M4. Analyzing Rosie the Riveter Images
Primary Source Analysis Assignment Instructions
The U.S. government needed women to fill war time jobs during World War II, and so created a major advertisement campaign to convince women to join the paid workforce. Nearly three million women responded, signing up to work in defense jobs alone. Many women had worked outside of the home before World War II – – in 1940, 25 percent of women worked for wages. This was especially true for women of color. Even when women did take war time jobs, they were often relegated to the less skilled jobs. Nevertheless, World War II did mark a sea change in women’s employment.
Using what you have learned about women, the working-class and employment during World War II, analyze the war recruitment posters through which the government encouraged women’s workforce participation.
Go to the Library of Congress’s Rosie Pictures: Select Images Relating to American Women Workers During World War II, and look at the “posters” section. Look at the first three images, #32 through #34.
1) Describe the women in the posters. What types of women did the Office of War Information choose for its posters, and why?
2) What messages did the U.S. government wish to send to women about war work, and how did it convey these messages through these posters? Use specific details.
3) What can we learn about women’s work during World War II from these posters? What can we not learn?
Now, look at images #1 – #23 on the same site. These are photographs of real women, though they were also taken for the Office of War Information.
4) Describe the women in these photos. What types of women did the Office of War Information choose as photo subjects, and why?
5) Many of these photos are staged photos. Does that mean that they are still useful to us as historical documents? What might historians learn from some of these specific staged photos? What can we not learn? Give specific examples from the photos.