Portrayal of Women Since World War II in the Movie Rosie the Riveter

The movie "Rosie the Riveter" portrays how the ideals of gender for women in America have changed over time. Before World War II, women were seen as suppose to be at home, raising the children. Men were supposed to go out and work. During World War II, women were encouraged to work in industry. There were labor shortages because men were being drafted off to war. However, after the war the original ideal of womanhood came out again.

The movie "Rosie the Riveter" deals directly with the socially constructed category of gender in America. Gender, which changes overtime and varies from culture to culture, is an ideal of manhood or womanhood. The American culture, for the most part, had seen the ideal of womanhood as staying home and raising the children. Most women did not work outside the home. Those who did had limited opportunities. In 1910 in the United States, more than 1/3 of employed women were maids or house servants. However, during World War II, it became the woman's responsibility to pick up the industrial work. It was seen as the woman's duty to support the men at war. They were expected to work in war factories, building ships and planes.

"Rosie the Riveter" portrays 5 women's first hand accounts of working in Detroit, New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco during World War II. All the women stated that they were led to feel like they had to do their part for their husbands, brothers, and sons off at war. They movie showed government propaganda created to persuade women to work, such as television commercials that compared using machinery to using a sewing machine.

Some women were enticed to work in war factories by their patriotisms, others by the hope of making good money. However, all struggled with long grueling days and inequality. Women were still not paid the same as the men who had previously done the same jobs. The film, "Rosie the Riveter," even states women were often better at these jobs because of their precision and small hands. These women, though, were not even paid the same as the men.

African Americans have faced discrimination, in the United States, based on their race for centuries. Discrimination based on race was prevalent during World War II. Race, much like gender, is a socially constructed category. Race refers to differences in human physical characteristics used to categorize a large group, in this case African Americans. "Rosie the Riveter" portrays how African American women were discriminated against in the workplace. The film discusses how black women made less than white women. One factory paid black women a dollar less than white women at the same job. Inequality was not just faced at the financial level. Black women were often not given as good of jobs as white women. One African American woman, in "Rosie the Riveter," discussed about how she went for a job along with three white women. The shipyard gave all three of the white women jobs and then told her that there were no more jobs there. Black women also faced discrimination among other female workers. The one woman in the film discussed how a black woman was not allowed to use the showers at the factory. This was because some of the white women did not want to share a bathroom with an African American. This caused such a problem that no one was then allowed to use the showers.

Throughout World War II, the housework and the children were still seen as the women's duty. Women were encouraged to work, but they were not excused from the housework or the children. Women were putting in long grueling days at the factories. They were then putting in long grueling nights at home. Women were working twelve-hour days in the factory. They were then going home and doing all the housework, including taking care of the children. One woman, in "Rosie the Riveter," describes how she lived with her husband's family. She would work all day at a factory, the same one as her brother-in-law. However, she had to come home and cook. She made dinner for everyone and then cleaned up afterwards. Her brother-in-law laid on the couch and relaxed while she did this everyday. Most women also had the task of childcare to deal with. Another woman in the film describes how she had to leave her child for five years with her grandmother. The woman needed to work and there was no service offered to help watch her child. She described how painful it was to be away from her child for so long. When the men were working in these factories, these concerns were not an issue. The women always took care of the house and children. Then men, simply, worked.

During World War II, women made many sacrifices to work. However, immediately after the war ended the ideal of womanhood changed again. It was no longer as acceptable for women to be working. It was expected that the men would get their jobs back when they returned home. Women were now encouraged to stay home and be a wife. As seen in the film, "Rosie the Riveter," commercials after the war ended were discouraging to women workers. The commercials now stated that your children needed you and it was a woman's responsibility to take care of them. One woman in "Rosie the Riveter" describes how commercials showed children playing with matches and running wild. Also during the war, many books came out about quick and easy cooking. However, now they are encouraging large meals, which are cooked during the day. These are just a few of the many ways women were being discouraged from working.

Not only were women discouraged from working, but also most lost their jobs when the men returned home. In "Rosie the Riveter" all five women lost their jobs when the men returned home from war. Whether the woman wished to stay working or not was never taken into consideration. She was simply dismissed and the men stepped in. Though women could not easily forget all the sacrifices they made and the experiences they had. Women gained a new independence during this time. Their lives had changed and they did not want to go back to how they were before the war.