3. Who Was the Real Rosie the Riveter?
The We Can Do It! Poster had nothing to do with Rosie the Riveter. However, a real life woman, Rosalind P. Walter, nee Palmer (1924 – 2020), inspired the Rosie the Riveter meme. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor thrust America into WWII, a teenaged Rosalind joined the war effort as an airplane factory riveter. She broke speed records on the production line, and advocated for equal pay for female factory workers. The New York Times ran an article about Rosalind that inspired a 1942 hit song, Rosie the Riveter, in honor of the women who fueled America’s war effort.
Rosie the Riveter became a meme, went viral, and came to symbolize the millions of women who labored in the factories that supplied and supported the men in the field. In 1943, a Norman Rockwell painting of a Rosie the Riveter with a Mein Kampf beneath her feet appeared in a Saturday Evening Post cover. As to Rosalind P. Walter, the original Rosie the Riveter, she had been born into money, married into even more money, and became a renowned socialite and philanthropist. She donated millions to help fund PBS, and became a trustee of both Long Island University and the American Museum of Natural History, among other things.
