We Can Do It!

American World War II wartime poster

"We Can Do It!" is an American wartime propaganda poster. J. Howard Miller made it in 1943 for Westinghouse Electric. It was used to inspire female workers to keep working. It became popular in the 1980s feminist movement.[1]

J. Howard Miller's "We Can Do It!" poster from 1943

The poster was very little seen during World War II. It was rediscovered in the early 1980s and widely reproduced in many forms, often called "We Can Do It!" but also called "Rosie the Riveter" (modeled by Naomi Parker) after the iconic figure of a strong female war production worker.

The image has become very popular. It has been used to support feminism.[2] Feminists used the image in a different way than it was used during World War II. Feminists used it to support women working together against gender equality. In World War II, it was used to make workers keep working.[1][3] The image was the cover of the Smithsonian magazine in 1994. The US Postal Service put it on a mail stamp in 1999.[4]

References change

  1. 1.0 1.1 Kimble, James J.; Olson, Lester C. (Winter 2006). "Visual Rhetoric Representing Rosie the Riveter: Myth and Misconception in J. Howard Miller's 'We Can Do It!' Poster". Rhetoric & Public Affairs. 9 (4): 533–569. Also available through Highbeam. Archived 2013-10-11 at the Wayback Machine
  2. Endres, Kathleen L. (2006). "Rosie the Riveter". In Dennis Hall, Susan G. Hall (ed.). American icons: an encyclopedia of the people, places, and things. Vol. 1. Greenwood. p. 601. ISBN 978-0-275-98429-8.
  3. Sharp, Gwen; Wade, Lisa (January 4, 2011), "Sociological Images: Secrets of a feminist icon", Contexts, 10 (2): 82–83, doi:10.1177/1536504211408972, ISSN 1536-5042, S2CID 145551064
  4. "Women Support War Effort". United States Postal Service. Archived from the original on June 23, 2013. Retrieved January 24, 2012.

Other websites change

  Media related to We Can Do It at Wikimedia Commons