The Place of the “Rosie the Riveter” Image in American Memory

The image of Rosie the Riveter has been emblazoned on the collective memory of the American Citizenry. On display at the Smithsonian Institute and anywhere where World War II is studied, the image is thought to have been designed to empower a generation of women who would be relied upon to substitute for their husbands in the manufacturing necessities of war. In reality, however, Rosie the Riveter did little to empower women working in lieu of their deployed husbands. Indeed, history suggests that the image was cultivated with a far more long-term purpose in mind: to empower several generations of women who would then and are now the reason why America remains a superpower.

Most today associate Rosie the Riveter with an image of feminine strength during wartime; a vision of female courage in the face of not only being without their beloved husbands during the war but also admirably working in their stead during their time abroad. But if Americans expected the nuclear family to return as a dominant model as soon as World War II ended, they were in for a rude awakening. As we know today, women in the U.S. are as involved in the workplace as ever and there is no end in sight even for those women who would prefer to return to pre-Rosie the Riveter life. This is primarily true because to allow women to relegate themselves to the role of homemaking would be to diminish the status of the U.S. as a global superpower; the American economy required far more contributors than were available in the pool of able-bodied men and women were available to fill this role, though the propagandists at work likely felt that women would better adjust to reality if they believed it to be temporary.

In reality, the image of Rosie the Riveter has been found to have done very little to provoke positive attitudes in American women urged into the workplace during World War II. Indeed, this myth was developed in light of the reality that would soon come to define the post-war America than we now know: that women would be required to stay in the workplace if the U.S. was to capitalize on the fact that no nation had contributed resources as few as the U.S. did, relative to their peers. Recognizing this, President Harry Truman wished to bring a swift conclusion to World War II and while American Forces were well on their way to victory in the Pacific, Truman wished for an even swifter conclusion to the war, without sacrificing any more troops to the war effort than were necessary. Moving forward, America was primed for superpower status so long as Rosie the Riveter and her fellow female compatriots remained in the workplace.

Ultimately, Rosie the Riveter is a prime example of the manner in which institutional or collective memory can transform an image’s significance. In this case, the idea behind one of the formative images in American History is entirely fabricated in order to obfuscate the more complicated realities at work. In this reality, women were not merely being encouraged to step in for their husbands but were part of a larger plan to ensure the future of the United States as a global superpower. While this message may not be found as palatable by the American Public as an image that merely suggests a temporary shift in socio-cultural norms, Rose the Riveter’s image has nevertheless come to be understood by the vast majority of Americans as a simple message encompassing all manner of female empowerment initiatives. The fact that this truth is more general than the more specific one (i.e. that women were targeted for a new breed of workforce that would allow for rapid industrialization and development) does not obviate the significance of this historical misunderstanding at work here: far from a temporary vision of female workplace empowerment, Rosie the Riveter signifies the insufficient degrees to which we are willing to acknowledge that the role of women in society has changed for the long-term, as opposed to the short-term.