Rosie the Riveter was an allegorical cultural icon of World
War II, representing the women who worked in factories and shipyards during World
War II, many of whom produced munitions and
war supplies. These women sometimes took entirely new jobs replacing the male workers who joined the military.
Rosie the Riveter subsequently became both a
feminist icon and the symbol of the emerging economic role played by women in the
United States. The most famous poster was "
We Can Do It!" Created for Westinghouse in 1942 by J. Howard Miller, whose model is Naomi Parker Fraley. This poster was stuck on the walls of the factory and those who went to work in the factories were called "Rosies".
Radical feminism is a perspective within
feminism that calls for a
radical reordering of
society in which male supremacy is eliminated in all social and economic contexts, while recognizing that women's experiences are also affected by other social divisions such as in race, class, and sexual orientation. The
ideology and movement emerged in the 1960s.
Radical feminists view
society as fundamentally a
patriarchy in which men dominate and oppress women.
Radical feminists seek to abolish the
patriarchy as one front in a struggle to liberate everyone from an unjust
society by challenging existing social norms and institutions. This struggle includes opposing the sexual objectification
… Read more of women, raising public awareness about such issues as rape and violence against women, challenging the concept of
gender roles, and challenging what
radical feminists see as a racialized and gendered capitalism that characterizes the
United States and many other countries.
Radical feminists locate the root cause of women's
oppression in patriarchal gender relations, as opposed to legal systems (as in liberal
feminism) or class
conflict (as in anarchist
feminism, socialist
feminism, and Marxist
feminism).
Anarcha-
feminism combines
anarchism with
feminism. Anarcha-
feminism generally posits that
patriarchy and traditional
gender roles as manifestations of involuntary coercive
hierarchy should be replaced by decentralized free association. Anarcha-feminists believe that the struggle against
patriarchy is an essential part of class
conflict and the anarchist struggle against the state and capitalism. In essence, the philosophy sees anarchist struggle as a necessary component of
feminist struggle and vice versa. L. Susan Brown claims that "as
anarchism is a political philosophy that opposes all relationships of power, it is inherently
feminist". Anarcha-
feminism is an anti-authoritarian,
… Read more anti-capitalist, anti-oppressive philosophy, with the goal of creating an "equal ground" between the genders. Anarcha-
feminism suggests the social
freedom and liberty of women without needed dependence upon other groups or parties. Anarcha-
feminism began with late 19th and early 20th century authors and theorists such as anarchist feminists
Emma Goldman,
Voltairine de Cleyre, Milly Witkop,
Lucía Sánchez Saornil, and Lucy Parsons. In the Spanish Civil
War, an anarcha-
feminist group,
Mujeres Libres ("Free Women"), linked to the Federación Anarquista Ibérica, organized to defend both anarchist and
feminist ideas.
"
We Can Do It!" is an
American World
War II wartime poster produced by J. Howard Miller in 1943 for Westinghouse Electric as an inspirational image to boost female worker morale. The poster was rediscovered in the early 1980s and widely reproduced in many forms, often called "
We Can Do It!" but also called "
Rosie the Riveter" after the iconic figure of a strong female
war production worker. The "
We Can Do It!" image was used to promote
feminism and other political issues beginning in the 1980s. In subsequent years, the poster was re-appropriated to promote
feminism. Feminists saw in the image an embodiment of female
empowerment. The "We" was understood to mean "We Women", uniting all
… Read more women in a sisterhood fighting against gender inequality. Today, the image has become very widely known, far beyond its narrowly defined purpose during WWII.