what is the thesis statement of we can do it poster

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The real truth behind the iconic “we can do it” poster.

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We all know it, the bright yellow poster with a strong woman in work clothes and cute red scarf, encouraging her fellow ladies to join her in the war effort , because “They Can Do It” and they could do it and did it, but not thanks to this poster.

For years  the “We can do it poster”   colloquially known as Rosie the Riveter has served and still does as an iconic symbol of strength, motivation, and is  closely connected with feminism.

The poster is so popular nowadays that  gives an impression that it single-handedly inspired the phenomenon of “Rosie the Riveters ” and motivated  all the housewives during WWII. Well, one may think this, but one would be very wrong.

The poster that we all love so much, was not popular at all  during World War II, as a matter of fact, it was hardly seen. The poster  rose to fame, years after the war was over, more specifically in the early  1980s. This is what actually  happened.

After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the US government called upon manufacturers to produce greater amounts of war goods. The workplace atmosphere at large factories was often tense because of resentment built up between management and labor unions throughout the 1930s. Directors of companies such as General Motors (GM) sought to minimize past friction and encourage teamwork.

In response to a rumored public relations campaign by the United Auto Workers union, GM quickly produced a propaganda poster in 1942 showing both labor and management rolling up their sleeves, aligned toward maintaining a steady rate of war production.

The poster read, “Together We Can Do It!” and “Keep ‘Em Firing!” In creating such posters, corporations wished to increase production by tapping into the popular pro-war sentiment, with the ultimate goal of preventing the government from exerting greater control over production.

In 1942, Westinghouse Electric’s internal War Production Coordinating Committee hired the Pittsburgh artist J. Howard Miller through an advertising agency, to create a series of posters to display to the company’s workers.

The intent of the poster project was to raise worker morale, to reduce absenteeism, to direct workers’ questions to management, and to lower the likelihood of labor unrest or a factory strike. Each of the more than 42 posters designed by Miller were displayed in the factory for two weeks, then replaced by the next one in the series.  Among  all the “men” posters emphasizing  traditional roles for men and women, was the yellow poster with a strong female figure with the words “We Can Do it.”

So that was it, the poster was strictly internal to Westinghouse displayed only during February 1943, and was not even  intended to  inspire women to join her but to exhort already-hired women to work harder. The war was over, women got back to being housewives and men got back in the factories. The poster along with other war ephemera found its place somewhere in the National Archives.

Years after, in 1982, the “We Can Do It!”  image was reproduced in a magazine article, “Poster Art for Patriotism’s Sake”, a Washington Post Magazine article about posters in the collection of the National Archives. From then on, feminists and others have seized upon the uplifting attitude and apparent message to remake the image into many different forms, including self-empowerment, campaign promotion, advertising, and parodies.

The poster served and still serves as an advocate for women’s rights in the workforce. In 1984, former war worker Geraldine Hoff Doyle came across an article in Modern Maturity magazine which showed a wartime photograph of a young woman working at a lathe, and she assumed that the photograph was taken of her in mid-to-late 1942 when she was working briefly in a factory. Ten years later, Doyle saw the “We Can Do It!” poster on the front of the  Smithsonian magazine and assumed the poster was an image of herself. Without intending to profit from the connection, Doyle decided that the 1942 wartime photograph had inspired Miller to create the poster, making Doyle herself the model for the poster.

Subsequently, Doyle was widely credited as the inspiration for Miller’s poster. From an archive of Acme News photographs, Professor James J. Kimble obtained the original photographic print, including its yellowed caption identifying the woman as Naomi Parker. The photo is one of a series of photographs taken at Naval Air Station Alameda in California, showing Parker and her sister working at their war jobs during March 1942.

These images were published in various newspapers and magazines beginning in April 1942, during a time when Doyle was still attending high school in Michigan. In February 2015, Kimble interviewed the Parker sisters, now named Naomi Fern Fraley, 93, and her sister Ada Wyn Morford, 91, and found that they had known for five years about the incorrect identification of the photo, and had been rebuffed in their attempt to correct the historical record.

Although many publications have repeated Doyle’s unsupported assertion that the wartime photograph inspired Miller’s poster, Westinghouse historian Charles A. Ruch, a Pittsburgh resident who had been friends with J. Howard Miller, said that Miller was not in the habit of working from photographs, but rather live models. Penny Coleman, the author of Rosie the Riveter: Women working on the home front in World War II , said that she and Ruch could not determine whether the wartime photo had appeared in any of the periodicals that Miller would have seen

After she saw the Smithsonian cover image in 1994, Geraldine Hoff Doyle said that she was the subject of the poster. Doyle thought that she had also been captured in a wartime photograph of a woman factory worker, and she innocently assumed that this photo inspired Miller’s poster. Conflating her as “Rosie the Riveter”, Doyle was honored by many organizations including the Michigan Women’s Historical Center and Hall of Fame. However, in 2015, the woman in the wartime photograph was identified as 20-year-old Naomi Parker, working in early 1942 before Doyle had graduated high school. Doyle’s notion that the photograph inspired the poster cannot be proved or disproved, so first Doyle and then Parker cannot be confirmed as the model for “We Can Do It!”

Another myth connected to the iconic poster if not biggest, is the association with Rosie the Riveter. The poster does not have anything in common with Rosie the Riveter.

The real Rosie the Riveter poster was  created by Norman Rockwell, featuring a chubby woman, taking  her lunch break with a rivet gun on her lap and a  lunch box beside her  that reads “Rosie”.”; viewers quickly recognized this to be “Rosie the Riveter” from the familiar song.

So, that’s it. Don’t shot the messenger for “bursting the bubble”.  Don’t get us wrong, we love this poster and what the poster represents, but we thought it would be a good idea to reveal the true behind it and free it from all the misconceptions and sensationalism  related to it because  “We can do it”

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Reimagining Strength and Femininity: A Visual Analysis of the Iconic “We Can Do It!” Image

Guest Post by Stacy Blaylock Visit Stacy at  www.stacyblaylock.com

“We Can Do It!” by J. Howard Miller is an image that can simultaneously be interpreted as a champion of women’s empowerment as well as a dictator of the nature of womanhood. It lays the foundation for what some see as an iconic feminist image with a strong, muscle-flexing woman as its focus point. Her physical gesture will carry the image through time and through reinterpretations. Even though the strong gesture of the woman seems to communicate empowerment, the woman herself represents a narrow definition of womanhood – white, slender, well-groomed. Since its release in 1943, “We Can Do It!” has been used by various parties to represent different causes, all of which challenge the original poster’s notion of womanhood. By redefining femininity, these challengers re-appropriate and reinvent the image’s meaning of womanhood to fit their own agenda of a more comprehensive movement. What results is an evolving cultural icon that grounds itself in a strong-armed gesture with aspirations of inclusively representing womankind.

Historical Context

Understanding the origin of Miller’s “We Can Do It!” poster is understanding the mythos of Rosie the Riveter – her strength, her patriotism, her femininity – and how she evolves into a representative cultural figure. As a direct consequence of World War II, thousands of women joined the industrial workforce to fulfill the labor demands left by the deployment of men overseas in 1941, just as war manufacturing began to emerge. The women workers soon filled traditionally male roles and birthed the cultural phenomenon of Rosie the Riveter. Miller produced 42 copies of “We Can Do It!” in late 1942 to be displayed in Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company factories in Pennsylvania for a brief time in February of 1943. Outside of the factories, the cultural phenomenon of Rosie the Riveter grew, inspiring songs and other works of art such as Norman Rockwell’s “Rosie the Riveter” painting for The Saturday Evening Post on May 29, 1943. “We Can Do It!” was simply part of a broader cultural fabric that encouraged homemakers to migrate into the work force and working women to move into higher-paying industrial jobs.

Kimble and Olsen quote Robert N. Bellah and others as they explain that the Rosie the Riveter figure in the “We Can Do It!” poster acts as a “representative figure [who] provides an ideal, a point of reference and focus, that gives living expression to a vision of life,” a vision of a working woman turned into that of an empowered woman (535). In this sense, the poster has become a pervasive influence and figure in U.S. culture. It has become a symbol in our collective memory, lending itself to re-imaginings by causes enraptured by the mythos of Rosie the Riveter.

Visual Analysis of the Original “We Can Do It!”

At initial glance, “We Can Do It!” appears bold and striking as an image easily relatable to factory workers, both women and men alike. Simple and appealing in execution, bright and bold colors draw the eye and stimulate the viewer. The saturated primary colors of blue, red, and yellow create a piece that is at once exciting as it is dynamic. The darkness of the blue balances the brightness of the red and the yellow, coming across as professional and industrial. The darkness of the blue places weight on the poster’s border, the woman’s shirt, and the shape of the dialogue bubble. A red polka dot scarf ties back the woman’s hair, simultaneously practical for an industrial worker and a sign of femininity. As a warm color, the yellow background contrasts with the blue and initially draws the eye, making the poster easy to spot from a distance such as across a factory floor. The typography of the piece is sans serif, easy to read, and typical of the painted sign style of the era.

The psychology behind each color further enhances the understanding of the piece. Yellow, often associated with optimism and self-esteem, evokes emotions of positivity and confidence (Hill). As the poster background, the color motivates workers to perform their tasks with cheerfulness.  In contrast, the blue inspires thought and a calm mind (Hill). Using the two colors together balances the cheerful optimism of the yellow with the cooler tone of the blue. In a splash of defiance, the red appears as masculine and enthusiastic, an interesting choice considering the scarf is worn by a woman (Hill).

Meanwhile, two major shapes appear in the image: the talking bubble as though the woman is initiating dialogue with the audience and the triangle between her shoulder, elbow, and fist.  The gesture of the raised fist, while creating the architecturally and mathematically sound triangle, is not without social relevance. According to Kimble and Olsen: “Westinghouse documents from the war years indicate that Rosie’s symbolic performance of raising her arm with a clenched fist was not the public display of a rugged, individualist woman. Rather, it was a routine, team-building gesture that men and women alike at Westinghouse adopted for rallies and community building” (551). Therefore, the gesture was originally intended for factory workers, men and women alike, not the general populace and not as a statement of feminism. It is this gesture that remains consistent through re-imaginings of Miller’s work.

Despite its roots in industrial messaging, the poster makes bold claims about womanhood dictating, whether intentional or not, how women should appear while doing their work. The woman depicted is small-framed, white, and groomed to have feminine characteristics with plucked eyebrows, exaggerated eyes, curled hair, and high cheekbones. Not only does the poster motivate workers to their tasks, but it also dictates how they should appear while accomplishing them. In other words, women can work in the factories if they do not sacrifice their femininity. As “We Can Do it!” becomes more popular as a symbol for feminist causes, more designers are challenging this narrow notion of womanhood. This paper will examine three examples of reinvention of Miller’s image, all invoking on the strong-armed gesture to lend credence and strength to their cause while re-examining and challenging the original’s notion of femininity.  One, an icon from an accessories line for black women with natural hair; two, a logo for a woman-owned cleaning company and; three, a painting to inspire another Mexican revolution.

“We Can Do It!” by Global Couture

Maid to Clean

Rosita Adelita

The Unifying Gesture

The unifying aspect of all four images – “We Can Do It!” by J. Howard Miller, “We Can Do It!” by Global Couture, “Maid to Clean,” and Rosita Adelita – rests in the crook of Rosie’s elbow of her strong-arm gesture.  As noted by Kimble and Olsen, the gesture was originally used in community building and rallies (551). It has since grown to signify a deep personal and communal strength. Whether it is used for a clothing line, such as Global Couture, or blended with another feminist icon as in Rosita Adelita , the gesture stands the test of time and culture.

About Me. Global Couture . Retrieved From. http://www.globalcoutureblog.net/about-me

Hill, N. (2013). Colour Psychology: The Four Primary Colours. Passion for Fresh Ideas . Retrieved

from http://passionforfreshideas.com/personalgrowth/colour-psychology-primary-colours/

Kimble, J. & Olsen, L. (2006). Visual Rhetoric Representing Rosie the Riveter: Myth and

Misconception in J. Howard Miller’s “We Can Do It!” Poster. Rhetoric & Public Affairs , 9(4), 533-570.

“Maid to Clean” Image. Retrieved from

Trivializing Women’s Power

“Rosita Adelita.” Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/0/21381059  

Robert Valadez Fine Arts. Retrieved from http://robertvaladez.com/artwork/

1137759_Rosita.html

“We Can Do It!” Retrieved from http://www.famouspictures.org/we-can-do-it/.

“We Can Do It!” Global Couture. Retrieved from http://www.globalcoutureblog.net/2014/01/a

womans-worth-naturally-revolutionary-2.html.

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Myth-Making and the “We Can Do It!” Poster

A polished version of this post was published in Contexts. You can download it here .

Most of our readers are probably familiar  with the now-iconic “We Can Do It!” poster associated with Rosie the Riveter and the movement of women into the paid industrial workforce during World War II:

It is, by this point, so recognizable that it is often parodied or appropriated for a variety of uses (including selling household cleaners ). The image is widely seen as a symbol of women’s empowerment and a sign of major gender transformations that occurred during the 1940s.

In their article, “Visual Rhetoric Representing Rosie the Riveter: Myth and Misconception in J. Howard Miller’s ‘We Can Do It!’ Poster,” James Kimble and Lester Olson argue that our current interpretations of the poster don’t necessarily align with how it was seen at the time.

While the poster is often described as a government recruiting item (Kimble and Olson give many examples in the article of inaccurate attributions from a variety of sources), it was, in fact, created by J. Howard Miller as part of a series of posters for the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company — the Westinghouse logo is clearly visible just under the woman’s arm, and the badge on her shirt collar is the badge employees wore on the plant floor, including an employee number. The War Production Co-ordinating Committee was an internal Westinghouse committee, similar to those created by many companies during the war, not a government entity.

The assumption of current viewers of the image is usually that it was meant to recruit women into the workforce, or to rally women in general — an early example of girl power marketing, if you will — and was widely displayed. But the audience was actually only Westinghouse employees. The company commissioned artists to create posters to be hung in Westinghouse plants for specific periods of time; this poster specifically says, “Post Feb. 15 to Feb. 28” [1943] in small font on the lower left. There’s no evidence that it was ever made available to the public more broadly. For that matter, the poster doesn’t identify her as “Rosie,” and it’s not clear that at the time she would have been immediately identifiable to viewers as “Rosie the Riveter”.

The image that was more widely seen, and is often conflated with the “We Can Do It!” poster, was Norman Rockwell’s May 29, 1943, cover for the Saturday Evening Post :

Here, the woman is clearly linked to the idea of Rosie the Riveter, through both the name on her lunchbox and the  equipment she’s holding. She is more muscular than the woman in Miller’s poster, she’s dirty, and her foot is standing on a copy of Hitler’s Mein Kampf . Rockwell’s image presents the woman as a vital part of the war effort; her work helps defeat the Nazis. The image also includes fewer details to make her look conventionally attractive than Miller’s, where the woman has emphasized eyelashes and visibly painted fingernail.

Most interestingly, Kimble and Olson question the female empowerment message presumed to be the point of the “We Can Do It!” poster. We see the poster on its own, through the lens of a narrative about World War II in which housewives left the kitchen in droves to work in factories. But Westinghouse workers would have seen it in a different context, as one of a series of posters displayed in the plant, with similar imagery and text. When seen as just one in a series, rather than a unique image, Kimble and Olson argue that the collective “we” in “We can do it!” wouldn’t have been women , but Westinghouse employees , who were used to seeing such statements posted in employee-access-only areas of the plant.

Of course, having a woman represent a default factory employee is noteworthy. But our reading of the poster as a feminist emblem partially rests on the idea that this female worker is calling out encouragement to other women. The authors, however, point out a much less empowering interpretation if you think of the poster not in terms of feminism, but in terms of social class and labor relations:

…Westinghouse used “We Can Do It!” and Miller’s other posters to encourage women’s cooperation with the company’s relatively conservative concerns and values at a time when both labor organizing and communism were becoming active controversies for many workers… (p. 537) …by addressing workers as “we,” the pronoun obfuscated sharp controversies within labor over communism, red-baiting, discrimination, and other heartfelt sources of divisiveness. (p. 550)

One of the major functions of corporate war committees was to manage labor and discourage any type of labor disputes that might disrupt production. From this perspective, images of happy workers expressing support for the war effort and/or workers’ abilities served as propaganda that encouraged workers to identify with one another and management as a team; “patriotism could be invoked to circumvent strikes and characterize workers’ unrest as un-American” (p. 562).

And, as Kimble and Olson illustrate, most of Miller’s posters included no women at all, and when they did, emphasized conventional femininity and the domestic sphere (such as a heavily made-up woman waving to her husband as he left for work).

Of course, today the “We Can Do It!” poster is seen as a feminist icon, adorning coffee cups, t-shirts, calendars, and refrigerator magnets (I have one). Kimble and Olson don’t explain when and how this shift occurred — when the image went from an obscure piece of corporate war-time propaganda, similar to many others, to a widely-recognized pop cultural image of female empowerment. But they make a convincing argument that our current perceptions of the image involve a significant amount of historical myth-making that helps to obscure the discrimination and opposition many women faced in the paid workforce even during the height of the war effort.

[The article appears in Rhetoric & Public Affairs 9(4): 533-570, 2006.]

Comments 58

Quercki — january 4, 2011.

Here's a link to the song http://www.archive.org/details/RosieTheRiveter

HP — January 4, 2011

There's an episode of the horror-anthology radio drama The Mysterious Traveler where the narrator drops out of character and addresses the audience with "a special message from the War Department." Basically, they were discouraging women from traveling cross-country to war materiel centers looking for work, and encouraging them to take local jobs in their community, particular as drivers. "Every job you take frees up another man to join the fight."

I find this doubly interesting, first, because so many women had uprooted themselves to take these jobs that they were being turned away, and secondly because they chose a horror show to target women listeners. I find it fascinating that horror was once gendered as a feminine genre. (But then, look at Val Lewton's movies, which are similarly aimed at female audiences.)

Mubarak — January 4, 2011

It feels as if they "photoshop" the face of an older teenager girl onto a body of a man. I don't know why I feel that, but I do

john — January 4, 2011

Michigan Woman Who Inspired WWII 'Rosie' Poster Has Died:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2010/12/30/132484640/michigan-woman-who-inspired-wwii-rosie-poster-has-died

Altagracia — January 4, 2011

Ironically, women still face a hostile work environment in the so called "non-traditional" workplaces like construction, firefighting, plumbing, etc. Even the trade, technical high schools continue to segregate girls into "traditional" trades such as cosmetology. That, more than its historical context, is what makes the poster relevant today. Rosie is not the image that accompanied women into law, medicine, and other professions, but she, and the women who worked heavy industries back then, continue to inspire women's struggle to gain entry into "non-traditional" workplaces and to overcome hostile work environments once they get in.

Artistcolor — January 4, 2011

@Mubarak: I assume you mean the Norman Rockwell cover? That is pretty funny, considering he painted in oil paints a good 40 yrs before Photoshop was invented. Ie this is the work of a wildly popular, esteemed, professional illustrator working for the cover of a major magazine, whose work would have been sketched, then approved by the magazine, then painted in oil paints on canvas, not some joke stuck together by someone in their computer on a whim.

That the woman was young (ie working age but probably not at home with six kids as would not have been unusual for a mother in 1940s) but with a very strong body (do you look at the tool she would be holding and using in her daily work! now if that doesn't make muscles I don't know what does) would have both been conscious decisions carefully conceived and drawn out, and painted by hand. And I believe Norman Rockwell usually worked from live models...

Anyways, it is sad that when we see a strong woman we feel they must have photoshopped a woman's head onto a male body. Note that in most of the world, including North America in the past, women do most of the manual labour (men ride horses, women carry water and wood on their backs and heads)... and North America would have had a lot of farm girls... not shopping mall girls.

K — January 5, 2011

People often think of Norman Rockwell's paintings as cheesy, but he actually produced a number of paintings encouraging racial integration and other forms of ethnic/racial equality.

Morag — January 5, 2011

I don't think her head is unrealistically small - we are just used to very slender women being the default image and their heads look bigger in proportion than they do in stocky women. In fact, I remember when very slender women were becoming more prevalent on movies and TV in the late 90's they used to get derided as the "lollipop heads" because of that very phenomenon. If her head was bigger, she would look like ordinary - and I think she is supposed to be an archetypal image of strength.

Also, as a riveter, she has a very thick and muscular neck, which we are certainly not used to seeing even in very muscular women. Body building women often exercise these less, because big necks create such a "hulking" effect.

Anyway, here is the reality to compare it to: http://womenshistory.about.com/od/warwwii/ig/World-War-II-Rosies--Pictures/Another-Rosie-the-Riveter.-UzO.htm

Woz — January 5, 2011

Further taking the air out of the Rosie-as-feminist-icon image, I remember in an undergrad US history course seeing posters of Rosie that were made after the war, in which she was wearing a house dress and pearls saying something to the effect of "I'd never steal a job from a man," encouraging women to leave the factory and give their vacated jobs back to returning GIs.

Couldn't find it in a quick google search, but I know it exists somewhere...

Altagracia — January 5, 2011

Let's not forget that the Rosie ad campaign that recruited two million women into the defense and related industries when needed, and then told them to go back home when the men returned, was created by the Ad Council (then known as the War Advertising Council. I've read that this was the most successful ad campaign in the history of advertising, and it still holds that record. Here's a call out from the Ad Council's brochure:

WOMEN IN WAR JOBS It wasn't the first time women were recruited for jobs in offices and factories, but in 1943, the mandate was not just economic. Ads like this made an abiding change in the relationship between women and the workplace. Employment outside ofthe home became socially accepted, even desirable.

fleurdemal — January 6, 2011

@ Morag - "Anyway, here is the reality to compare it to: http://womenshistory.about.com/od/warwwii/ig/World-War-II-Rosies–Pictures/Another-Rosie-the-Riveter.-UzO.htm"

Excellent reference to draw our attention to - the woman in that photo is beautiful!

And my 2 cents on the "odd" physical structure: Rockwell knows his design and anatomy and any "abherance" is completely intentional and thought out; his superior technique is indisputable. With figurative exaggeration, Rockwell surely tips his hat to previous historical masters, like Rubens and Michelangelo (yes, even though M. was gay, he still is a formidable and respectable artist female form or otherwise, despite what other comments have alluded to - GRRR).

Also, Rockwell was very tuned into popular culture, where the "super hero" of comics gained in prominence. Wonder Woman's recent rise and success very well might have greased the wheels of public imagination, opening the gates to images of power combined with femininity. In recent years, we've gotten more and more accustomed to waif warrior-esses, the new Sarah Connors and Dollhouse babes who can kiss ass even though they look like they barely have strength to hold up their own skulls.

As a teenager, I thought Rockwell cloying and milchtoast, now I appreciate his kind eye - he interprets the ordinary without glorification, adding softness and humor. Something not often aimed for,and less often achieved.

Suggestion Saturday: January 8, 2011 | On The Other Hand — January 8, 2011

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Anonymous — February 15, 2011

i don't like this poster

because is very ugly D:

Ah, the mixed messages. « Feminéma — March 9, 2011

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C Arthur — November 17, 2011

Check this magazine cover illustration: http://issuu.com/unido/docs/makingit8  

Lubar — January 22, 2012

A quick additional note on the Westinghouse poster. Yes, these were posted for just two weeks, for Westinghouse employees. You might be amused to know the the one just two weeks earlier (posted Jan. 1 to Jan. 15) was entitled, "Any questions about your work ...Ask your supervisor." 

Dark killer — June 19, 2012

What do we call Rosie the riverter if she in singapore

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How did the Westinghouse "We Can Do It!" poster become a feminist icon?...

This piece contends that the "We Can Do It!" poster was actually internal propaganda intended to placate labor unrest. Are its facts straight? And if so, how did the poster become a symbol of unity under feminism from a two-week internal document? Wh...

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[...] The original image is actually a poster illustration by J. Howard Miller, an artist commissioned by Westinghouse. You can read more about him in Gwen Sharp’s discussion debunking the myth behind this image: [...]

I Am Woman: Where Do We Begin? : Forever Twenty Somethings — March 15, 2013

[...] approach, and it works for a few of us, for a little while. We come together under an umbrella with Geraldine Hoff‘s iconic face plastered on it. We chant, “Run the World” like we are [...]

Don’t Call Them Baby, Sweetheart, Honey… or Feminist | Painting the Grey Area — March 21, 2013

[...] Fun fact: the original version of this poster probably had very little to do with female empowerment. [...]

She’s Making History, Working for Victory, Rosie the Riveter! | Rosie the Riveter We Can Do It! — March 28, 2013

[...] Myth-Making and the “We Can Do It! Poster:  The Society Pages has a VERY interesting article about the mythology behind Rosie.  For instance, the Rosie poster is often misidentified as a “government recruiting” poster, “in fact, created by J. Howard Miller as part of a series of posters for the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company — the Westinghouse logo is clearly visible just under the woman’s arm, and the badge on her shirt collar is the badge employees wore on the plant floor, including an employee number.” [...]

FOR ASSESSMENT 360mc: Analysis on Power Artefact | chelseaballaamyr3 — November 27, 2013

[…] http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2011/01/04/myth-making-and-the-we-can-do-it-poster/ […]

Today’s Worksheet | Ms. Manchac's APUSH — March 27, 2014

[…] Women and Propaganda […]

Save Rosie! A Piece Of Women’s History Faces The Wrecking Ball | Most Searched Ever — April 29, 2014

[…] the famous “We Can Do It!” propaganda poster wasn’t actually connected to the Rosie movement — the image was little-known during the war and lost for decades before being revived as a […]

No Name Brand Democracy | maggiequinn — June 18, 2014

[…] Rosie? Who is Rosie? […]

The Real Rosie | persuasioning — July 28, 2014

[…] is the real Rosie the Riveter. Click through here to learn the […]

Joseph Meyer — July 29, 2014

I'm not entirely sure that I understand the point of this article, but it would appear to promote the popular meme that communism was somehow benign and opposition to it suspect. A hundred million corpses might take issue with that assertion, not to mention many more who were imprisoned behind walls in their own countries.

Gemma Seymour — July 30, 2014

An interesting thing about society is that it often repurposes things. The Westinghouse poster might not have meant the same thing to the people of 1944 that it means to the people of 2014, but then, neither does the Constitution of the United States. If you tried to pass the Constitution or the Bill of Rights today, it would probably fail abysmally.

I don't know how old you are, but I'm old enough to have enjoyed the stories of my grandparents' generation about the war. I sometimes forget in my middle age that a goodly proportion of the adult writers on the Internet nowadays are young enough to be my children.

During the war, quite a number of conventionally attractive women participated with equal fervor in the war effort, and quite a number of women held onto the trappings of conventional femininity with a vehemence, precisely because they were symbols that tyranny could not entirely destroy their lives, as well as because of the circumstances of mortality. My mother's mother tells me that approximately 50% of the young men from her town died in the war.

Maybe you think the girls filling their dance cards down at the USO hall weren't as valuable to the war effort as Rosie, IDK. But one thing I do know is this: both of my grandfathers fought in WWII and lived to tell about it, my maternal grandfather in the US Navy, and my paternal grandfather as a guerrilla fighter in the Philippines under the Japanese occupation, and both of my grandmothers contributed in every way they could.

My mother's mother was one of the pretty ones. I remember seeing pictures of her from the war for the first time when I was in my teens, and being shocked at how beautiful she really was; to me, she'd always been fat and old (as I thought of such things at the time). My father's mother died halfway around the world when I was a small child in the late 1960's, and I never met her, but I know something of how she lived and what life was like for her when the Japanese soldiers would come around looking for my grandfather, who was busy blowing up Japanese fuel and ammo dumps.

So, you will pardon me if I see a "pretty" "Rosie" and take from her a message that her creators didn't intend. Intent, after all, is not magick. Perhaps we would all do better to resist the impulse to judge the "validity" of everything as if something's (or someone's) origins were the sum total of their being.

Isn't the most core tenet of Feminism "biology is not destiny"?!

“Can we do it? Yes we can!”: A blog about decoding images | comm2302fall2014 — September 16, 2014

[…] series of posters for the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company” according to this online article (Sharp). Today, it can be found many places and I found it by typing “we can do it” […]

Beginnings | Ladies from times of yore — January 15, 2015

[…] -MYTH-MAKING AND THE “WE CAN DO IT!” POSTER […]

The Rise of Graphic Archives (2015) | Symbolism, for Better or Worse — February 3, 2015

Advertisements, one thing in life you can always count on. – thelorenmediaexperience — december 6, 2016.

[…] https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2011/01/04/myth-making-and-the-we-can-do-it-poster/ […]

Guest Post: Rosie the Riveter and Ronnie the Bren Gun Girl: Exploring the Historical Roots of a Gendered Visual Symbol | Unwritten Histories — February 7, 2017

[…] [5] For an excellent explanation of ways that J. Howard Miller’s “We Can Do It” image was not necessarily a celebration of female power, see Gwen Sharp, “Myth-Making and the ‘We Can Do It!’ Poster,” Sociological Images (blog), The Society Pages, January 4, 2011, https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2011/01/04/myth-making-and-the-we-can-do-it-poster/. […]

Rosie the Riveter et Ronnie the Bren Gun Girl : les racines historiques d’un symbole visuel genré – HistoireEngagée.ca — March 1, 2017

[…] SHARP, Gwen. « Myth-Making and the ‘We Can Do It!’ Poster ». Sociological Images (blog), The Society Pages (4 janvier 2011). [En ligne] https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2011/01/04/myth-making-and-the-we-can-do-it-poster/. […]

Days 242–266 of 1,461 (or 2,922) – Five Dozen Liquor Jugs — October 13, 2017

[…] “We Can Do It!” poster does not show Rosie the Riveter, but was in fact a Westinghouse-produced propaganda piece […]

Best 13 who is on the we can do it poster – aldenlibrary.org — May 29, 2022

[…] Quote from the source: … […]

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Happy Women’s Day: The Story and History of ‘We Can Do It’ Poster

• Post author: Meera Moorkoth
• Post published: March 7, 2017
• Post category: Writers Speak
• Post comments: 0 Comments

Posters are designed. Posters are used. Posters are forgotten. However, some posters remain in the pages of history forever. We Can Do It , sometimes misidentified with Rosie the Riveter, is one such poster.

You sure have seen this poster at least once in your life. And it is highly likely that, nine out of ten, you have seen it in connection to feminism, women’s rights, women’s movements, women empowerment campaigns and the like. Over the last few decades, We Can Do It poster has become a universal icon of feminism and women’s empowerment.

From coffee mugs to cushion covers, from  Tshirts to tote bags, this woman with her clenched fist and rolled-up sleeves has become an integral part of our popular culture.

It goes without saying that the We Can Do It poster was reproduced and parodied multiple times and in multiple ways. Some of them were impressive; some of them, nauseating.

Yet, nothing outdid the original poster – the woman in blue shirt and polka-dotted red headscarf; a company badge pinned on her collar; her right hand up with its fist clenched; her left hand rolling up the sleeves.

This women’s day, we bring you a short history of this popular poster that has almost become a cult across the globe.

A war, a girl, and a poster

Those who think this poster was designed as part of some great American women’s rights campaign or UN funded women’s empowerment initiative are clearly in for a surprise. It was designed and used in a US factory as part of their wartime propaganda during World War II.

In the period during World War II, the US witnessed an unprecedented shortage of male workers since millions of men were sent overseas from the country. With its men gone and jobs left unfulfilled, the economy of the country went for a toss. Moreover, the lack of ample number of workers made the production of wartime materials a tough task.

This prompted the government to recruit female workforce in large numbers. Advertising agencies such as J. Walter Thompson played a major role in designing and conducting campaigns for encouraging women to join the wartime workforce and fulfill their duties as the true citizens of the country.

In 1942 Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company hired J. Howard Miller, an American graphic artist, to design a series of posters for its wartime propaganda. We Can Do It was a poster in that series, and at that time, the poster made no big waves, nor did it carry any feminist connotations.

Here is another poster from Miller’s series

Geraldine Hoff Doyle: The girl who played cello

It is believed that the model for this poster was a factory worker named Geraldine Hoff Doyle. She didn’t pose for this poster, of course. She worked in the company as a metal-presser operator for a short period. During this period a United Press International photographer captured a black-and-white picture of Geraldine. She was about 18 years when this photograph was taken.

The original photograph shows Geraldine at her workspace. She is on duty, leaning over the metal-presser machine and operating it with her left land. She is also seen wearing polka-dotted headscarf, a detail Miller reproduced in his poster too.

Geraldine Hoff Doyle was a cellist (cello is a musical instrument like violin). She feared that she would lose her ability to play the instrument if some injury happens to her hands. So she left the job within weeks of joining and found a new job in another factory as a timekeeper.

Miller was inspired by this black-and-white photograph of Geraldine. We Can Do It is believed to be a free interpretation of the photograph. The poster was in use only for a couple of weeks; it was displayed on the walls of the factory in February 1942 and was removed from the walls after two weeks.

M isidentification with Rosie the Riveter

As mentioned already, We Can Do It was mistakenly identified as Rosie the Riveter. Now, who exactly was Rosie the Riveter ? Rosie was a fictional figure designed and created by Norman Rockwell , a cover artist for Saturday Evening Post . The fictional figure of Rosie was created to encourage women to become wartime workers and enlist them in the World War II workforce.

In the original image Rosie is a red-headed woman. She can be seen as holding a riveting gun on her lap and eating a sandwich. There is a lunchbox underneath her elbow, with her name ‘Rosie’ written across it.

Unlike Miller’s We Can Do It, which was in use for hardly two weeks, Rosie became hugely popular and was used widely as part of the wartime propaganda. When We Can Do It poster was rediscovered in the 1980s, it also came to be known popularly (and mistakenly) by the name Rosie the Riveter, although at the time of its creation it was not connected to Rosie the Riveter.

In search of women workforce

During the period of World War II, a number of posters were designed to recruit female workforce. Here are a few posters designed and circulated in the US.

Another post designed by Norman Rockwell. It appeared on September 4, 1943 in Saturday Evening Post. The woman in the poster is representative of the wartime American woman who should/can do multiple jobs to help the war effort.

This poster was to recruit women as typists and stenographers to assist the military effort. The rationale behind this poster is that women doing such office jobs will free male troops to do military activities.

This one is classic

Here is another one.

Of course nurses were in demand.

A disappointing end to the campaign

The bring-more-women-into-workplace campaign launched by the US government in the 1940s, despite its success, had a very disappointing end. Indeed more women were enrolled in the wartime workforce. They were praised and glorified during the wartime as true patriots. Their labor force was used across almost all job profiles.

However, when the war ended, these wartime women workers were encouraged to return to their families as homemakers; to take care of their children; to provide for their military-returned husbands.

The rediscovery of We Can Do It

Some things are like that; even if pushed down into the bottom of time and to the last pages of history books, they resurface; they resurface powerfully. So did the We Can Do It poster in the 1980s, in the wake of feminist movements. Today, the poster is used extensively in the fight against gender inequality and the “we” in the poster is taken to mean “we the women”.

A poster that was designed to extract the labor force of women during World War II, thus, became the visual icon of gender equality and empowerment. Some may call it coincidence; we call it history’s poetic justice!

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“We Can Do It!” – The Making of an Icon

Although many sites and sources describe J. Howard Miller’s famous WWII-era “We Can Do It!” poster as government propaganda exhorting women to join the industrial workforce, seen by Americans everywhere, it was in fact neither.

This poster was actually seen by very few people during WWII and only became famous many decades later.

J. Howard Miller designed and illustrated this poster for Westinghouse, Inc. for display in their factories during a 2-week period in February of 1943. Westinghouse, like most manufacturing companies, had fully converted to war production by that time. The purpose of the poster was not to recruit women, as its audience would obviously already be employed at Westinghouse, but to boost worker morale and reduce absenteeism. Miller’s use of a female worker simply reflects that the government campaign to recruit women was already well underway by early 1943, and women had become a fixture in the industrial workplace. And perhaps the purpose was also to encourage new women workers to stick with a difficult and unfamiliar job.

Much is made of the fact that the woman in the poster was not a riveter, since Westinghouse did not employ them, and therefore is “not really Rosie the Riveter.” However, we must remember that then, as now, Rosie the Riveter was the nickname for any woman who tackled the job of a man who had been called overseas. Rosie the Riveter is a catchy phrase coined during the war to encompass all women war workers, and remains so today. So it’s entirely fair to call her Rosie, in my opinion. I don’t look at photos of the amazing women welders in California and think, “They’re not Rosie the Riveter.” They most certainly are!

An Icon is Born

With a small print run and display only in Westinghouse factories for a 2-week period, there is no way this poster could have been famous or well-known during the war. So when did it become an icon?

This poster languished in obscurity, with likely only a few examples remaining in archives and attics, for decades. However, by the end of the 20th century, it was perhaps one of the most recognized and celebrated works of art in the US and the world. How did that happen?

“Rosie” Resurfacing in the 70s – Maybe, Maybe Not

Many sources cite the resurgence of interest in this image as coinciding with the Women’s Movement of the 1970’s. The only credible source for this idea I can find is author Penny Coleman, in her book, Rosie the Riveter: Women Working on the Home Front in World War II , originally published in 1995. We’ll examine this idea in more detail later.

A more likely timeline for the reappearance of this famous “Rosie” is the 1980s, when the first wave of the feminism was already in full swing. Researchers James Kimble and Lester Olsen, who have done extensive research on this poster, cannot find reference to it in either scholarly literature or mass media before the 1980s. They specifically mention Leila Rupp’s 1978 research on the topic, Mobilizing Women for War , wherein she discusses several versions of “Rosie’s” image but does not mention the Miller poster. They conclude that it is because the poster had not resurfaced yet, and Rupp was not aware of it.

In fact, the earliest mention or reproduction of “We Can Do It!” that Kimble and Olsen could find is in a March 1982 issue of the Washington Post Magazine , where it was featured as a reproduction image available from the National Archives. This one mention would hardly have catapulted it to fame.

The next mention Kimble and Olsen found was in a 1985 article in U.S. News and World Report .

Somehow, between these widely-spaced 1980s mentions, and the turn of the 21st century, Rosie became ubiquitous. But, when and how?

Coleman is probably correct in that public awareness of the image had its roots in its use by the Women’s Movement as a symbol of female capability and power. If Coleman, writing in 1995, and a feminist and a scholar herself, was aware of the image as a having a history of use within the Movement, we must take her word for it. But perhaps by 1995, she couldn’t be sure of when the poster first became associated with the Women’s Movement, and dialed it back to the Movement’s entry into popular awareness in the 1970s. According to Kimble and Olsen’s search of the public record, the feminists are more likely to have adopted the image in the 1980s.

The 1990s – Everything’s Coming Up Rosie!

The image’s undeniable power spoke to viewers everywhere, and since it was owned at this point by the National Archives (the rights having been transferred by Miller’s estate) and not under copyright, everyone from activist organizations to t-shirt sellers to event promoters was able to reproduce it without fear of copyright infringement. This is when the image that has come to be most closely associated with Rosie the Riveter really took off.

Sources for this article include: Rosie the Riveter: Women Working on the Home Front in World War by Penny Colman originally published in 1995. Great book, get it on Amazon by clicking here .

Visual Rhetoric Representing Rosie the Riveter: Myth and Misconception in J. Howard Miller’s “We Can Do It!” Poster by James J. Kimble and Lester C. Olsen, originally published in the Journal of Rhetoric and Public Affairs, 2006

Learn more about the very talented J. Howard Miller: Click here to read a wonderful blog post by a Pittsburgh artist who knew Miller.

Do you love Rosie? Follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/michiganrosies !

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Published by Jeannette Gutierrez

Web/Logo/Graphic Designer. Blogger, mountain biker, kayaker. In love with Detroit. Piano player, pug mom, rockhound. View all posts by Jeannette Gutierrez

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Emily's RCL Blog

Just another Sites At Penn State site

“We Can Do It!” Rhetorical Analysis

When prompted to choose a piece of rhetoric to analyze, one of the first pieces that came to mind was the famous, “We Can Do It!” poster, or more modernly nicknamed, Rosie the Riveter. This poster was created in 1942 as part of a series of posters created to boost morale in The United States of America during World War II. The exigence, or situation which prompted the creation of the rhetoric, was the low spirits of the American workers and society as a whole during the war. The poster, along with the many others created along with it, was created with the American workforce as its audience. The simple yet encouraging phrase, “we can do it” not only unites the audience as a single entity by the pronoun choice of “we”, but is also vague enough to reach each American despite their unique situation.

This poster is also shown to be a valuable piece of rhetoric when we relate it Lloyd Blitzer’s word in his article, “The Rhetorical Situation” stating, “A work of rhetoric is pragmatic; it comes into existence for the sake of something beyond itself”. This poster was created in response to the crisis seen in The United States of America’s workforce during World War II. The lack of workers to fill important factory and labor based positions spurred the prompting of the American people to fill these spots for the betterment of their country and its economy. This poster was created for the sole purpose of responding to this problem and creating positive change.

While the, “We Can Do It!” poster can be classified as a valuable piece of rhetoric during the time period of its original publishing, it also had a significant impact in recent generations. In the 1980’s, the poster was rediscovered and connected to the modern day movement of feminism. Feminists, or supporters of women’s right and equality, used this piece of rhetoric to challenge the stereotype that men belonged in fields of manual labor, sparking discussion and support for equality. This common belief that many Americans had can also be considered a commonplace, as it was shared idea throughout many communities that viewed women lesser than men.

2 thoughts on ““We Can Do It!” Rhetorical Analysis”

Emily, I admire your choice of “Rosie the Riveter” as your intended rhetorical situation, especially because the “We Can Do It!” poster has been an American symbol and icon for years during and following World War II, having provided boosted spirits among workers and initiating proposals for women’s rights and feminist movements since its initial launch in 1942. I admire how you made sure to pinpoint the poster’s significance to the time period that it originated from and its sole purpose for creation, while you also emphasized its historically changing significances as observed in the 1980s in reference to women’s rights within the American workforce that are felt as widely influential to this day. This “full circle” idea is also made clear in your point about the “We Can Do It!” poster touching the lives of all Americans despite their particular and unobservable financial and emotional situations, as, whether said Americans were employed or unemployed at the time of World War II, the symbolism incorporated within Rosie the Riveter encouraged and inspired Americans to take steps forward in improving their states of mind and attitudes about the war and its relation to ultimate American life. I really like how you picked a rhetorical situation that is well known to modern-day Americans because of its great influence on American workers of the recent past, its rhetorical impact emphasized in ways that your audience can understand the poster’s significant holds on modern society and its working effects on the attitudes of American people in the workforce, men and women alike.

I really enjoyed how you linked the modern feminist movement to the women in the workforce (propaganda) movement of the 1940’s. I believe that there could have been a deeper rhetorical meaning and analysis of the use of the poster in both situations. In WW2, the poster was a propaganda piece by the US government to fill the hole, created by able-bodied men becoming soldiers, in the workforce so that products important to the military campaigns would be sustained throughout the war. In modern times, there is a very powerful impact in taking this message that was used to bring women into the workforce to give them the rights and equality that they have always deserved while working, and in everyday life.

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We Can Do It! A Semiotic Approach to J. Howard Miller's Rosie the Riveter Poster and the Morale of World War II Era American Women

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We can do it – the story of rosie the riveter.

• World War 2

This poster is one of the most famous images associated with world wars two. The history behind the mythical lady is not at all glamorous— but deeply thought-provoking! Her journey started as an idea for increasing the morale of war goods producing workers but soon came to being perceived as women’s rights symbol.

1941: Pearl Harbor is attacked by the Japanese. The US government seeks an increase in its war goods such as missiles, tanks, and machines, etc. This creates pressure on war goods manufacturers leading to the low morale of workers. To boost teamwork, large factory owners decide to produce a series of propaganda posters showing how labor and upper management can work together and increase production.

1943: Looking at this trend, J. Howard Miller was soon hired to design posters for the same purpose. He was assigned to the Westinghouse Electric Company for this job. The poster was intended to be displayed for a short period of time in the factories. The intended message was not ‘women can do it’, but ‘Westinghouse employees can do it!’

1980: World War II saw very little of the poster designed by Miller, and it was not almost 30 years later, that it was seen across America, duplicated in various forms. Interestingly, the ‘We can do it!’ poster gained popularity due to the symbol of a young, attractive, and a strong woman who was soon to be known as Rosie the Riveter and not the cover girl from the WWII poster.

The Curious Case of Rosie the Riveter

The lady in ‘We can do it!’ poster of 1943, or more famously known as Rosie the Riveter has been a case of disagreement for many years. The term Rosie the Riveter was coupled with various apparently fabricated stories.

The song: ‘Rosie the Riveter’ from the song with the same name was written by Redd Evans and John Jacob Loeb during 1942. The song portrayed a vigorous female labor during the American war production but was in no way associated with the cover girl in the poster.

The painting: It was certainly also not the famous painting in the Memorial Day issue of the Saturday Evening Post, by Norman Rockwell published on May 29th, 1943. Although the painting gained immense popularity from the time of its publication, till today, it was not connected to Rosie from the war promotional poster.

The name game:  The most traditional belief attached to the name Rosie was that the Westinghouse propaganda poster was in regards to women named or nicknamed Rosie. Nor was it to the women who came forward to show support and offer help for women working in the American war good production factories.

Little Miss Doyle: In 1984, one fine day  this former American war goods worker by the name of Doyle, flipped through the Modern Maturity magazine, which contained a weird picture of the women from ‘We can do it!’ poster, and interestingly enough, the lady claimed to be the face behind the image. That said, she was widely appreciated and known to be the inspiration behind Miller’s muse. However, it was later discovered that the picture was a click of Naomi Parker working in WWII jobs in 1942.

The Rise of Rosie—A Feminist in the Making

The WWII propaganda image was soon out of sight after it first came out. It was not until 1982 that the ‘We Can Do It!’ poster was picked up by a magazine for reproduction purposes.

The following years, the poster was re-purposed to promote the concept of Feminism. Women around the world, saw the image as an embracement of female power. The ‘we can do it!’ was now seen by women as ‘We Women Can Do It!’ The idea brought together all the females with a mutual agenda to fight gender inequality.

The view of Rosie the Riveter, after almost three decades, was very contrasting to the initial concept, which was: to boost employee morale, to encourage teamwork, control employees, and prevent unrest among workers.

In no time, the ‘We can do it!’ image was used to sponsor the idea of feminism and other constitutional issues arising in the 80’s. The overwhelmed response to the poster led it to bag the cover page of Smithsonian magazine to recall the times of WWII. Later in February 1999, it was reproduced to be first- class mail stamp image.

The cultural associations with the image have changed over the years. Many political figures of late have made use of the image, such as in the case of 2008 elections which saw the use of Rosie the Riveter banners, posters, and flyers used in the political campaigns of some famous women politicians like Hilary Clinton, Sarah Palin, Michelle Obama and Julia Gillard.

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Creator of 'We Can Do It!' Poster Uncovered  

Thursday, April 21, 2022

By Michael Ricciardelli

Originally produced in 1943 by J. Howard Miller for the Westinghouse Corporation as part of the factory production effort during World War II, the "We Can Do It!" poster was mass reproduced in the 1980s and came to be a revered representation of female empowerment. Although iconic, the model for the poster as well as its creator were long shrouded in mystery and misinformation.

Over the last decade, Professor Kimble has painstakingly uncovered the truth behind the icon.

In 2018, his research on the identity of Rosie the Riveter went viral, appearing in People magazine, on the front page of the New York Times, on NPR and the television show Mysteries at the Museum as well other assorted media across the globe too numerous to list. The story achieved well over a billion media exposures worldwide.

Debunking the commonly held and much celebrated belief that a Michigan woman, Geraldine Hoff Doyle, was the model for the poster, Kimble unearthed the original photo that is believed to be the basis for the poster and, importantly, was the key to Doyle's claim as the poster's model.

The photograph Kimble discovered came complete with the original photographer's caption tag affixed to the back, which names Naomi Parker (-Fraley) in Alameda, California, as the subject of the photo – not Geraldine Hoff Doyle in Michigan.

Fortunately, Naomi Parker-Fraley lived long enough to see the historic record set straight and her identity as "Rosie the Riveter" celebrated throughout the world.

J. Howard Miller, Artist Who Created the ‘We Can Do It’ Poster

In his most recent research, Kimble set his sights on setting the record straight on the poster's creator, J. Howard Miller.

In "Famous but Unknown: An Introduction to J. Howard Miller," published by the University of Chicago's Source: Notes in the History of Art, Kimble notes:

The sparse information that has been published about Miller is tenuous at best. Some sources, for example, indicate that he was born in 1918 and died in 2004. Others only speculate, with "ca. 1915–1990" being a common guess. None of these dates are correct. Some sources indicate that he graduated from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh in 1939. He did attend that school, but many years earlier. Elsewhere, aside from reproductions of his most famous work, little but speculation about Miller's life has appeared in print.

Perhaps the most telling sign of Miller's enduring mystery is the confusion over his likeness. Although his life span was in living memory, he remains astonishingly faceless. Worse, most of the sources that do attempt to convey his likeness make a critical error. One recent exhibition at a reputable museum, for example, featured a creator's head shot next to a reproduction of the "We Can Do It!" poster. It was actually an image of a much younger man – who was not even a graphic artist.

In his research on Miller, Professor Kimble draws "on obscure publications, archival sources, and interviews to present a brief introduction to the elusive artist behind the icon" and produces for the public the only known portrait of J. Howard Miller. In this portrait, an undated ad illustration, Miller inserted himself into the image as the self-assured, middle-aged barber in the foreground.

In this undated ad illustration, Miller inserted himself into the image as the self-assured, middle-aged barber in the foreground. Private collection.

"Unfortunately for J. Howard Miller – and the historical record – there was a photographer with the same name born about 20 years after the graphic artist," said Kimble. "The photographer's obituary along with an image is readily available online. Couple that with the fact that the resurgence of the Rosie poster as an iconic figure of women's empowerment did not occur until after the graphic artist's death, and we have what could be described as 'extremely fertile ground' for google-era misinformation. But hopefully, some old-fashioned research and this newly discovered portrait can set the record straight."

Facts and Observations, J. Howard Miller (1898 – 1985)

• James Howard Miller was born on October 27, 1898, in Wilmerding, Pennsylvania, only three miles from the site of the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company's massive new East Pittsburgh plant, where Miller would one day produce wartime morale posters.
• Miller studied at the Artists' League of Pittsburgh (later to become the Art Institute of Pittsburgh) as well as Carnegie Technical Institute (now Carnegie Mellon University) in its School of Applied Design. To make ends meet, he also worked part-time as a clerk at Wilmerding's Westinghouse Air Brake Company facility.
• By 1928, Miller was working full-time as a figure artist for Pitt Studios. He and his new wife, the former Mabel Adair McCauley, would eventually follow his developing career to stops in Cleveland and Detroit. His work in both places involved advertising art, but with a useful specialty: after his peer artists would finish depicting the actual consumer product for an ad, Miller would be called in to render an attractive model alongside the product to complete the visual appeal.
• With the onset of the Great Depression and the subsequent decline in advertising, however, Miller's career became more challenging. He took time away to study technique in Europe, frequently sketching passersby at outdoor cafes.
• By late 1942, the artist was working as a freelancer in association with Rayart Studios and Town Studios. Here his prior relationship with Westinghouse was helpful, as he was hired by Charles Ruch, the editor of Westinghouse Magazine, to create a series of in-house posters for the corporation's wartime labor-management committee. Miller would eventually create at least forty posters in the series, although only "We Can Do It!"—posted for two weeks within Westinghouse's various locations in February 1943 and then forgotten for decades—was destined for eventual fame.
• After the war, Miller's career in illustration art blossomed. As Ruch (the editor of Westinghouse Magazine) recalled, "he was, most likely, the best free-lance artist in Pittsburgh at the time." His precise gentlemen and sophisticated ladies graced pitches for Alcoa, US Steel, Duquesne Brewery, and many other local corporations and businesses. In this period, he inserted himself into an ad illustration (presumably for a local barber shop), portraying a middle-aged man with a confident, friendly demeanor. It was an accurate depiction. A friend, the artist Paul E. Rendel, describes Miller as highly successful in the postwar years. He was always well-dressed—never without a tie and a hat – and even purchased a new convertible every year.
• By the 1970s, Miller's professional career had begun to wane. Despite his advancing age, he kept up his network, participating in an informal roundtable of local advertising artists that would meet weekly at Stouffer's Restaurant. One of the artists, Frank Webb, convinced him to take up watercolor, which soon showcased a new dimension of talent.
• Miller also produced a series of Pittsburgh landscapes. Unlike his generally anonymous advertisement illustrations, the landscapes represented a personal marketing opportunity. Miller offered the series in prints and on greeting cards, and he even convinced Iron City Beer to feature them on a collector's set of beer cans. The artist hoped for a breakthrough success, as his personal finances were suffering as he approached retirement. But the breakthrough proved elusive, and his colorful series gradually faded from memory.
• After a successful career, toward the end of his life Miller increasingly found it difficult to make ends meet. The artist still had a personal collection of his Westinghouse posters and finally turned to them as a source of income. He approached the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History, which purchased the posters for seventy-five dollars each. Included was the not-yet-famous "We Can Do It!" It remains one of only two known original copies, making the Smithsonian's purchase an astoundingly successful art investment.
• Miller died on September 2, 1985, only four days after the Smithsonian approved the purchase of his posters. He was eighty-six.

"It is both unfortunate and extremely ironic that the artist behind one of the most recognized pieces of art in world history has remained a veritable mystery until now," said Kimble. "Perhaps now this great American graphic artist will begin to receive some of the recognition that he, like his work, deserves."

"Famous but Unknown: An Introduction to J. Howard Miller,"  published by the University of Chicago's Source: Notes in the History of Art.

Barbershop illustration image courtesy of a private collection.

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Photo, Print, Drawing We Can Do It! Rosie the Riveter. We Can Do It!

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About this Item

• We Can Do It! Rosie the Riveter.

Other Title

• We Can Do It!
• This poster, produced by Westinghouse during World War II for the War Production Co-Ordinating Committee, was part of the national campaign in the United States to enlist women in the workforce. In the face of acute wartime labor shortages, women were needed in the defense industries, the civilian service, and even the armed forces. Publicity campaigns were aimed at encouraging those women who had never before held jobs to join the workforce. Poster and film images glorified and glamorized the roles of working women and suggested that a woman's femininity need not be sacrificed. Women were portrayed as attractive, confident, and resolved to do their part to win the war. Of all the images of working women during World War II, the image of women in factories predominates. Rosie the Riveter--the strong, competent woman dressed in overalls and bandanna--was introduced as a symbol of patriotic womanhood. The accoutrements of war work--uniforms, tools, and lunch pails--were incorporated into the revised image of the feminine ideal.
• War Production Co-ordinating Committee, United States Creator.

Created / Published

• [place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified], [1942 to 1943]
• -  United States of America
• -  1942 to 1945
• -  War posters
• -  Women
• -  Women in war
• -  World War, 1939-1945
• -  Title devised, in English, by Library staff.
• -  Original resource extent: 1 color poster.
• -  Original resource at: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
• -  Content in English.
• -  Description based on data extracted from World Digital Library, which may be extracted from partner institutions.
• 1 online resource.

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• United States History
• https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.wdl/wdl.2733

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Online format.

• compressed data

LCCN Permalink

• https://lccn.loc.gov/2021669753

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• MODS Record
• Dublin Core Record

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• Manifest (JSON/LD)
• U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (48)
• World Digital Library - Partner Items (5,089)
• World Digital Library (19,408)
• Library of Congress Online Catalog (1,611,585)
• Photo, Print, Drawing

Contributor

• War Production Co-Ordinating Committee, United States
• United States of America
• 1942 to 1945
• War Posters
• Women in War

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The Library of Congress is unaware of any copyright or other restrictions in the World Digital Library Collection. Absent any such restrictions, these materials are free to use and reuse. Researchers are encouraged to review the source information attached to each item. For information on contacting WDL partner organizations, see this archived list of partners

The Library asks that researchers approach the materials in this collection with respect for the culture and sensibilities of the people whose lives, ideas, and creativity are documented here.

Credit Line: [Original Source citation], World Digital Library

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For additional information and contact information for many of the partner organizations, see this archived capture of the World Digital Library site from 2021.

For guidance about compiling full citations consult Citing Primary Sources .

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Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

War Production Co-Ordinating Committee, United States Creator. We Can Do It! Rosie the Riveter . United States of America, 1942. [Place of Publication Not Identified: Publisher Not Identified, to 1943] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2021669753/.

APA citation style:

War Production Co-Ordinating Committee, U. S. C. (1942) We Can Do It! Rosie the Riveter . United States of America, 1942. [Place of Publication Not Identified: Publisher Not Identified, to 1943] [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2021669753/.

MLA citation style:

War Production Co-Ordinating Committee, United States Creator. We Can Do It! Rosie the Riveter . [Place of Publication Not Identified: Publisher Not Identified, to 1943] Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2021669753/>.

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The History Hit Miscellany of Facts, Figures and Fascinating Finds

‘We Can Do It!’: Who Was Rosie the Riveter?

Lily Johnson

25 mar 2022.

With her rallying cry of ‘We Can Do It!’, Rosie the Riveter is the star of one of the most enduring images of World War Two . An important cultural figure used to represent the tireless contributions of women to the United States war effort, she has not only come to symbolise American patriotism and camaraderie, but also female strength and solidarity.

Yet contrary to popular belief, the vibrant poster we most associate with Rosie did not plaster the walls of America’s factories, businesses and public spaces during the war, and for half a century remained largely unknown.

Who exactly was Rosie the Riveter, and how did she become the global cultural icon she is today?

‘Working for victory’

While today many would recognise Rosie the Riveter as a singular character from the ‘We Can Do It!’ poster, the idea of Rosie existed as a wider emblem in American wartime society.

Created in 1942, Rosie first hit the public eye (or ears) in a song written by Redd Evans and John Jacob Loeb aptly titled Rosie the Riveter . It opened with:

All the day long, whether rain or shine

She’s a part of the assembly line

She’s making history, working for victory

Rosie, brrrrrrrrrrr, the riveter

Performed by The Vagabonds, the jolly tune, patriotic lyrics and playful ‘riveter’ noises served a similar purpose to the poster Rosie is often connected to. Namely, to foster a sense of community and boost morale, but also to encourage women to join the war effort as more men left to fight.

Images of women in factories, known as Rosies, began to be disseminated throughout America via government posters and commercial advertising, taking on a number of different appearances and characteristics. Similar female characters also emerged alongside Rosie the Riveter, such as ‘Wendy the Welder’ and a particular Canadian wartime icon known as ‘Ronnie, the Bren Gun Girl’.

The effect was significant. By 1944 the number of working American women grew from 12 million to 20 million, a 57% increase from 1940.

A ‘Rosie’ putting rivets on an Vultee A-31 Vengeance in Nashville, Tennessee in 1943

Image Credit: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

An icon is born

So when and where did the ‘We Can Do It!’ poster come from? Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1942 , the US government began a scramble to increase the production of war goods across the country. As the workforce struggled under this weight, tensions between management and labour unions bubbled, and company directors began commissioning artworks to foster morale and pro-war sentiment amongst their workers.

Messages of ‘Keep ‘Em Firing!’ and ‘United We Win’ were soon plastered across the walls of US factories. In 1942, J. Howard Miller was commissioned by manufacturing company Westinghouse Electric to create a series of posters depicting their workforce.

Among these was the ‘We Can Do It!’ poster, created to boost female worker morale and foster a sense of community amongst the workers of Westinghouse Electric. Featured as part of a series of posters mostly including men, the ‘We Can Do It!’ image was seen on the walls of Westinghouse Electric’s factories for just 2 weeks in February 1943 before disappearing into obscurity.

For the rest of the conflict it remained relatively unknown, and would do so for almost half a century.

The reinvention of Rosie

It was not until 1981 that the poster resurfaced in a Washington Post Magazine article about patriotic artwork kept in the National Archives.

The poster soon grew in popularity and was employed with particular vigour in the feminist movement of the 1980s, as women found strength in Miller’s Rosie. In 1994 it made the cover of Smithsonian magazine, and in 1999 the US Postal Service created a stamp based on the image.

As the popularity of the poster grew, so did the public’s desire to know who the real Rosie was. In 1994, the mystery appeared to be solved when Geraldine Hoff Doyle came forward as the inspiration behind the poster.

She had seen both the poster and a photograph depicting a similar-looking female worker from the time, and innocently recognised herself in both. Doyle soon became known as the ‘real’ Rosie the Riveter, as numerous sources repeated her claims, cementing them as truth.

Who was the ‘real’ Rosie?

However, in 2015 it was revealed that the subject of the photograph was in fact Naomi Parker Fraley. Four years earlier, Fraley had seen the photograph of herself at a wartime reunion, and noted that the caption incorrectly stated Doyle’s name. She contacted the venue to inform them of their mistake and was thanked for the correction, however found further attempts to set the historical record straight rebuffed.

1942 photograph of Naomi Parker

It was not until 2015 that the truth would be widely known, when university professor James J. Kimble came across an original copy of the photograph labelled ‘Naomi Parker’ while researching the iconic poster.

The photograph was taken in 1942 when Fraley was 20 years old and working on aircraft assembly in Alameda, California, and was published in the Pittsburgh Press where Miller may have seen it. Though there is no written confirmation from Miller on who inspired his poster, Kimble believes that Fraley is the most likely candidate.

Nevertheless, while the mystery of the most famous Rosie may be solved, the mere idea of Rosie the Riveter encompasses a much wider group of women. Women who joined the war effort in what many had believed was a ‘man’s job’. Women who worked tireless hours in munitions factories alongside their friends and sisters. Elinor Otto, known as the ‘Last Serving Rosie the Riveter’, who built airplanes until the age of 95.

And in later years, women who boldly fought for equal rights in the home, workplace and wider society, finding new meaning in the galvanising cry: ‘We Can Do It!’

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Structure Learning with Continuous Optimization: A Sober Look and Beyond

 This thesis investigates in which cases continuous optimization for directed acyclic graph (DAG) structure learning can and cannot perform well and why this happens, and suggests possible directions to make the search procedure more reliable. Reisach et al. (2021) suggested that the remarkable performance of several continuous structure learning approaches is primarily driven by a high agreement between the order of increasing marginal variances and the topological order, and demonstrated that these approaches do not perform well after data standardization. We analyze this phenomenon for continuous approaches assuming equal and non-equal noise variances, and show that the statement may not hold in either case by providing counterexamples, justifications, and possible alternative explanations. We further demonstrate that nonconvexity may be a main concern especially for the non-equal noise variances formulation, while recent advances in continuous structure learning fail to achieve improvement in this case. Our findings suggest that future works should take into account the non-equal noise variances formulation to handle more general settings and for a more comprehensive empirical evaluation. Lastly, we provide insights into other aspects of the search procedure, including thresholding and sparsity, and show that they play an important role in the final solutions.  

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