Rossie the Riveter

Posted: October 17th, 2013

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Rossie the Riveter

Introduction

For a very long time in America, women are seen to work at home while the men go out to work. In the economy, it shows how the different genders have different jobs. This could be regarded as discrimination. However, there is a significant change in the roles played by the women in the economy. This started during the First World War when men went to fight. The change was accelerated during the Second World War during the surprise attack by Japanese in the American Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. This resulted to more than two thousand deaths and significant damage to equipment. In this situation, the men went to fight while the women were left at home. As a result, women were encouraged to work for the factories to create more ammunition and other weapons to be used in the war. The movie ‘Rossie the Riveter’ clearly describes the economics of race and gender at the work places.

Discussion

            One incident that show changes in the economy of gender in work place in the movie ‘Rossie the Riveter’ is when Rosie finds it hard to sustain herself thus she starts working in the factory. She decides to join the other women and work in the factory. She is employed and starts work immediately. Rossie does the jobs that men used to do before the war. She starts gaining experience in the workforce and she is now enjoying herself while working. In this scene, women are encouraged to start working to fill the gap left by men who went to war. This shows that women are capable of doing exactly what men can do. Therefore, this scene encourages women to enter in the economy of employment by encouraging them to perform those jobs done by men.

As the movie progresses, there is one incident where the women who are working with Rossie start enjoying their work. In particular, Rossie starts to perfect the art of working in a man’s world. In this scene, women are seen to enjoy everything they are doing in full support of their men who are at the war. This shows that women have started accepting the new role they are playing in the economy, building weapons for the men to fight in the war. Although there are some men who are still working in the factory, the number of women working in the factory is more compared to the number of men. This scene clearly indicates that the economy of gender has totally changed and the women are able to work in a man’s world.

However, towards the end, activities in the economic sector start to change. In this scene, the war has ended and veterans are coming back home. Rossie wants to continue working in the factory but an unspoken force could not let her. This is because women were fired to create room for the veterans who are jobless. This disappoints Rossie and she is left powerless by the situation. This scene clearly indicates gender discrimination in the economy. The women’s place was regarded to be at home while the men were supposed to work. In this case, women were fired to create room for men as the society dictates thus showing male chauvinism in the economy.

Conclusion

In the past, a woman’s place in the economy was at home. The men used to work and bring food in the house while women performed domestic work. However, the movie ‘Rossie the Riveter’ has clearly shown that things changed suddenly due to the great depression and World War 2. There were no men to work since they had gone to fight. Additionally, there was a shortage in weapons to be used in the war. The only people who could save the situation were the women. This shows that the women are capable of doing jobs that are referred to as masculine jobs. This indicates that in the economy of gender, all genders are equal. However, towards the end of the movie, it can be seen that there is a lot of discrimination in the work places where the men are first recruited. Additionally, women are fired to create room for the unemployed men. This shows that the women do not have a place in the work force. Therefore, there is a lot of gender inequality in the work force.