The famous political poster “Rosie the Riveter: We Can Do it” was illustrated by Norman Rockwell. The artwork was originally an illustration published on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post in May of 1943. It stars a women ‘Rosie’ who is dressed in a blue jacket with her sleeve rolled up revealing a flexed bicep, her hair is up in the classic 1940’s domestic women fashion, and she has a speech bubble which says “ We can do it!”
The both social and political issue that inspired Norman Rockwell was to influence the women in classic domestic roles to take up the roles of the men who had left for war during World War II. The men had ended up leaving a void in the available workforce, and someone needed to take up their open positions.
The message of the poster itself is particularly straightforward; it is that women have just as much ability to work in factories, shipyards, and any other male-dominated field, just as much as the men who dominated did. Also, they didn’t really have any other options at this point. This particular poster is the most well-known of the propaganda posters, it did its job quite well and it in turn influenced a 10% increase in the women workforce in a 5 year period.
Many women still struggle with the same judgement of the War time period when they are in the workforce, and this poster still is relevant.
Just always remember this, not matter what you want in your life “We Can Do It!”
Wild Ideas 