Rosie the Riveter is a well-known symbol throughout the United State. Her main purpose was to promote the movement of women into the workforce during World War II. She was created by artist J. Howard Miller as an advertisement in 1943 that was displayed on the Westinghouse Electric Corporation factory. Erick Trickey in his Washington Post article titled “Rosie the Riveter isn’t who you think she is” describes that Rosie the Riveter became a cultural icon through many channels of pop-culture, and most American’s in the 1940’s had never seen the now famous “We Can Do It!” poster.
Women have continuously had to fight to have equal rights to men. They are continuously discriminated against in the workplace and do not receive equal opportunities or pay. It is interesting to me how a country that has promoted women in the workforce when they see necessary still continues to give unequal treatment to employees.
My speech artifact is a video posted on instagram by the US Air Force Recruiters that features women Air Force Pilots staring at the camera saying their call signs. The ad never explicitly says “Join the Air Force” but it is obvious that the ad is trying to make the military appear appealing to women.
Both of these artifacts are convincing women that it is part of their civic duty to serve their country in the workforce. They perceive women in the workforce as powerful and independent which are traits that most women desire. The women in both ads are in powerful stances and stare directly at the camera.
Times are very different now then in the 1940’s. Rosie the Riveter promoted the addition of women into factory jobs, while the 2019 Air Force recruitment ad promotes the addition of women into the military. In the 1940’s the thought of women in combat situations was unbelievable, it was crazy that women were working outside of the house. Rosie the Riveter promoted the transformation of the idea of women’s civic duty from supporting the family in the home to supporting the country in the workplace. The Air Force recruitment ad promotes more of the idea that women can transition from more traditional female careers to traditionally male dominated careers.
Both of these advertisements provide insight to how civic engagement was perceived by women at the time of their publishing.
Go Air Force—-embracing the strength of our nation!
I am shocked that most Americans in the 1940’s had not seen the famous Rosie the Riveter advertisement as it is very popular now. You would find it shocking for an American now to have never seen the poster before. I think that it is very interesting how you connected the Rosie the Riveter advertisement to the U.S Air force’s campaign to get more women to enlist for the Air force. Both of the advertisements compliment each other as both of them are trying to get women to do work that is traditionally occupied by men. I think that these ads are very influencing as they display these women as very strong and independent.
Rose, the topic you have chosen to investigate in both artifacts is so powerful, and your second paragraph honestly made me want to yell “PREACH!”. As far as constructive comments go, the only thing I noticed was that sometimes apostrophes were placed in the plural forms of words – just something to check for when writing your essay since little things like that slip my mind as well unless I know to look for them. Can’t wait to hear your speech, girl power!
Rose, I think it will be super interesting to compare the new Air Force advertisement to Rosie the Riveter. Given that Rosie the Riveter was made during a time of war to encourage women to support the men in the military in a time when it would have been a joke for them to want to be a soldier, and the Air Force ad is encouraging women to join the military 70 years later. Great choice!