Riveting: The Story of Rosie and American Women in World War II

Recently, The Washington Post published an obituary of Naomi Parker Fraley who died in January, aged 96, in Washington State. She was the model for “Rosie the Riveter”, an enduring World War II symbol of American feminism. The poster, by the artist J Howard Miller, depicted a female worker, wearing a blue shirt and red polka-dot bandanna, flexing her left bicep, with the caption "We Can Do It!" The poster eventually became an icon and nowadays can be found printed on all kinds of merchandise including T-shirts, mugs and fridge magnets. However, whilst Fraley’s image became ubiquitous, she was left unheralded and anonymous.

After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, in 1942, 20-year-old Fraley went to work at the Naval Air Station in Alameda and it was in the station workshop that she was photographed for the Acme photo agency. When the picture appeared soon afterwards alongside an article in The Oakland Post-Enquirer, Fraley cut out the article and kept it for 70 years, while America misidentified another in her place.

In 2011, at a reunion event for female wartime workers, Fraley saw the Rosie poster displayed alongside her photograph. The woman in the photograph, according to the information, was named as Geraldine Doyle. "I couldn't believe it," she told The Chicago Tribune in 2016. "I knew it was me in the photo."

These days, Fraley would have been encouraged to bring massive law suits for using her image without consent. “Rosie the Riveter” represented so much more than just a World War II iconic image. Until 1940s, Americans ideologically regarded gender in a separate sphere. The public sphere was for men and the world of business and politics. The private sphere was for women and the world of home and domesticity.

Arguably, the most significant shift in the status of women in US came during World War II. Certainly, the war in US had less impact than in Europe and Russia. US women were not in danger of imminent attack nor did they have to endure civilian-like problems experienced by women in other countries at war, such as rape and other physical assaults. The US domestic economy benefited, witnessing the end of the Great Depression. There was far more employment for women compared to the 1930s because men were now in the armed forces in their millions. Tens of thousands of jobs were available, especially in war-associated industries.

The Hollywood movie, “Swing Shift Maisie”, produced by MGM in 1944, is dated and contains much WWII propaganda. The issues it dealt with covered work and gender roles. When Maisie first goes to the factory floor, she is wolf whistled and leered at. There is a woman supervisor but many men are there and she has to earn their respect. Significantly, there are no black workers. The film portrays US women at work and their role in a wartime setting.

Women have to be seen “doing their bit.” It was easy for women to get a job, especially in the growing munitions industry. Finally, there was a direct threat to jobs traditionally filled by men. Women were cheaper labour and, possibly, better. Different work practices were resented by men. The movie panned male factory workers, comparing them unfavourably with fighter and bomber pilots and the men who fought in the war. The movie challenged separate spheres ideology.

It is argued that one of the biggest changes in American society after 1945 was the status of women. At the commencement of war, women were needed in the workforce and this continued after it ended. However, there is a counter-argument that World War II made little difference for women. It was not a consequence of the war that women attained new status and enjoyed new opportunities. Feminism would not resurface until the 1960s. Then, Betty Friedan’s book, “The Feminine Mystique” challenged the continued role of women in the home. Thus the war was a temporary aberration for women’s advancement.

Last week saw the celebration here of the 100^th anniversary of the success of the UK Women’s Suffrage movement, winning votes for some women, those over the age of 30 who owned real property. It is astonishing that some 73 years after the end of World War II, women in both US and UK have yet to achieve equality in the work place on issues of pay and in the way they are sometimes regarded by male colleagues. The Weinstein scandals, followed by many others, are evidence that more progress is needed to achieve equality of opportunity and respect for women. Maybe a resurgence of Rosie the Riveter posters is needed with the altered caption, “We Women Can Do It” or “Don’t Mess With Us.”