Women’s movements have, and will continue to change the course of history.
Rosie the Riveter was the beginning of one of the most powerful women’s movements of our time. Today, we celebrate the life of a woman who served as the inspiration for the iconic figurehead.
In the heat of WWII, 20-year-old Naomi Parker Fraley went to work at the Naval Air Station, in Alameda, CA. She was assigned to a machine shop, where her duties included drilling, patching airplane wings, and riveting. It was in this shop where a newspaper photographer captured a photo of Fraley working, hair tied up in a telltale polkadot headscarf.
This 1942 photo was likely the inspiration of an American wartime propaganda poster produced by J. Howard Miller for an electric company, intended to be an inspirational image to boost worker morale. The poster was never meant for public display, and had been all but forgotten during WWII. In the early 1980s, a copy resurfaced and "Rosie the Riveter" became a symbol of female strength and empowerment.
While it's true that the 1940s depiction of Rosie the Riveter, a woman with a determined expression and a can-do spirit, was inspiring to many - it was a sense of belonging to something much larger that helped provide a rally call – something that still unites women today.
You Can Do It.
This very rally call is what lit a fire under two military spouses who started a movement to empower modern day women who have similar strength and might, similar determination and grit, and similar heart and soul as those who kept our country moving forward in WWII.
The “Rosies” and “Riveters”, as they are called at R.Riveter, are doing more than simply making parts and pieces of American Handmade bags in their homes across the country. Their strength and spirit is magnified by a connection to dozens, hundreds, thousands of other military spouses just like them.
Proud. Determined. Honorable.
R.Riveter has a company “saying” that binds the era of WWII with today in a few short words. It’s a shorthand expression, a rally cry to go along with the iconic image and name, R.Riveter.
Of many, One.
We are stronger together than we are apart. Wecando it.
The passing of Naomi Parker Fraley touches all of us at R.Riveter.
The legendary icon Naomi inspired, Rosie the Riveter, drove our founders to take action, creating a movement to empower modern day women across the nation.
While Riveters of WWII entered factories to help the country in a time of need, today, R. Riveter is working to bring the same income opportunities home to the modern day woman.
