Summary Of Creating Rosie The Riveter By Maureen Honey

Historiography

Individual Books This source, Creating Rosie the Riveter, is a monograph written by Maureen Honey, which describes how during the 1940s, due to the need to fill jobs normally held by men, who were mostly enlisted overseas, the US government turned to its women and tried to persuade them to apply for jobs in factories, production, and management through propaganda, such as advertisements, pulp fiction, and magazines. It also examines how the image of Rosie the riveter was formed through propaganda and why, as well as why the propaganda turned back towards traditional images of women, such as the housewife and mother image, when the war came to an end. In terms of the argument, the author argues that propaganda was used

Yet, this image failed to take root, being replaced, near the end of the war, by the traditional image of women as healers, mothers, and housewives, due to the expectation that women would gladly relinquish their roles as workers, thus improperly representing them, and

For instance, she provides perspectives from William Chafe and Karen Anderson, who believe that the war accelerated women into the labor force, and contrasts it with the perspective of Leila Rupp, who states that the war had no impact on this. In addition, she also compares perspectives of the images of women during the war, providing perspectives from Freidan, who argues that the images during World War II were committed to following a dream, while comparing it to Leila Rupp, who argues that this image had urged workers to let women into male jobs while accepting them. Continuing from this, Honey provides one more set of perspectives from Karen Anderson and Susan Hartmann, who argue that, as the war began to end, the focus and stress on family roles became highly valued in order to promote the family, as society was readjusting. This indicates that Honey is utilizing other historian’s perspectives