For my final story from the writing prompt, “You gotta bloom where you’re planted,” a Dolly Parton quote, I decided to go with something non-fiction.
During World War II, men were drafted to fight oversees leaving crucial factory and shipyard jobs vacant. Many of these factories produced munitions and war supplies, especially in the United States. Women, especially young women stepped in to fill the void. Often their male supervisors and male co-workers were hostile and belligerent.
These women were told they weren’t smart enough, strong enough, or mentally tough enough to do a man’s job. They lacked a man’s work ethic, and physical stamina. They weren’t wanted and they should run back home to momma where they belonged. Stick to Rolling bandages, hosting USO dances, growing Victory Gardens, and raising kids.
Thank heavens these women didn’t listen and around five million civilian women in the United States worked in the defense industry and elsewhere during the war.
The Image of “Rosie the Riveter” became a cultural icon in the United States that represented these women. A California shipyard used “Wendy the Welder” to encourage woman to become welders.
In 1942, the Westinghouse Company’s War Production Coordinating Committee hired Pittsburgh artist J. Howard Miller to create a series of posters for the war effort. One of these posters showing a strong confident woman in blue coveralls and wearing a red and white polka dot bandana became the “We Can Do It! poster that is often associated with Rosie the Riveter.
How did these women handle doing “men’s work?” Statistically, they outperformed their male counterparts, worked harder for longer hours, had less absenteeism, and superior safety records. They also worked for lower wages than their male counterparts. The idea of equal pay for equal work did not apply.
Factory owners weren’t as willing to hire African American Women to be Rosies, but discrimination wasn’t allowed in federal jobs, so an African American Rosie could eat in the company cafeteria and work alongside her white co-workers.
The U.S. government encouraged these women, to step up, but expected them to go back into the kitchen once the war was over and the men came back home.
There were Rosies or their equivalents in Canada, England, and Australia.
The Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian award given by the U.S. Congress, was awarded collectively to the five million Rosie the Riveters. The award was given to express national appreciation for distinguished achievements and contributions by groups, individuals, or institutions.
The Rosie the Riveter Congressional Gold Medal Act was signed into law in December 2020.
In March 2025, the Gary Sinise Foundation Soaring Valor Program brought eighteen real-life Rosie the Riveters to the World War II Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana to commemorate the bestowing of the Congressional Gold Medal to these women who provided critical supplies, supported Allied fighting forces, and reshaped American society.
These are women who truly bloomed where they were planted. I think Dolly would agree.
