Rosie the Riveter Had No Time for Selfies

STORY SNAPSHOT

• From five to six million women went to work in factories during World War II. Young men had to leave their jobs at factories if they were drafted. And many young men decided to enlist in the military, especially after Dec. 7, 1941 (Pearl Harbor).
• The iconic image of Rosie the Riveter was created for a company poster but the woman in the poster was not called Rosie. The poster was probably only hanging on a wall in a factory for a couple of weeks to boost morale.
• At the time, there was a popular song though called “Rosie the Riveter.” The writers named the song because of alliteration and not because there was a woman named Rosie working at a factory.
• Rosie became popular in the 1980s when someone found the old poster and used it.
• Today there is a friendly competition between Michigan and California to break a Guinness World Record for the largest gathering of people dressed as Rosie the Riveter. Currently, Michigan holds the record.
• At a 2017 Rosie Rally in Michigan, original Rosies were there. During World War II, Helen Kushnir riveted planes in Detroit; Mae Krier riveted planes at a Boeing factory in Seattle; and Phyllis was a welder at the Kaiser Shipyards in Richmond, California. (See their video interviews below)

April 20, 2020 – From five to six million women of all ages and races went to work in factories during World War II to replace men who went off to war. It caused a seismic societal shift that affected every town, village and city in America. Housewives quickly learned how to assemble intricate electrical circuits, rivet airplanes, weld ships, sew 65 yards of silk into a parachute, and handle explosives to name a few.

Meet Helen Kushnir, Mae Krier and Phyllis Gould, Original Rosies Attending a 2017 Rosie Rally

However, most women in the industrial workforce did not wear red and white polka dot bandannas, matching blue shirts and pants, red socks, and black boots. Work boots for women weren’t even made during World War II. Oxfords or loafers were factory footwear. The iconic image of Rosie the Riveter known today dates to the 1980s, albeit with roots in the 1940s. But that doesn’t mean Rosie the Riveter was not real. Just ask an original “Rosie.”

CONNECTING THE DOTS: A Rosie in Richmond welds a Liberty Ship used to bring refugees from a UN camp in Algeria to America. Irene Hasenberg, age 15, is one of those refugees.

THEY DID IT!

Helen Kushnir

During high school, Helen volunteered to help the USO (United Service Organization), famous for entertaining troops deployed overseas and also providing support for traveling soldiers at airports on the Home Front.

Helen decided she wanted to continue helping the war effort after graduation. She was hired as a riveter at Chrysler’s DeSoto plant in Detroit. Her mother was not in favor of it at all because it meant Helen had to wear pants (slacks) outside of the home. The job was unladylike, she told Helen. But Helen reported for her riveter training and succeeded.

In a 2017 interview, Helen said she still has her riveting book. Looking back more than 75 years, Helen marvels at how she remembered all of the different sizes of rivets. She worked on the Curtiss SB2C, the Helldiver, also nicknamed the “Beast.” The days were long and exhausting. Because gas was rationed, she took a bus to work and after her 10 to 12 hour shift standing and riveting planes. Helen remembers returning home, collapsing in a chair on her front porch and immediately falling asleep.

It was worth it, she said. She believes the famous Rosie “We Can Do It” mantra should be changed to “We DID it!”

Phyllis Gould

Phyllis was one of the first six women hired as welders at the Kaiser Shipyards in Richmond, California. Her husband was a welder. Helen thought she could do it too.

At first the Kaiser Shipyards made ships for foreign countries under the Lend-Lease Act (March 1941) but after Pearl Harbor (December 1941), every shipyard in the United States was needed to make ships for the United States. The Kaiser Shipyards made a total of 747 ships from 1942-1945, primarily Liberty Ships, cargo ships that could also transport troops. To speed production, Liberty Ships were built in sections and then assembled. After demonstrating her welding skills were on par with men, Phyllis was on a team of welders welding Liberty Ship deck houses, three-story structures where the ship’s dining room and wheelhouse (bridge) were located.

During a 2017 in-person interview and a January 2020 phone interview, Phyllis said she never saw a completed ship, just her section that was welded vertically. Before World War II, ships took months and even years to complete.

During the Arsenal of Democracy period, ships were being manufactured in weeks after auto assembly line methods were applied to shipbuilding. And to show their skill to the enemy, one Liberty Ship was made in five days, Phyllis recalls. The message was that as fast as ships were destroyed by the enemy, replacements would be quickly on the seas. A total of 2,710 Liberty Ships were made from 1942-1945.

In 1944, the SS Cleveland Forbes, a Liberty Ship, was made in Richmond. Most likely, Phyllis welded its deck house. In early December 1945, Irene Hasenberg, 15, boarded the SS Cleveland Forbes at the port of Bougie, Algeria for her trip to America and freedom after 18 months living in two concentration camps in the Netherlands and Germany. Irene was alone without her family. Her mother (Mutti) and Werner, her brother, were too sick for the journey and remained in hospitals in Switzerland. Her father (Pappi) had died sitting next to Irene on their train to freedom in Switzerland after being released from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in northern Germany on Jan. 21, 1945.

After 75 years, two women learn they are connected in a most unusual and unforeseen way. While crossing the Atlantic Ocean in 1945, Irene was told some Liberty Ships had broken apart. Stay near the engine to be safe, the passenger told Irene. That portion of the ship made it to shore. Irene was terrified.

During rough seas, Irene was told to sleep on benches in the dining room. She remembers hearing silverware crashing to the floor one night when a drawer came open. But the deck house held together. Irene arrived in Baltimore on Dec. 25, 1945.

When told of Irene’s journey on a ship she most likely had a hand in welding, Phyllis said of course the deck house did not come apart. Kaiser had high standards that she and her fellow welders, men and women, diligently followed.

By the end of 1943, 70 percent of the workforce at the Kaiser Shipyards in Richmond were women. (Freedom’s Forge by Arthur Herman, p. 263)

Mae Krier

Mae grew up in North Dakota during the Great Depression. During a 2017 interview, she said it was hard times. After graduating from high school during World War II, Mae, her sister, and a girlfriend thought it would be fun to go to Seattle for the summer to work at an airplane factory.

Mae said their adventure to Seattle was “on a lark” but once in Seattle, their work became serious and meaningful. She watched as women received word their husband or son had been killed overseas. In an instant, they became Gold Star women grieving their loss but coming to work to spare other women similar pain. She riveted hundreds of B-17 and B-29 bombers staying on the assembly line throughout the war, a true Rosie the Riveter.

National Rosie the Riveter Day, H.R.4912 and S.2500

In 2018, legislation was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives (H.R.4912 – the Rosie the Riveter Congressional Gold Medal Act) and the U.S. Senate (S.2500) to award one Congressional Gold Medal for the millions of Rosies who served on the Home Front. The bill has been referred to Committee in both chambers and is waiting further action. The Congressional Gold Medal is the nation’s highest honor awarded to civilians. Rosies by their nature are women of action so no doubt, there will be continued advocacy for the legislation.

And Mae and Phyllis have been advocating for many years to make March 21st National Rosie the Riveter Day. In 2017, that effort became a reality through a Senate resolution.

Bandannas off to Helen, Phyllis, and Mae who represent millions of brave women who left the comforts of home for the noisy, sometimes scary, factories to bring America’s boys home.

In 2000, the Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historical Park opened in Richmond, California. Working with the Rosie the Riveter Trust, this summer they will host a Rosie Rally to break the Guinness World Record for the “Largest Gathering of People Dressed as Rosie the Riveter.” They will need 3,735 people to break the record! The Rosie the Riveter Trust is the fundraising arm of the national park. They also host Rosie’s Girls, educational summer camps for girls during which the girls learn to weld, according to Lindsey Poston of the Rosie the Riveter Trust.

UPDATE (Nov. 29, 2020) – On Nov. 14, 2020, a Commemorative Air Force (CAF) Unit, located in Peachtree City, Georgia, dedicated their vintage WWII P-63 (Kingcobra) in honor of Betty Webster Bishop, an original Rosie who worked on the plane during WWII. She worked at the Bell Aircraft factory in Niagara Falls, New York. “Miss Betty” is now a living history artifact telling the story of the World War II Home Front. An in-depth story on Betty and “Miss Betty” can be found here.

Vocabulary

1. seismic: (adj.) – dramatic, life-changing; also refers to underground activity during an earthquake
2. societal: (adj.) – related to society, collection of people living in communities of all sizes
3. intricate: (adj.) – complex, detailed, delicate
4. electrical: (adj.) – related to electricity, power
5. deployed: (verb) – sent away, as in a soldier sent overseas
6. rationed: (verb) – controlled so that only a certain amount of something can be bought
7. mantra: (noun) – saying that one follows, rallying cry
8. vertically: (adverb) – up and down direction
9. terrified: (verb) – frightened, scared
10. replacements: (noun) – things or people that replace or take the place of other things, people
11. unforeseen: (adj.) – not able to be predicted or seen
12. diligently: (adverb) – with great attention to detail and hard work to get something done or accomplished
13. advocacy: (noun) – actions that promotes or advocates (verb form) for a position, policy or issue

Review Questions

1. What were Liberty Ships? How many were built during the war?
2. What types of factories employed women during World War II?
3. Why did many women want to work in factories during World War II?

Inquiry Questions

1. Even with the objection from her mother, how do you think Helen “won the debate” with her mother about going to work at an airplane factory?
2. Why is Rosie the Riveter an iconic symbol of the dramatic cultural change that took place during and after World War II as women went to work in factories?
3. In the video, review the lyrics to the song. What was a “Production E?”
4. Why is the connection between Phyllis and Irene so amazing and unforeseen?
5. Read the headline. Why does it represent the Rosie spirit as shown by the experiences of Helen, Phyllis, Mae, and Elinor?