Global Fastener News

Roughly 80 years after their wartime efforts, real-life Rosie the Riveters received the nation’s highest civilian honor from Congress.

Some of them went to work in factories during World War II to join the war effort, some to help make ends meet while their husbands were fighting the war.

About 30 of them represented their millions of sister workers at the U.S. Capitol to receive the Congressional Gold Medal.

As men went off to war, some six million women went off to factories and shipyards, filling the jobs the men had left. Between 1940 and 1945, women in the work force went from 27% to nearly 37%. They were dubbed Rosie the Riveter, celebrated with an iconic poster, a Norman Rockwell painting, even a popular song.

When peace came and former G.I.s went back to work, many Rosies lost their jobs or returned to more traditional roles, their service quickly forgotten.

“After the war, everything was for the men, which they deserved,” former “Rosie” Mae Krier told PBS. “I don’t mean to take that away at all. But men will tell you, they couldn’t have won the war without what those women built.”

Many women were forced out of their jobs when the men returned after the war. Still, the experience shaped the rest of their lives and demonstrated that women could do work that had been traditionally reserved for men.