The real story behind this war poster

Rosie the riveter is iconic. But what’s the real story behind the poster? Subscribe to our channel! In this episode of Vox Almanac, Vox’s Phil Edwards explores the story behind the women riveters of World War II. During World War II, millions of women entered manufacturing and the workforce in general. How did the labor pool change so dramatically, so quickly? And how does it connect to the familiar poster of Rosie the riveter that people still love today? These riveters came from other industries and outside the workforce, guided with the help of private industry and some government agencies. The US Employment Service helped place men and women at wartime jobs, and the Women’s Bureau and War Manpower Commission helped find and train that labor. The traditional Rosie the riveter story is not without its omissions: white women benefited most from labor changes, and many of the riveters were already in the labor force before World War II began. But in a significant way, World War II di