Copyright Off Our Backs, Inc. Jun 30, 1981the life and times of
rosie the riveter
The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter is a war, but instead of bombshells, we see stereotypes fall as the government mobilized 18 million women to take over traditional male jobs during World War II.
"Rosie the Riveter" was one of the songs written to glamorize working women. It's popularity died when the boys came marching home, and wartime Rosies found pink slips in their slots.
Women who for years were welders and machinists returned to low-paying cafeteria serving lines, clerical and domestic work if they could find it. Many had babies and stayed home.
Attending a Rosie the Riveter Reunion in 1974, Connie Fields decided to document their story. After interviewing 700 Rosies, Fields filmed Wanita Allen, Gladys Belcher, Lyn Childs, Margaret Wright and Lola Weixal describing their efforts to gain acceptance on work sites as women and Blacks.
Discrimination was most obvious to the 3 Black women when they applied for work. "I was trained as a riveter, but I was given foundry work shoveling," said one who applied with 3 white women.
In one plant there was a 5¢ pay difference between black and white women, who both earned less than men. In another only white women had showers. By individual and group action, the women removed some of these barriers.
With women working productivity soared, but they were also expected to work long overtime or take the blame for war deaths. Rosie had little help with her family responsibilities and housework. Although the government promoted daycare, few wartime industries provided it.
After the war, propaganda played on women's concern for their children's care. They were also taught new ways to keep American homes clean with labor-saving machines. It remained an unpaid female preoccupation.
Throughout the film, newsreel clips and magazine photographs document the role changes expected of women. They also expose assumptions that Rosies were white, middle-class and supported by men before and after the war.
"My worst problem was that I couldn't find any footage of black women," said Fields. She also found 62% of the defense workers had blue-collar or service jobs before the war and often supported their families.
Through the wit and memories of the 5 women, fields filmed personal stories of Rosie the wartime worker. Like Babies and Banners, this film presents a segment of women's struggle and development history books ignore.
It has been easier for the women's movement to identify with the suffragette period. This film comes closer to reclaiming, validating the lives of our mothers. After blaming them for being model housewives, we see a visual record of women running factories.
Rosie the Riveter helps us see differences and similarities between the 1940's and women's struggles today. Women are again the fastest growing sector of the labor force. Traditional male jobs are being mechanized or exported, and a backlash has been building to restrict women's independence and get them out of the job market.
One of the Rosies recalls on film, when there are too many workers, the women are laid off first and then the Black men; another states, "The men promised to go (to war) for us, not for American business, but for us." Again we are faced with the possibility of war. Will women be taken from the reserves of the nation's industrial army to its battlefields?
Lola Weixal closes the film saying all she ever wanted was to make an ornamental gate. She wanted to use her skills and creativity to make something special.
To see women run factories is empowering. Knowing she dreams of using her capabilities her own way, can sustain.
Rosie the Riveter was shown in Washington's commercial theatres in May for $4. A one-hour film, it may be rented from Clarity Educational Films for between $65 and $100. P.O. Box 315, Franklin Lakes, N.Y. 07417 (201) 891-8240.
Photo (Still from Rosie the Riveter, two female workers)
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