Rosie by Rae’s Creations

Flower – Do all starred.

Triangle – Do 6 requirements including starred.

Circle – Do 8 requirements including starred.

Rectangle – Do all requirements including starred.

*1. Who was Rosie the Riveter? Rosie the Riveter is not a real woman. She’s a famous “icon” representing the women workers who contributed to the US war effort during WW2. "Rosie the Riveter" was the subject of a popular song written by Redd Evans and John Jacob Loeb. The song and the name inspired artists who created posters featuring 'Rosie' wearing factory clothes and her red bandana tied around her head while still looking glamorous.

1. Discuss what an icon is? If you describe something or someone as an icon, you mean that they are important as a symbol of a particular thing. What are some icons in our world today (answers may include the apple on an Apple computer, the cross on a church, even the mascot from their school).
2. Here’s some great pictures of Rosie’s at work!

*2. What did Rosie the Riveter represent? Rosie the Riveter represented the American women who worked in factories, munitions plants and shipyards during WW2. This was not a role that women worked in during that time.

1. What are some jobs that people think only men/boys can do? (examples: football player, doctor, truck driver)
2. Why do you believe people think only men/boys can do these jobs?
3. How does it make you feel when someone says you can’t do something because you are a girl? Is it fair that they say that?

*3. Who created the Rosie the Riveter posters?

An artist named J. Howard Miller created the famous "We Can Do It!" poster although it initially had no connection with someone named Rosie. (Here’s a link so you can show them the posters)

1. Design a poster encouraging girls to try something new! You can use the tagline “We Can Do It!” or something else.
2. In your poster show at least one girl doing something that people think girls can’t do.

*4. Civil Rights and Women. In later years, "Rosie the Riveter" also became an iconic American image symbolizing the fight for women’s civil rights. While women worked in different positions previously closed to them (meaning jobs they were not allowed to do), the aviation industry saw the greatest increase in female workers. More than 310,000 women worked in the U.S. aircraft industry in 1943.

• Women began working together during this time period to be treated as “equals” to men. Before this, women mainly stayed home and cooked, cleaned the house and took care of children.
• Women began coming together and demanding that they not be treated differently from men. This took a lot of teamwork. Teamwork is when people work together to reach a common goal. It’s your turn to set a goal and work together to reach it. Choose a task below that requires teamwork to complete. Do at least one.

Using only spoons, get a plastic egg to the otherside of the room without dropping it. If you drop it, you’ll have to start over.

Working as a team, try to keep a balloon in the air for 5 minutes. Everyone must help! Don’t let the balloon touch the ground or you have to start over.

Standing in two lines facing each other, get a ball from one end of the line to the other. Once you try it one time, see if you can do it in 30 or 60 seconds.

5. The Rosie’s First Jobs. At first the jobs for women that were offered were sewing or working on the assembly line putting things together. Eventually women were trained and moved into work traditionally done by men.

• Rosie’s had to sew many things from buttons on soldiers shirts to tents for soldiers to sleep in. Sometimes they had to sew by hand. Now you’ll learn to sew on a button. You’ll need to use a needle, thread and at least three different kinds of buttons.

6. Fashion and Rosie. During this time period women did not usually wear pants. They never wore shorts and they never wore jeans because it was considered unlady like. Women mainly wore dresses and skirts.

• Would it be smart to wear a dress when you are working in a factory? Why not?
• Women began wearing clothes that were more suited for their new jobs. They wore pants (often called trousers) and they wore coveralls/overalls. In many cases they had to wear men’s clothes because they did not make these for women yet! (you can see them in this link)
• They also had to wear their long hair up and covered with a bandana. The types of jobs that the "Rosies" were doing were often dirty and greasy. Since soap was being rationed (there was not enough of it) women had a difficult time keeping hair clean. To keep their hair safe they wore scarves, turbans or bandanas around their head to prevent their hair being caught in machinery.
• How to tie a bandana like Rosie the Riveter:

● Fold a bandana or scarf into a triangle and place on the head so the long side fits around the back of the head

● The middle tip of the bandana should fall down the forehead towards the nose

● Tie the outer tips into a knot on the top middle of the head

● Tuck the middle tip of the bandana under the knot

● This is the easiest way to tie a bandana like Rosie the Riveter

7. Hearing What it was Like. In today's world, women can do every type of job imaginable. Because of this, it may be hard for some kids to understand what things were like around the time of World War II. Do you have a grandmother or older relative that you could talk to? Ask them about what life was like "way back when." What changes have they seen over the years? What was it like for women back then. If not, you can watch this video from American Veterans Center. https://youtu.be/T5ks4glb8SA (Watch the first 11 minutes of the 35 minute interviews).

1. Discuss what she talked about.
   1. Mae lived a very hard childhood. Here family did not have a lot but everyone helped each other. Families worked together to make sure everyone got a little something to eat.
   2. Mae had a large family of 5. It sounds like her family was very close.
   3. How did she feel when she learned about Japan bombing Pearl Harbor? Before that she states she did not even know that there was a place called Pearl Harbor because back then there was no internet. They just had the radio.
   4. Mae worked as a Rosie for a company called Boeing with her sister in Seattle. She was there for a fun vacation but decided she wanted help the war effort and soldiers like her brother. She also did more than just make things. She was part of the supporters of the Gold Star Mothers (wives/mothers that lost someone during the war).
   5. Perseverance was important. Mae says some women wanted to help but did not think that they could do it. In the end, some of these women turned out to be the best workers.

8. The Rosie Song.

1. One of the ways that everyone learned about Rosie was through the popular song!
2. Sing the song with your friends! It’s a great song to sing on hikes and around the campfire too! Add it to your book of songs and sing it so no one ever forgets Rosie!

*9. Create your own Rosie ID badge and Host a We Can Do It Party. These ID badges were worn by every woman to show that she worked in the factories. They were tin badges that had her picture in them.

• Have a Rosie “We Can Do it Party” Have everyone wear clothes that they might where if they were in a factory and don’t forget to put your bandana and ID badge on! Spend the meeting learning something new together.
• At your party you can play games, create a “challenge” or test your skills at putting something together.