Original Rosie the Riveter, We Can Do It - Poster

Original Rosie the Riveter, We Can Do It poster without any alteration. Rosie the Riveter is a symbolic cultural icon in the United States who represents the women who worked in factories and shipyards during World War II, many of whom produced munitions and war supplies. These women sometimes took entirely new jobs replacing the male workers who joined the military. Rosie the Riveter is used as a symbol of American feminism and female empowerment. Similar images of women war workers appeared in countries such as Britain and Australia. The idea of Rosie the Riveter originated in a song written in 1942 by Redd Evans and John Jacob Loeb. Images of women workers were widespread in the media in formats such as government posters, and the government heavily used commercial advertising to encourage women to volunteer for wartime service in factories. Because the world wars were total wars, which required governments to utilize their entire populations to defeat their enemies, millions of women were encouraged to work in the industry and take over jobs previously done by men. During World War I, women across the United States were employed in jobs previously done by men. WW2 was similar to WW1 in that massive conscription of men led to a shortage of available workers and, therefore, a demand for labour that could be filled only by employing women. Women responded to the country's call of need by stepping up to fill positions that men traditionally filled. They began to work heavy construction machinery, taking roles in lumber and steel mills as well as physical labour, including unloading freight, making munitions, and much more. Many of the women who took jobs during WW2 were mothers. Those women with children at home pooled together in their efforts to raise their families. They assembled into groups and shared such chores as cooking, cleaning, and washing clothes. Many who had young children shared apartments and houses to save time, money, utilities, and food. If they both worked, they worked different shifts so they could take turns babysitting. Supporting the soldiers by making all sorts of products made the women feel accomplished and proud of their work. Over six million women got war jobs; African American, Hispanic, White, and Asian women worked side by side. In the book A Mouthful of Rivets, Vi Kirstine Vrooman writes about when she decided to take action and become a riveter. She got a job building B-17s on an assembly line and shared how exciting it was, saying, "The biggest thrill—I can't tell you—was when the B-17s rolled off the assembly line. You can't believe the feeling we had. We did it!" Once women accepted the workforce challenge, they continued to make substantial advances toward equal rights. "We Can Do It!" is a wartime poster produced by J. Howard Miller in 1943 for Westinghouse Electric as an inspirational image to boost female worker morale. The picture was little seen during World War II. It was rediscovered in the early 1980s and widely reproduced in many forms, often called "We Can Do It!" but also called "Rosie the Riveter." The "We Can Do It!" image was used to promote feminism and other political issues beginning in the 1980s. The picture made the cover of the Smithsonian magazine in 1994 and was fashioned into a US first-class mail stamp in 1999. It was incorporated in 2008 into campaign materials for several American politicians and was reworked by an artist in 2010 to celebrate the first woman becoming prime minister of Australia. The poster is one of the ten most-requested images at the National Archives and Records Administration. After its rediscovery, observers often assumed that the image was always used as a call to inspire women workers to join the war effort. However, during the war, the image was strictly internal to Westinghouse, displayed only during February 1943, and was not for recruitment but to exhort already-hired women to work harder. People have seized upon the uplifting attitude and powerful message to remake the image into many different forms, including self-empowerment, campaign promotion, advertising, and parodies.