When it comes to symbolizing the influx of women in the workforce and the wave of patriotism and feminism that surge sparked during World War II, few American icons are more recognizable than “Rosie the Riveter.”
Artist J. Howard Miller’s 1942 poster, featuring a bandanna-donning, blue-collared woman with the famed flex beneath the rally cry, “We Can Do It!” grew over time to represent millions of women who stepped up to fill various stateside labor-intensive jobs once held by men, now tapped to fight German and Japanese forces.