Before the 1940s, once married, most American women would quit their jobs and go home, playing the role of "wife and mother" and "full-time housewife" with peace of mind. However,194165438+The "Pearl Harbor Incident" on February 7th changed all this. This sudden attack dragged the United States into World War II, and President Roosevelt declared that the United States had entered a state of war in an all-round way. Almost all men of school age have been drafted into the army, and men have gone to war. The factory is almost paralyzed, but the war needs a lot of equipment and materials. Who can get the production line of the factory moving? At this time, American women stepped forward and showed unprecedented patriotic enthusiasm. They have entered the factory to fill the vacancies left by men, and the female labor force has also become a strong support for wartime factories.
The American government issued a call, newspapers and magazines actively cooperated, and articles and advertisements were overwhelming. The slogan at that time was: "The more women work, the faster we will win the war." One of the most famous is a poster of "Rosie the Riveter" with a hunchbacked woman, which represents the strong image of factory working women during World War II, so "Rosie the Riveter" became synonymous with American working women during World War II.
Rossi, the riveter, became the main force.
One of the prototypes of Rosie the Riveter is Ross Weil Monroe. At that time, walter pidgeon, a Hollywood star, visited an airplane assembly factory and met Monroe, so he recommended her to play the leading role in a government film promoting war. Norman rockwell, a famous illustrator, created the image of "Rosie" based on the image of Monroe, which was published in Saturday Evening Post on May 29th. 1943. Another prototype of Rossi, the riveter, is Ross Hick, who works in an aircraft manufacturing company in new york, riveting the wings of the Avenger bomber produced by Grumman. Later, based on these materials and imagination, an artist created a poster of Rosie the Riveter, which is a household name in the United States.
It is estimated that there are more than 20 million Rossi riveters in the United States. An old lady named Stephenson worked as a riveter in Boeing Aircraft Manufacturing Company, riveting the wings of the B- 17 bomber. She said that they often climb to the third floor to go to work, holding a buzzing rivet gun and tightening rivets one by one. Because the wings are made of aluminum alloy, sometimes my eyes are almost blinded by reflection. Every day lunch is eaten in a tunnel with strong wind speed, only half an hour. At the end of the day, the whole person is tired and stiff. Most people work overtime, hoping to build as many planes as possible. In addition to these women workers working in military factories, some women become tram drivers, some operate heavy construction machinery, and some work in deafening steel mills, shaping a brand-new female image in American society.
In fact, whether it is safety or wages, the treatment of female workers is far from as good as the government's propaganda. Generally speaking, the income of female workers is only 60% of that of male workers. More statistics show that in the first 18 months of the war, the number of women workers who died in various accidents in military factories was far more than that of soldiers who died in the front line in the same period. Another sacrifice they made was their children. Although the government has established nurseries and kindergartens, these institutions cannot replace the role of mothers.
After the victory of the war, I was forced to give my job back to the man.
After the victory of the war, the demand for weapons and ammunition suddenly dropped, and men came back from the battlefield. They want their jobs back. At the end of 1944, the propaganda orientation of newspapers and magazines changed, and the advertising content became "home after victory", encouraging women to return to China to continue to be housewives. At this time, the American government reversed the propaganda that had just begun to encourage women to enter the factory, claiming that they were temporary substitutes. Now that men have gone back to work, it is time for them to go home. A small number of women once again responded to the government's call to run their own small families with the money they earned, but most of them were unwilling to give up their jobs. At that time, opinion polls showed that more than 80% women workers in military factories were unwilling to leave their jobs, but there was nothing they could do. The war is over and they are no longer needed. In the end, most of the "Rosie the Riveter" were fired, and those who insisted on staying had to do some low-paying jobs.
For some time after the war, the glory of "Rossi Riveter" tended to be dull, and people were busy restoring the economy and healing the wounds of war. No one seems to remember them anymore. But today, they finally won the respect of Americans. Now "Rosie the Riveter" is mostly dead, and those who are alive are already full of silver hair. Recalling the past, Margaret Bailey said affectionately, "I feel as if I have never left my job." Every time I think of the sound and feeling of the bomber riveting gun, I am still excited. " Every time I go to the Aviation Museum in Seattle to see bombers during World War II, I feel that I can still make them fly. In fact, I helped repair the bomber there. I think I am a soldier, just like a young man fighting at the front. "