Summer's Hot Reads - Schemes & Dreams & Flying Machines and World War II's 'Rosie the Riveters'
The Women 'Rosie' Represented
Who were these women who flocked to the factories during wartime? What brought them there? Were they really capable of doing the same work men did? If so, why didn't they stay on after the war? What did they gain and what did they lose in working those assembly lines during wartime?
Writer John Crowley tells their stories in Four Freedoms, a novel set in Ponca City, Oklahoma, where an aircraft assembly factory is built in the fields outside town and a community of brand new homes takes shape to house the hundreds of workers who flock from the east and west coasts to work for Van Damme Aero.
Fictional Accounts, Real Situations
Instead of Rosie the Riveter, there's Vi, Connie and Diane, three very different women with different motivations for seeking out factory work and leaving their past behind. One moves away from her small town and a dead-end affair with an older man to create a new life for herself in the larger world; another finds that she has unexpected talent for assembly work and gains self-confidence even as her unfaithful husband turns his attentions elsewhere; and a third tries to wipe out her cultural heritage and assimilate herself in hopes of marrying a serviceman before he goes off to war.
All three cross paths with a young man named Prosper, disabled since childhood but -- like them -- seizing the chance to do a man's job while the window of opportunity created by the labor shortages of war remains open.
Just a Piece of Propaganda
As I read the novel, I wondered about the image of Rosie the Riveter -- how it came to be and why it has endured as symbol of female empowerment; I was surprised to find that Rosie was created as a piece of government propaganda and was not supposed to lift women up but instead keep them in their place.
War's Silver Lining
Rosie the Riveter reminded me of that popular saying, "Well-behaved women rarely make history."
Rosie moved beyond the narrow intent of her creators, much as Vi, Connie, and Diane moved beyond the narrowly defined roles for women in the early 1940s. The fact that war tore apart the fabric of society for a time, allowing each of them opportunities previously unheard of, is the silver lining in the dark cloud of global conflict.
Four Freedoms traces the confluence of events that briefly enabled women to step into men's jobs and prove themselves up to the task, foreshadowing a sea change in the workplace still decades away; it movingly shows how a handful of women (and men) made the best of that silver lining in the months it was revealed to them, changing their lives in ways both obvious and subtle, leaving them to ponder for the rest of their lives what they gained and what they sacrificed in return.
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Comments
Hi Linda:
Great blog. I’m delighted to learn about John Crowley’s book. I’ve co-written a collective memoir about Rosie the Riveter’s daughters — that generation of women born during WWII. Therefore, I am always eager to read about Rosie, even in a fictionalized version. Since I grew up in Oklahoma, I’m sure I’ll find “Four Freedoms” a great read.
I agree with you that the original intent of the Rosie the Riveter poster created by Howard Miller was to get women into the workforce. However, the collective message of all the women who worked was that of strength, courage, and empowerment.
The government and individual companies urged, and in many places, forced women to return home after the war. Telling them that it was patriotic to leave their jobs so that there would be work for the returning GIs. Some did continue to work. Others returned home but passed on a message to their daughters that “if you ever have to work, you can do it.”
Thanks for your blog. If any of your readers are interested in more information about Rosie and Rosie’s Daughters, please have them visit my website.
-Matilda Butler