Rosie The Riveter: The Roles Of Women During World War II

Fueled by Adolf Hitler’s invasion of Poland in 1939, World War II was the most geological widespread and deadliest war in history. During this devastating war, more than fifty million civilians and military personnel deaths are estimated. The main roles of women before World War II were to serve as homemakers and mothers. During this time in history, it was the men that worked and provided for the family. Many occupations were specifically reserved for men and certain states even had serious complaints about married women holding jobs. However once the war broke out, people began to see a need for change. The need to utilize the entire population to support the war effort was so intriguing that political and social leaders agreed that

women and men would have to severely alter their views of gender roles for the sake of the current war situation. Although World War II brought an overwhelming amount of sacrifice, women had new skills, new jobs, and an abundance of opportunities that had never been presented before. Women were ultimately the “secret weapon” that America held in the war; the contributions that women made, such as serving in the armed forces, manufacturing war goods, and filling traditional male job roles, were vital in making America victorious in World War II.
Changing Images of Women’s Roles
Contradictory to social norms, women were now expected to participate and help in war efforts to their full abilities. However, “Despite their success in wartime industries during WWI, similar stereotypes about women’s capacity and ability to engage in ‘men’s work’ were circulated by the employers and the government.” It was not that women could not keep up with the workload; it was the idea of women doing men’s work. Women who were previously bound to household duties now had opportunities for work outside the home. This new experience sounded too good to believe; women would be paid for their work and serve their country simultaneously. “Government figures show that women’s employment increased during the Second World War from about 5.1 million in 1939 (26%) to just over 7.25 million in 1943 (36% of all women of working age).” This data supports the argument that World War II created economic and business opportunities for women that were positively taken advantage of. By 1945, every one out of four married women worked outside the home. Many activists argued that women’s wartime work was only necessary for a temporary time period and that things would return to normal after the war had concluded.
Propaganda
Propaganda was greatly beneficial to enticing women to volunteer to work in factories and military service.

This extra push of persuasion proved to be extremely successful. The U.S. government’s most influential propaganda speech was “Rosie the Riveter.” Rosie the Riveter was “Based in small part on a real-life munitions worker, but primarily a fictitious character, the strong, bandanna-clad Rosie became one of the most successful recruitment tools in American history, and the most iconic image of working women during World War II.” The Rosie the Riveter campaign was very high on the necessity for women to enter the work force for the patriotic benefit of America. Media campaigns were so successful due to the call for actions that were promoted and how well received these campaigns were to the audience of thousands of women. Rosie the Riveter was a prime example of how influential propaganda was to encouraging women to join the war

efforts.
Women in Factories
Studies estimate that approximately eighteen million were in the work force during the extent of World War II. Perhaps the greatest contribution was the work women did in production. With the majority of the war was being fought overseas, “Russia and Germany saw their territories directly involved in war and suffered terribly; countries such as the United States and Canada were relatively far from the action, but their citizens still fought a robust home front providing war goods for their men abroad.” When men left for war, the majority of them left behind their factory jobs. U.S. factories had to quickly adjust to meet war supply demands. Factory owners saw this as the ultimate cheap labor opportunity. When the war began, “Employers automatically classified the newer positions as “female” jobs so they would not have to pay as much.” With men gone, these owners were forced to find alternate laborers, who happened to be women. Women who worked in factories produced goods such as ammunitions, naval ships, and aeroplanes. The work women did was now seen as valuable and necessary to ensuring war success. The picture below, found on National Women’s History Museum, displays women tediously making ammunition on a production line. Ammunition factories were located in rural areas as a precaution due to the dangers of explosion and fire. The geographical location of the factories made traveling to work especially challenging for women. While factory work was not the first choice of work to do, it was necessary and essential for warfare.

Women in Military Service
While combat was male dominant, women were actively participating also.

The military did not solely consist of front line warfare but Nurse Corps, Armed Services, and Aviators. Army and Navy Nurse Corps included 70,000 nurses in all its units combined. These nurses traveled to where ever they were needed and even served overseas in dangerous combat zones. The work these women did was not easy by any standards. Between dressing open wounds and administering medicine, nurses had little down time. Working and living conditions were horrid but despite this nurses continued to be successful in saving lives. The handiwork “These nurses contributed to the extremely low post-injury mortality rate among American military forces in every theater of the war. Overall, fewer than 4 percent of the American soldiers who received medical care in the field or underwent evacuation died from wounds or disease.” Nurses healed soldiers that would have died without their help. In this way, nurses contributed in the medical field more ways than men could. Participation of women in the Armed Forces was an important turning point in the relationship of women to the military. Some 350,000 women served, abroad and home, in the U.S. Armed Forces. Women were initially banned from jobs requiring physical strength such as serving in the armed forces. The recruiting process was intense and very selective especially for women. The Army’s “Ambitious recruiting goals were never met despite an

intensive public education program to prove to a skeptical public that servicewomen were pretty, feminine, capable, and absolutely necessary to help the men and the nation win the war.” Women proved themselves to be talented and qualified for positions such as holding offices in the military. Image was very important to most Americas and women seemed to have the perfect image to represent America. An example of the ironic statements that were said is “Commanders who had once stated that they would accept women ‘over my dead body’ soon welcomed them and asked for more.” This change of new acceptance only influenced more women to join the bandwagon of joining the Armed Forces. The addition of thousands of women to the workforce only helped meet the overall manpower needed to maintain the U.S. position in the war.
Women at Home and in the Community
Contradictory to what most people think, there was much to do on the home front to support the war. Women who did not work in factories or serve/help in military operations stayed at home, managed the home front, and volunteered to help organize war-related groups and support teams. When World War II begun, “Women ‘became proficient cooks and housekeepers, managed the finances, learned to fix the car, worked in a defense plant, and wrote letters to their soldier husbands that were consistently upbeat’.” When taking on new responsibilities and duties, women could no longer continue to do jobs they had done previously before World War II. Women were needed to learn new tasks and were expected to know how to be productive with limited war resources. Prior to World War II, women had experience of volunteer civic activism. Organizations implemented by women helped spread war awareness and encourage local projects. Many of these organizations strived to volunteer services to the military and civilian civil defense organizations. For example, “Members of the largest, American Women’s Voluntary Services, were trained to drive ambulances, fight fires, and provide emergency medical aid in anticipation of aerial bombings that never materialized.” Women had to step up and take on roles that were unfilled and provide for their families while simultaneously providing for soldiers from home. Since there was a lack of food, women began to farm agriculture as a way to adequately feed the community and, eventually, the nation. Innovations like this clearly showed how motivated and talented women on the home front were.