Discuss a detail information of the movie Rossie the Riveter - Essay Example

The American culture, for the most part, had seen the ideal of womanhood as staying home and raising the children. Most women did not work outside the home. Those who did had limited opportunities. In 1910 in the United States, more than one third of employed women were maids or house servants. However, during World War II, it became the woman’s responsibility to pick up the industrial work. It was seen as the woman’s duty to support the men at war. They were expected to work in war factories, building ships and planes.

“Rosie the Riveter” portrays 5 women’s firsthand accounts of working in Detroit, New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco during World War II. All the women stated that they were led to feel like they had to do their part for their husbands, brothers, and sons off at war. The movie showed government propaganda created to persuade women to work, such as television commercials that compared using machinery to using a sewing machine. Some women were enticed to work in war factories by their patriotisms, others by the hope of making good money.

However, all struggled with long grueling days and inequality. Women were still not paid the same as the men who had previously done the same jobs. The movie “Rosie the Riveter” even states women were often better at these jobs because of their precision and small hands. There women, however, weren’t paid the same as men. African Americans have faced discrimination in the United States, based on their race for centuries. Discrimination based on race was prevalent during World War II. Race, much like gender, is a socially constructed category.

Race refers to difference in human physical characteristics used to categorize a large group, in this case African Americans. “Rosie the Riveter” portrays how African American women were discriminated against in the workplace. The movie discusses how black women made less than white women doing the same job, equally well. Inequality was not just faced at the financial level. Black women were often not given as good of jobs as white women. One African American woman in the “Rosie the Riveter” discusses about how she went for a job along with three white women.

The shipyard gave all three of the white women jobs and then told her that there were no more jobs left for her. Black women also faced discrimination among other female workers. The one woman in the movie discussed how a black woman was not allowed to use the showers at the factory. This was because some of the white women did not want to share a bathroom with and African American. This caused such a problem that no one was allowed to use showers anymore. Throughout World War II, the housework and the children were still seen as the women’s duty.

Women were encouraged to work, but they were not excused from the housework or the children. Women were putting in long grueling days at the factories. Hey were then putting in long grueling nights at home. Women were working twelve-hour days in the factory. They were then going home and doing all the housework, including the care of the children. One woman in “Rosie the Riveter” describes how she lived with her husband’s family. She would work all day at the factory, the same one as her brother-in-law.

However, she had to come home and cook. She made dinner for everyone and then cleaned up afterwards. Her brother-in-law laid on the couch and