As a follow up to yesterday's post about protective workwear and to celebrate International Workers' Day, let's look in this post at the story of a working icon, Rosie the Riveter.
A symbol of feminism and an iconic American image in support of women's civil rights in more recent decades, Rosie was originally conceived as a representation of the American women who went to work in the shipyards and the factories producing munitions and supplies during the Second World War.
The name of this working icon - Rosie the Riveter - was first used in 1942 in a song written by Redd Evans and John Jacob Loeb. Issued by Paramount Music Corporation of New York, "Rosie the Riveter" was released in early 1943.
Picture-wise there are two images that came to portray this worker: the first one is J. Howard Miller's "We Can Do It!" poster, commissioned to him by the Westinghouse Company's War Production Coordinating Committee for the war effort (and maybe based on a factory worker who was 17 at the time and working as a metal-stamping machine operator). This poster was actually dubbed as "Rosie the Riveter" only in later years.
The original Rosie is indeed the one created by Norman Rockwell for the cover of the Saturday Evening Post on Memorial Day, May 29, 1943.
This illustration was indeed the first visual image that incorporated the "Rosie" name (and was maybe less famous than the previous one only for copyright reasons that limited its circulation - Rockwell's original painting eventually sold at Sotheby's in 2002 for nearly $5 million).
Rockwell was probably influenced by Evans and Loeb's song, that's why in the illustration there is written "Rosie" on the worker's lunch pail.
The illustration (loosely based on 19-year-old Mary Doyle who was a telephone operator and not a riveter) is actually very symbolic: Rosie looks in the distance as her riveting gun rests on her lap, a giant American flag waves behind her, a lace handkerchief is barely visible in her right hand pocket and her foot firmly rests on the cover of Adolph Hitler's Mein Kampf.
The pose was actually inspired by the image of the prophet Isaiah painted by Michelangelo in 1509 on the Sistine Chapel ceiling.
Rockwell's Rosie became a symbol for the many real-life riveters: in early August 1943, Life magazine featured a full cover photograph of steelworker Ann Zarik at work with her torch. Inside, a photo-story entitled "Women in Steel" showed images of steelworkers by photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White, the first female war correspondent and the first woman to be allowed to work in combat zones during World War II.
The photographs showed women of all sorts of backgrounds working as welders, crane operators, oilers, loaders, metallurgical helpers and scrapers, and engine and furnace operators at Tubular Alloy Steel Corp. of Gary, Indiana, and Carnegie-Illinois Steel Company.
Though the call to work in those years was partially justified by patriotic duty, working women dominated the public image and proved they could do a "man's job" (even though they were often rewarded less than the average working man...) and gain in this way freedom and independence.
After the war some women had to leave their jobs to the returning servicemen, but the labour and social patterns had by then been altered forever. Rosie the Riveter and other campaigns dramatically increased the number or women in the workforce - by 1944 there were indeed 20 million women working in the States.
Rockwell's Rosie may have been a representation of the indomitable strength of the American spirit during one of the nation’s most challenging times, but, in our troubled days of crisis, it could be read as a tribute to all workers and to women in particular.
The Rosie the Riveter World War II / Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond, California, also features a memorial dedicated to this icon and a quote that reads: "You must tell your children, putting modesty aside, that without us, without women, there would have been no spring in 1945."
Image credits for this post
1. Bennice Vick Russell and sister-in-law Marjorie Vick share a soda during a break at Brown Shipbuilding Co. in Houston, TX., 1944. Copyright National Park Service Contra Costa County;
2. Training Day. Copyright National Park Service Contra Costa County;
3. Norman Rockwell, cover for the Saturday Evening Post, May 29, 1943;
4. Rockwell's Rosie and Michelangelo's Isaiah - a comparison;
5 and 6. Life Magazine, 9th August 1943, cover and image by photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White;
7. Rosie the Riveter T-shirt by Anna Battista; set/props Jay Artworx.
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