Rosie the Riveter

Working women during WWII

Example of the varied positions that women took on during World War II that were outside the "accepted" sphere for women

Amy French

Image: Alfred T. Palmer, Library of Congress

1939

1945

War workers

Geraldine Hoff Doyle is the real life model for the famous World War II woman-worker recruitment poster titled “We Can Do It!” A photographer from the United Press snapped a photo of Doyle wearing the iconic polka-dotted bandana made famous on the poster depicting a woman flexing her muscle. Doyle didn’t know until 1984 that it was she who inspired the print and the name “Rosie the Riveter”. "Rosie" symbolizes the many women who entered the workforce in World War II to help the Allied forces win the war. Although denied equal pay and discriminated against, American women fought the war from the plants, many of them choosing to stay in paid employment after the war.

Anderson, Karen.  Wartime Women: Sex Roles, Family Relations, and the Status of Women During World War II. (New York: Berkley Books, 2001).

Wise, Nancy Baker and Christy Wise.  A Mouthful of Rivets: Women at Work in World War II. (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1994).