Rosie the Riveter: an enduring legacy of World War II.

Rosie the Riveter was an icon representing millions of American women who traded their aprons for overalls during World War II. The creation of our government's wartime propaganda, she was popularized by the media and romanticized the labor of millions of women who took on tough production jobs left vacant as men joined the armed forces.

"My sister's husband was in the Navy and he left one morning from Camden, N.J., telling her he'd see her that night," said Margie Munn, a member of DAV Auxiliary Unit 7 in Bowie, Md. "He saw her 3 years later. That's the way it was, so women had to fill in."

"They were our mothers and grandmothers who labored in tough, demanding and sometimes dangerous jobs in hopes of ending the war sooner and bringing their loved ones home," said Washington Headquarters Executive Director David W. Gorman. "Today, 60 years after the end of World War II, we still owe a great deal of thanks to the women who left the safety of their homes for the dangers of shipyards, tank factories and munitions plants."

Someone had to do the work, and the government needed an army of women to join the workforce immediately after the attack at Pearl Harbor propelled the nation into the war. One of the many slogans on "Rosie" posters was, "Do the work he left behind." The women who went to work were called "production soldiers."

In 1942, Redd Evans and John Jacob Loeb penned the song "Rosie the Riveter," which caught the imagination of America, and shortly thereafter "Rosies" started popping up everywhere. As local newspapers and national magazines developed their own human interest stories of real-life Rosies, illustrator Norman Rockwell created a "Rosie" image that appeared on the May 29, 1943, issue of The Saturday Evening Post.

Rockwell's "Rosie" was a strong woman wearing goggles and overalls with several production pins on the bib. With biceps exposed by rolled up sleeves, she sat with a rivet gun in her lap eating a sandwich. In the background was the American flag, and her feet crunched a copy of Hitler's Mein Kampf. Circulation for that issue of the Post doubled as Americans loved "Rosie."

The most enduring image of Rosie was the poster created by artist J. Howard Miller. His defiant "Rosie" with her hair up in a red and white polka-dot bandanna flexes her bicep showing the muscle of the American woman. Boldly printed on the poster is the slogan, "We Can Do It!"

"We had to dress in pants and tops with no frills and no jewelry," said Munn. "You also had to cover your head because the machines were dangerous and you didn't want your hair to get caught in them. We didn't worry about our hands or our nails. We weren't there for glamour. We were there to work and we got our faces dirty."

Munn was a drill press operator in a small defense plant for a time in 1942 and then went to work at the Philadelphia Navy Yard in 1943. "I operated five automatic gear machines," she said. "We would go around and check all of our machines with our equipment to make sure everything was precise." Later, she moved to Texas to join North American Aircraft as a drill press and punch press operator, building P-51 Mustang fighters and B-25 Mitchell bombers. "We did our own blueprint reading, and we worked on aluminum and stainless steel for parts."

Soon, every segment of society saw women replacing men on the job. They drove buses, streetcars and bulldozers; and built ships and airplanes, carved timber out of forests; and, of course, became riveters. During the war, women swelled the workforce by 50 percent. Racial barriers were broken as women from every culture took on the jobs that had never before been available to them. "Everyone was so patriotic that no one said they couldn't do something," said Munn.

The effort to recruit women into the workforce wasn't new, just desperately needed. During World War I, women began shouldering their share of the price of freedom. But it was World War II that gave women the immense freedom of choice and the opportunity to prove themselves which endures today.

First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who toured factories with women workers, was in awe of what women were accomplishing. "I hardly saw a man who did not speak to me about the need for women in production," she said.

Rose Will Monroe helped bring "Rosie" to life when she was spotted by actor Walter Pidgeon during a tour of a Ford Motor Company aircraft assembly plant. He was able to land her a spot as "Rosie" in a government film promoting the war effort. Another "Rosie" was Rose Hicker, a real-life riveter at Eastern Aircraft Company. Hicker and her work partner were recognized in the media for driving a record number of rivets into a wing of a Grumman Avenger bomber.

Both real and fictional "Rosies" were depicted throughout the war in the media, in song and in films and Broadway plays.

Following the return of veterans from World War II, most women workers were replaced by men. The need for war material and munitions workers ended. "Once I quit working after the end of the war, I didn't work again until 1960," said Munn. "Once women were out of the defense plants, we were home people. We raised our children and took care of the household."

"We never felt that we were taking anyone's job or considered that women had taken over because we had not," said Munn. "Women were filling in, and they were keeping the world going making the things that were needed for the war effort. We went in to do the work to keep America afloat."

"I never consider myself Rosie the Riveter because that was a job--a riveter," said Munn. "I'm a niece of Uncle Sam. Uncle Sam's my uncle. He still is."

"Rosies" went back to their kitchens; but the number of working women never again fell to pre-war levels. Women had earned their place in the workforce, leading to the 1970s women in the workplace movement and cultural diversity--a legacy that endures today.

* Over six million women entered the workforce between 1941 and 1945. Another three million volunteered with the Red Cross.

* Women's magazines of the day did their part by printing articles and pictures highlighting the importance of joining the workforce. Twice a month the government published its War Magazine Guide, providing the magazines with a constant supply of information, statistics and story ideas.

* One of the most memorable magazine covers, Norman Rockwell's Rosie the Riveter, appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post in April 1943. Rosie is wearing loafers, not work boots, because women's safety shoes with metal toes weren't available until after July 1943.

* Many women who already had jobs changed to higher-paying ones during the war. In 1942, 600 laundries across the country had to close as their female employees left for higher wages elsewhere.

* Victory gardens, tended by 16.5 million households, provided 40% of the flesh produce consumed on the homefront during the war.

* Department of Labor publications provided women at home with every type of advice for running their households alone. One set of guidelines, for writing to enlisted husbands, advised women not to complain about hardships at home. Instead, writing cheerful news was an important part of the war effort, as it would do much to keep up morale among the troops.

Editor's note: Margie Munn died Nov. 5, 2005, after this article was written.