Rosie the River was not one woman. She was Geraldine Doyle who found work as a metal press operator  at the American Broach & Machine Co in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She was Rose Will Monroe, a Ford employee who  actually worked as a 'river'  to the B24 bombers at the Willow Run plant in Ypsilanti, Michigan. She was Rosalind P. Walter of Long Island who worked the night shift at the factory that built the Corsair fighter planes. She was the inspiration for the 1942 hit 'Rosie the Riviter'. That Rosie was not one person was true in two ways. There were many women during  the 2nd world war that embodied 'Rosie'. Thousands and thousands of women took over traditional male down-and-dirty jobs in the factories and shipyards. But even the icon itself was not one specific individual. Rosie the River, as we know her, is a fusion of cultural fragments, some real, some fictional.

During the departure of the American men, to fight on the fronts of the 2nd World War, they leave behind important jobs that are vital in the factories, among other things. These were mostly booming businesses because of the increased demand for everything due to the war, but also ordinary jobs necessary for daily life, such as at a post office. A predicament arose that prompted the US government to turn to the War Advertising Council, which launched a massive campaign to persuade women to work. Known as the 'Women in War Jobs campaign', it is considered the most successful recruitment campaign in the American advertising industry.

The propaganda campaign used a series of persuasive patriotic posters and messages depicting different versions of it  now legendary icon 'Rosie the river'. One version of Rosie, painted  by Norman Rockwell, illustrator of the Saturday Evening Post, depicts the opposite of antebellum femininity. A muscular woman in overalls, a riveter on her lap and a lunchbox.

The campaign targeted different groups of women. First of all, women who already had a job, especially minorities and with a poorly paid (side) job, were  encouraged to move to a better paying job in a factory. Then girls were recruited who had barely finished school. And, after it became clear that even more workers were needed, married women with children who didn't have to, or didn't even want to, work. The campaign was permeated by  compelling messages, especially the importance of patriotism and the idea that the war would end sooner if the women left behind filled the shoes of an absent man. fear propaganda  insisted that if women remained lazy, more men would die at the front. African American women were most affected by the demand for female workers.  It has been said that the collaboration of whites and blacks during this period stimulated the breaking down of social barriers. African Americans were now able to lay the groundwork for the post-war civil rights revolution by equating segregation with the Nazi white supremacist ideology.  

The campaign's efforts were hugely successful. In 1945, 18 million women were already part of the workforce,  an increase of 12 million from 1940. Many of these women were employed in traditional male-dominated roles such as aerodynamic engineers, railway workers, tram drivers and wood and steel mill workers. Despite the fact that these women did the same as their absent male colleagues, they earned about 65% less. They also had to contend with the negative attitude of the male colleagues, exclusion from higher positions and other glass-ceiling effects. So how does Rosie the riviter fit into all this?

The most important first. What is a river? A riviter is the English name for the person who sets rivets with a riveter. A riveter is a necessary tool in the manufacturing industry. Many of the women who were inspired by the campaign and entered the workforce rarely work with a riveter simply because their job didn't demand it. In fact, the number of women who filled production roles has never exceeded 10% of the 18 million  working women. The Rosie phenomenon came about after America entered the war in 1941.

Canada led the US with their Ronnie, The Bren Gun girl, Veronica Foster in real life, and in the UK there was talk of Canary Girls in the ammunition industry

Rosie worked at Ford, the Corsair factory and was a switchboard operator

One  song titled "Rosie the Riviter," written by John Jacob Loeb and Redd Evans, was released in the early months of 1942. The lyrics described exactly what the government had in mind. "She's part of the assembly line, she's making history, she's working for the win, Rosie the riviter." The person who was the inspiration for the song was Rosalind P. Walter, she came from 'old money' and worked  during the night shift at the factory that built the Corsair fighter planes. She later became a philanthropist, a board member of the WNET public television network in New York, and an early and long-standing follower of the Charlie Rose interview show.  

On May 29, 1943, Rockwell's picture of Rosie appeared on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post. He was the most popular illustrator in the country, his covers reached a huge audience, which brought Rosie a lot of attention. Rockwell's illustration shows a muscular woman on her lunch break with a riveter on her lap, a lunchbox and a copy of Hitler's 'Mein Kampf' under her Penny loafers. Her lunch box reads 'Rosie'. Readers immediately recognized the Rosie of the song. Rosie's muscular physique, dirty face and worn overalls suggest that she is comfortable in the factory, traditionally the man's workplace, thus supporting the war effort. She looks strong and confident, very different from a graceful 'lady'. The patriotic symbolism in the painting is hard to miss. Besides the waving 'old glory' [flag] in the background, she wears several patriotic buttons on her chest, including the 'V' for victory. Rockwell's model was 19-year-old Mary Doyle from Vermont. She was a switchboard operator in Arlington  and no rivet set. In the fall of 1942, Doyle posed twice for Rockwell's photographer Gene Pelham. He prefers to work with photos than with a real model. The first pictures were  unusable because she was wearing a regular blouse and not a work blouse. She was paid $10 for modeling (currently $130 (as of 2017).  In 1949 she married Robert J. Keefe and was given the name Mary Doyle Keefe. Rockwell drew his Rosie as a bigger woman than his model. He regretted this afterwards and 24 years later he sent her a letter saying that she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen and apologizing for the gross body in the drawing. "I had to make you some kind of giant," he wrote.

Since the drawing's publication, critics  noted a strong resemblance between Rosie and the prophet Isaiah as depicted in Michelangelo's 1509 painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. In 2002, the original painting sold at Sotheby's for nearly $5 million. Mary and her husband were invited and were present when the painting was sold.   In June 2009, the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas acquired the painting from a private collector.  for its permanent exhibition.

A war bond promotional film was also made in 1943 that featured a real live Rosie the riviter. Rose Will Monroe, a young 23-year-old woman from Bobtown, Kentucky, whose husband was killed in a car accident, and with a child plus one on the way, sought work at Fords  Willow Run aircraft factory in Ypsilanti. There she was working as a rivet setter manufacturing B24s when she was spotted by actor Walter Pidgeon. He had come to the factory to act in a promotional film and had been told that there was a real Rosie working with a riveter. Given the success of the song and Rockwell's cover, it was an irresistible idea to have a real Rosie in the video. She was asked to participate in the video. She embodied the Rosie the River image through advertisements, newsreels and commercials and was widely recognized as an endearing and enduring image of American patriotism. Rose never took advantage of her brief fame and fame and has always continued to work. First as a taxi driver and later as the founder of Rose Builders, a construction company. When she turned 50 she fulfilled her dream and got her pilot's license. In 1978, she crashed when the engine stalled during take-off. She lost a kidney and vision in the left eye. She died of kidney failure on May 31, 1997 in Clarksville, Indiana at age 77.

But while Rockwell's version of Rosie would be the most popular of the time, there's another version of Rosie today, a girl who flexes her biceps and wears a polka-dot scarf around her head. This Rosie was conceived in 1942 by artist J. Howard Miller. He was hired by an advertising agency to create an image for the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company. Factory worker Geraldine Hoff (later Doyle) was 17 and briefly worked as a metal press clerk and was probably the model. Miller probably had a picture of her that he used  for the poster. The photo depicts a woman behind a lathe. Doyle never claimed to be this woman but thought he recognized herself. This had been taken up by the press and interpreted as truth. In reality, the woman in the photo is Naomi Parker Fraley. This has now been proven. However, we will never be able to find out who was the inspiration for the poster. JH Miller passed away a long time ago. The intent of the poster was to boost productivity as well as morale, not recruit more women. The poster was intended for personal use at the factory from February 15-28, 1943. The public didn't discover it until the 1980s. Today, the image is one of the most requested from the national archives and a much-loved article for feminists.

Many people continue to interpret Rosie as a feminist icon, but revisionist historians emphasize that she was not. She was appropriated by various parties for similar reasons, it to the workplace  lure of women. Unfortunately, for many women, who had become accustomed to work and financial independence,  Rosie's goal lapses at the end of the war. The magazine of the Kaiser shipyards was rather blunt: they indicated that the helmet and burner belonged to the men again, because the women would return them now that the war was over. The women supposedly want to wear nice clothes again and look beautiful. This was nothing more than a chat from the management. Still, there was nothing for it but to go home. Although employers had become accustomed to women in the workplace, the military's return forced them to recognize that it was only temporary. The women who continued to work outside the home were pressured to become more social  accepted and lower-paying jobs. Although the differences between men and women returned, it was too late to close the floodgates. It didn't take long for the daughters of these women to lay the foundations of these old-fashioned ideas  started to demolish. This paved the way for women to pursue higher education  and to excel in professional roles.   Although the need for Rosie propaganda is no longer necessary  is, has  her 'we can do it' mentality left an imprint in history.

Interview with Mary Doyle Keefe in 2012

If you passed her on  street, you probably wouldn't look twice at the attractive older woman with her soft smile and carefully coiffed salt-and-pepper hair. But if she carried a copy of the then-popular Saturday Evening Post with her burly, wild, red-haired Rosie the riviter on the cover, your interest would be piqued. because Mary was  rosie. Mary, who recently turned 90 and lives in the McLean Home in Simsbury, was the model for the American artist's historic poster  Norman Rockwell. She clearly remembers ending up as the woman with the biceps on the poster who made it clear to America that women were ready to…  their contribution in wartime. The mother of 4, grandmother of 11 and great-grandmother of 3 tells.

Q. It's been a long time since you posed for the picture. What do you remember?

A. I was a operator, 19 years old, and we were neighbors. He often used neighbors for his paintings. He preferred to paint pictures so his photographer took pictures  me. I had to pose in different ways and look a certain way. I can't remember if I had to look with a certain look, I'm 90 and can't remember. I had to pose twice because the first time I was wearing a white blouse and the wrong shoes [Saddle shoes, ed.]. Norman wanted me to put on a blue shirt and loafers. My uncle also posed for him and is featured in one of his 'Four Freedoms' paintings.

Q. Rosie has an incredible look and killer biceps, yours?

A. Not at all (laughs). Unlike my face and red hair, the body is decorated by Rockwell. I was much shorter and wondered what he wanted me to look like until I saw the painting. I was once at the "Big E" with two other models who had worked with him as part of an assignment,  and then someone came up to me and asked where I got the strength to pose all the time with a riveter in my lap. I had never seen a hammer like this or held one for the photos. Norman had added it. After it was finished he called me to apologize for painting me so physically strong.  

Q. The poster became iconic not only for its patriotic message but also as something that opened the door to women's independence and their value outside the home. Did you see it that way too?

A. I didn't think about it and I didn't see myself as the embodiment of the modern woman. A war is raging and you did what you had to. And in a small town like Arlington, it was a matter of knowing he painted and often asked people to pose for his pictures. I didn't realize what would happen when the Saturday Evening Post came out. I was proud to be able to help and that the Rosie poster went around the country helping with war bond sales. I think that made it more famous.

Q. Were you an independent woman before then?

A. I did not consider myself independent  and even after the poster came out I didn't consider myself a celebrity. Over the years I have  I talked about Rosie in schools. There was a veterans day after 9/11 at one of my grandchildren's school and they asked veterans to tell. My granddaughter told the teacher about me  and he said only veterans were allowed to tell. When she said I was Rosie I was allowed to come too.

Q. Have you ever considered a modeling career after posing for the picture?

A. Nope (laughs).

V. Rosie was one of the many representations of the spirit of the country of the time. What do you think of the spirit of this time?

A. I wish we could get it back. You thought more about the country as a country. I remember there was a blood donation program. Arlington was so small I drove to New York with two other models  to give blood. I don't know if people still want that.

Q. I understand that Rosie's biceps are still exploited here in the  McLean House for a good cause. Explain?

A. A few years ago, two nurses came to my door and we were trying to come up with an idea about how to get people to get the flu shot. They asked if I could help promote. They made copies of the cover and gave it away with a flu shot, and I would sign them. They've never had such a high turnout and that's why we do it every year.

Q. Would you pose for the poster again if you had another chance?

A. I would do it again. I enjoyed it. It wasn't bad at all. I have a copy of the magazine hanging on the wall and some other memorabilia. It was my '15 minutes of fame'.