Rosie The Riveter - We Can Do It! ~ VFG Fashion Parade for the week of January 9th

carla rey

carla rey

VFG Member
Rosie the Riveter has become a powerful American symbol of feminism who emerged from her starring role on propaganda posters during WWII. Additional versions of Rosie also appeared in the UK, New Zealand and Australia on government posters and commercial advertising during the war as, increasingly, more women were recruited into men's jobs, due to a massive shortage of manpower during the war.

Women built planes and ships, guns, bombs, tanks; they farmed the land, operated search lights, and defended the home front for the duration. The empowerment that came from this cannot be understated, and it was difficult for many women to give up their new found freedoms and return to their former domestic lives when the war finally ended.

Let's salute Rosies all over the world this week by bringing out our best 1940s working fashions: Dungarees, trousers, overalls, blouses, cardigans, coats, knitwear, scarves, snoods, hats, caps and practical footwear. Whatever Rosie would have worn to work in a Munitions factory, assisting in an office, on the home front patrol, or as a Land Army Girl is suitable.

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What a fabulous idea for a Parade!

I always loved the image on the "We Can Do It" poster, but most folks do not realize that it is not Rosie The Riveter. Just to be clear and historically accurate, the actual image of Rosie the Riveter appeared on a Norman Rockwell cover of The Saturday Evening Post in 1942.

The "We Can Do It!" image shown in the collage above was never shown on any US propoganda posters during the war, and was actually just a barely seen and little known poster produced in 1943 (a year after the real Rosie appeared) by J. Howard Miller for Westinghouse. It was not widely seen at the time at all, and was pretty much seen only by internal workers in a few of the USA Westinghouse factories. The woman in the poster is not symbolizing a female riveter, as they made helmet liners at the plant.

It was not seen as a feminist symbol until many decades later, when it was seen for the first time by most Americans.

It has become confused over the years, so it is a common mistake to make, but here is the real Rosie The Riveter.

As a huge fan of Rosie, I wanted to give her her due. A real woman posed for this painting and she deserves her credit!



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In this week's Facebook parade page posts, we feature some glimpses of "Real Rosies," relying on the research included in "The Real Rosie The Riveter Project" at http://dlib.nyu.edu/rosie/about for the biographical postings interspersed with items from this parade!

ABOUT THE PROJECT: Spargel Productions and New York University’s Tamiment Library are collaborating on a project to document the stories of Rosie the Riveter. These oral histories were created on digital video and portions of them will be used in the forthcoming Spargel Production new media project “The Girl With The Rivet Gun.” They are being preserved at the Tamiment Library. Most are full life histories describing early family history, education, employment experiences be...fore the war, wartime work, and life after World War II. As one would expect, a complex picture that emerges from these interviews. Looking back the narrators found their wartime work experience transformative. It changed the ways in which they viewed themselves, instilling confidence, leading them to question the idea of separate spheres and providing a sense of pride and accomplishment that remained with them throughout their lives. This may be one of the reasons that most of these Rosies continued to work outside the home. Many went on to college and graduate school, and had very interesting careers. Beyond that the experiences varied. African American women faced particular challenges with racial discrimination. Class, ethnicity, and sexual orientation also defined the wartime and postwar experiences of many of the Rosies.

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Photos courtesy http://www.spargelproductions.com/rosie
 
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