The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter (1980): Image versus Reality

“Rosie the Riveter” is the most abiding American image of female participation in World War II and has powerfully framed interpretations of the impact of the war on women. However, like the role of women in general, this image is in many ways paradoxical, and even misleading, for several key reasons. Firstly, most American women were not regularly in the workforce. Secondly, most women workers did not have industrial jobs. Thirdly, the great majority of wives did not work outside the home and finally, “Rosie” was always a younger woman and therefore not representative of all those women who were moved for various reasons to become “Soldiers Without Guns” (1941). Ultimately, the campaign and the experience of war work for the women themselves were partly successful.

Connie Field’s, seminal but rarely seen, The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter (1980) is an interesting testimony of American women’s experiences of work during World War II. The women who share their remembered, oral testimony are significant for their differences as much as their similarities. They represent different, regions, classes, locations (rural/urban) and significantly, races. Norman Rockwell’s vision of Rosie (Saturday Evening Post, 1943), plus Westinghouse’s iconic “We Can Do It!” (J. Howard Miller, 1942) have little to do with the reality of the situations in which these women found themselves. Their sense of disappointment postwar is palpable and moving. This paper will examine the relationship between the image of “Rosie” and the reality of American women’s experience as represented by Lola Weixel, Margaret Wright, Lyn Childs, Gladys Belcher and Wanita Allen in The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter.