OverDressed for Life

During WWII American women joined the workforce in droves to replace the men who went off to fight. By 1945 one out of every four married women worked outside the home, many of them working in the aviation industry. The original illustration that we know as “Rosie the Riveter” was was drawn by artist J. Howard Miller, who was hired by Westinghouse to create morale-boosting posters for the company’s workers. The poster was only seen by Westinghouse staff and just for a two week period in 1943. When the image was rediscovered in the 1980s it quickly became associated with feminism and mistakenly identified as the Rosie the Riveter illustration created by Norman Rockwell for the cover of The Saturday Evening Post in May 1943.

By the way, I took the image from a badge for the 1993 inauguration of Bill Clinton.

Wishing all workers a happy, safe, and restful Labor Day.