. In 1940, out of the 11.5 million employed women, the majority of women would quit their jobs once married. (2) The traditional mentality of the population was that married women did not belong in the workplace. A 1936 poll showed that eighty-two percent of the American population felt that if a woman was married and her husband had a job, she did not need to work. (3) Womens roles were defined by society who told them that their main concern needed to be their family responsibilities. Once the United States entered the war following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, demands for enormous mobilization of troops left millions of jobs vacant. The war material already being produced for our European Allies was not sufficient for the new role that this country assumed. More material was needed, yet the bodies to make them were going off to fight in the war. The jobs were opened and so began the entry of women into the workforce.
Propaganda- getting women into the jobs:
Governmental propaganda campaigns began to appear everywhere, promoting war industry jobs to be filled. Rosie the Riveter was designed to make the idea of working outside the home desirable for women. “Do the Job He Left Behind” was a campaign slogan that emphasized womens patriotism for the war effort. The Office of War Information was a governmental bureau whose chief goal was the recruitment of women into war industry jobs. (4) In 1944, the OWI launched the “Women in the War” campaign which emphasized specific success stories about women in industry positions. These efforts encouraged other women from becoming discouraged as the war progressed. (5) Almost every institution of American society participated in the recruitment or encouragement of the campaign. Hollywood produced films supporting womens participation. Public transportation and radio stations agreed to help the effort. Even the army joined in the campaign by creating recruitment posters. All of these efforts may have helped otherwise non-supporters of the movement. Magazines, specifically the Magazine War Guide, were circulated to promote the “womenpower” campaign. This periodical often contained storied about a women worker who “sacrificed for her country and was rewarded.” (6) Part of the magazines popularity was due to its use of fiction, which could be manipulated to encourage a specific mentality, moral, or spirit. The stories would suggest for people to plant victory gardens, to buy war bonds, and to have a positive and patriotic attitude towards the war. The overall goal of wartime propaganda was not only to recruit as many women as possible into war industry positions previously held by men, but also an attempt to distinguish the prevailing negative attitude of women workers.
Employment Patterns/ Statistics:
Prior to the war, women generally held jobs that were either low paying, or held little appeal for male workers. One the men went off to war, the shortage of labor occurred in much higher paying jobs than most women were accustomed to. During the course of the war, “fifty percent of all women who had been in trade and personal service and sixty-six percent of those who had been employed in eating and drinking establishments shifted to war manufacture” as their main source of income. (7) Women saw the situation as a wonderful opportunity for them to excel financially. Women gained more independence, which gave them increasingly more freedom. The role of married women changed drastically. The largest group of women to enter into the work force during the Second World War was married women. In 1944, at the height of war production, almost one in three defense workers was a former full-time homemaker. Their addition meant that married women outnumbered single women workers for the first time in United States history. This statistic proves that the great efforts of wartime propaganda were quite successful. The vacant jobs were being filled as needed, especially once married women joined the force. Approximately six million women began working in jobs formerly held only by men. (8) A 1944 survey showed that up to eighty percent of women in war industry jobs were hoping on sustaining these jobs even after the war ended. Unfortunately, these numbers could not be accomplished. “By April 1947, the prewar employment pattern had been reestablished and most employed women” returned to the stereotypical womens job of clerical