This was published in Conservative Chronicle - Conservative Patriots of Orange County and appeared in Robin Itzler's Patriot Neighbors weekly newsletter.
Friday, March 21 is Rosie the Riveter Day. It’s about time! World War II found me in high school, walking across the street to the hospital as a Candy Striper. But I was well aware of women, housewives and even my own mother going to work in big factories and shipyards. It wasn’t until I was in college that he heard the words Rosie the Riveter. Images of women workers began to appear in media formats such as on billboards, government posters and commercial advertising encouraging women to step up for wartime service in factories. Some women entirely replaced male workers who joined the military. Women, in some factories, were in complete charge of producing munitions and war supplies.
Rosie the Riveter is an allegorical cultural icon in the United States. There has never been a connection to anyone named Rosie. Women numbering 19 million began working on heavy construction machinery, taking jobs in lumber and steel mills as well as physical labor including unloading freight, building airships, repair and maintenance of aircraft flying to and from Europe.
Many of those women discovered (and enjoyed) the autonomy these jobs provided them. Their own expectations for womanly duties and responsibilities were greatly expanded. Unfortunately, this was reckoned as unnatural so as the men returned from the war, the government instituted another campaign urging women to “return to normalcy.” The government addressed women solely as housewives. For many this seemed to be a put-down after all they did for their country.
The women factory jobs dwindled to 26 percent. At that time, many women took lesser paying jobs in offices and schools. Yes, my mother returned home as a ‘housewife’ and mother. But you can imagine that World War II and 19 million women who had accepted the challenge of the workforce unknowingly forced the beginning of the advances toward civil rights. Women still remember four words that came out of taking men’s jobs during World War II = I CAN DO IT! Noone should ever forget those “Rosie the Riveters.” THEY DID IT!
- Read Remember the Tea Party by Sally Zelikovsky. Sally also discusses Rep. Thomas Massie’s failure to support President Trump.
No comments:
Post a Comment