The icon of Rosie the Riveter challenged the gender stereotype of American women in mid-20 th century America. However, even today her presence as an American Icon has been heavily glorified to transcend her initial purpose. The promotion of вЂRosie the RiveterвЂ™ during World War 2, is an example of the government challenging the traditional female role in American society and potentially paving the way for gender equality. However, in many cases, woman still took on вЂwhite collarвЂ™ jobs, or jobs that were deemed appropriate for them. Therefore, Rosie can be regarded as a success in fulfilling her purpose. The amount of woman in the workforce at the beginning of the war stood at 12 million and by the end of the war, this number had jumped to 18 million. While Rosie was not as revolutionary as a modern interpretation would assume, she was effective in mobilizing woman to enter the workforce. Rosie was really intended to appeal to the middle class, who would probably not have been the most enthusiastic about leaving their family in order to work. Woman in the workforce was not an entirely new concept, especially for the lower classes. In many cases, they were sent home once the war ended. For example, when woman initially entered into the workforce, they were not regarded as being as important an asset as their fellow male employees and were thus treated differently. Although promoting feminist ideals -such as woman being just as capable as doing the jobs men could do- Rosie was the product of a patriarchal hierarchy that was using woman for their own agenda when it suited them. Additionally, this was only meant to be a temporary solution to the problems of a swift armament agenda, it was not intended to be used as a feminist icon, merely an incentive for woman to go out and enter the workforce. During this time woman were actually discouraged from entering into the workforce and taking jobs away from men. It was a contradiction of the role of woman that had been previously endorsed by the government during the Depression era. However, this message didnвЂ™t translate entirely smoothly and can be described as being quite a deceptive image. These women were encouraged not to worry about their self image in the working world as they were presented with a strong, empowered and patriotic role model. The idea was to elevate factory work into a fashionable thing to do, something that wouldnвЂ™t take away from the femininity of a woman. Posters of Rosie tended to вЂGlamorizeвЂ™ the work place and breakdown the stigma of grimy and tough physical labour. Howard MillarвЂ™s, 1942 depiction of a very attractive and strong female worker. Rosie is most commonly associated with J. She was used as a tool to encourage white middle class woman to temporarily enter the workforce in order to contribute to the war effort and allow more males to go into service. government that emerged at the beginning of World War 2 as part of their propaganda campaign. Rosie the Riveter is a fictional character created by the U.S.

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