Rosie the Riveter and the Changing Face of the Manufacturing Workforce

By humanizing manufacturing, everyone is welcomed into the industry

Recently, Mary Doyle Keefe passed away at the age of 92. You may not recognize her name, but you’ll definitely recognize her face. Keefe was the model for Norman Rockwell’s famous 1943 painting, Rosie the Riveter.

During the 1940s, various versions of the painting symbolized the contributions of women in the workforce during World War II. Arguably the most iconic woman in manufacturing, Rosie was more than just a painting—she put a face to a movement.

Flash forward to today: Rosie is deserving of some new company. We need more “everyday” faces to associate with modern manufacturing and the changing workforce. Today, modern manufacturing is exciting and dynamic. U.S. products are created in a wide array of sectors from clothing and electronics to medical and transportation.

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Women in Manufacturing

Having more women in manufacturing is a double-edged sword: On the one hand, it opens the field to a diverse and multi-talented group of candidates that can only enhance quality of output. On the other, by removing women in greater numbers from the home environment, husbands and wives will be less willing and able to raise children, especially in sufficient numbers to fill in as their parents' future replacements in society, resulting in a slower, or even negative, population growth, less demand on resources that a larger family inherently produces, and a subsequent reduction in GDP. This is happening across Europe now, and would be more apparent in the U.S. were in not for the large influx of immigrants--yet another topic.