While the image of Rosie the Riveter is now seen primarily as a strong, feminist icon, during WWII the image was utilized by the government as part of a propaganda effort, and “ [t]he initial goal was to draw as many women into the work force as possible, especially into industries that normally relied on male workers…” (Honey 47). Furthermore, "...predominant media portrayal of women war workers was...that they entered the labor force out of patriotic motives and eagerly left to start families and resume full-time homemaking" (Honey 19).

The influence of the iconic Rosie the Riveter WWII poster is the core of my archive--however, in considering this influence, it is important to note that Rosie was not the only face of the war. She has come to represent all of the women who joined the war effort, and today she represents many causes completely unrelated to WWII. 

According to the Scripps College Bulletin, Vol. XVII, No. 2, February, 1943, "Scripps College believes in its function to mature the mind, to broaden the vision and to develop the moral responsibility of the young woman now in college in order that she may take effective leadership in the professions, the communities, and the home."

 

Featured in the bulletin are graduates of Scripps College at work, or rather, our very own Scripps Rosie the Riveters:

The caption states: "Helen Ely (1936) is teaching small Japanese-American children at the Manzanar Japanese Relocation Center. She gave up a teaching post in junior high school to take over work with the Japanese after a summer spent in a Quaker settlement camp. The Humanities were her major interest at Scripps."

The caption states: "Marianne Johnson Finlay (1937) is a homemaker, a wife and mother, as are the majority of Scripps alumnae. Besides being an effective and cheerful housekeeper, she has applied the wide knowledge of her Humanities background at Scripps to the activities of her home community. Last February, she organized the San Bernardino County unit of the Citizens Committee for the Army and Navy, and established its headquarters in Redlands, California. Her group furnished fifty day rooms for soldiers in a widely scattered area."

The caption states: "Carolyn Mount (1942) and Agness Cook (1932) are two of Scripps' contingent in the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps. Miss Mount, in officers training in the Motor Transport School, has more than satisfied her interest in riding in a jeep. She drives one."