Beyond Rosie

Collection of primary source documents, which include photographs, official reports, editorials, executive orders, radio broadcast scripts, letters and oral histories, detailing the experiences and contributions of American women during World War II. The documentary collection is a companion volume to a 2012 traveling exhibition from the Museum of History and Holocaust Education. Chapter 1 documents the mobilization of women into industrial factories and agricultural sectors. Chapter 2 deals with women who found employment in white-collar professions, such as law, journalism, clerical work and medicine. Chapter 3 traces women's service in military auxiliary units. Chapter 4 focuses on women's domestic labor on the home front. Chapter 5 documents the secret war waged by the government including its use of women as spies and saboteurs.

More so than any war in history, World War II was a woman’s war. Women, motivated by patriotism, the opportunity for new experiences, and the desire to serve, participated widely in the global conflict. Within the Allied countries, women of all ages proved to be invaluable in the fight for victory. Rosie the Riveter became the most enduring image of women’s involvement in World War II. What Rosie represented, however, is only a small portion of a complex story. As wartime production workers, enlistees in auxiliary military units, members of voluntary organizations or resistance groups, wives and mothers on the home front, journalists, and USO performers, American women found ways to challenge traditional gender roles and stereotypes. Beyond Rosie offers readers an opportunity to see the numerous contributions they made to the fight against the Axis powers and how American women’s roles changed during the war. The primary documents (newspapers, propaganda posters, cartoons, excerpts from oral histories and memoirs, speeches, photographs, and editorials) collected here represent cultural, political, economic, and social perspectives on the diverse roles women played during World War II.

The iconic bicep-flexing poster image of "Rosie the Riveter" has long conveyed the impression that women were welcomed into the World War II work force and admired for helping "free a man to fight." Donna Knaff, however, shows that "Rosie" only revealed part of the reality and that women depicted in other World War II visual art-both in the private sector and the military-reflected decidedly mixed feelings about the status of women within American society. Beyond Rosie the Riveter takes readers back to a time before television's dominance, to the golden age of print art and its singular power over public opinion. Focusing specifically on instances of "female masculinity" when women entered previously all-male fields, Knaff places these images within the context of popular discussions of gender roles and examines their historical, cultural, and textual contexts. As Knaff reveals, visual messages received by women through war posters, magazine cartoons, comic strips, and ads may have acknowledged their importance to the war effort but also cautioned them against taking too many liberties or losing their femininity. Her study examines the subtle and not-so subtle cultural battles that played out in these popular images, opening a new window on American women's experience. Some images implicitly argued that women should maintain their femininity despite adopting masculinity for the war effort; others dealt with society's deep-seated fear that masculinized women might feminize men; and many reflected the dilemma that a woman was both encouraged to express and suppress her sexuality so that she might be perceived as neither promiscuous nor lesbian. From these cases, Knaff draws a common theme: while being outwardly empowered or celebrated for their wartime contributions, women were kept in check by being held responsible for everything from distracting male co-workers to compromising machinery with their long hair and jewelry. Knaff also notes the subtle distinctions among the images: government war posters targeted blue-collar women, New Yorker content was aimed at socialites, Collier's addressed middle-class women, and Wonder Woman was geared to young girls. Especially through its focus on visual arts, Knaff's book gives us a new look at American society decades before the modern women's rights movement, torn between wartime needs and antiquated gender roles. It provides much-needed nuance to a glossed-over chapter in our history, charting the difficult negotiations that granted-and ultimately took back-American women's wartime freedoms.

"Rosie Becomes a Warrior" is a children's story designed to empower children with type 1 diabetes to live their happiest lives. "Rosie Becomes a Warrior" follows the story of Rosie, a second-grader who loves to draw and eat ice cream, as she navigates her type 1 diabetes diagnosis with her parents. Rosie doesn't understand why her parents are worried about her until she goes to the doctor with her mom one night where the doctor performs a blood glucose test on her, and her blood sugar reading is 500. "If 100 is good on a test, 500 has to be really good, right?!" Rosie thinks. But then her mommy starts to cry. Rosie's never seen her mommy cry before. Now she knows something is wrong. From the doctor's office, readers join Rosie on her journey to the hospital as she navigates the fears, highs and lows, and unknowns of type 1 diabetes with a courageous, proactive, and positive spirit that I hope readers are empowered and strengthened by. Meet Rosie, Penny the Zebra, Dr. H, Emily, and DeeDee's Ice Cream Shop in "Rosie Becomes a Warrior." Be inspired to find your inner warrior with Rosie. Remind yourself and your family that you are capable of everything you set your mind to. Rediscover a positive perspective on the type 1 diabetes experience. Learn more at www.rosiethet1dwarrior.com.

Examines advertisements and fiction published in the Saturday Evening Post and True Story in order to show how propaganda was used to encourage women to enter the work force.

A church has built an accessibility ramp and perhaps refitted its restrooms to accommodate a wheelchair. Now what? This new resource by a noted author of several books on people with disabilities offers a theological and practical approach for congregations, with clear, targeted strategies for full inclusion of all members, recognizing and using the gifts that each member brings to the congregations life together.

Once upon a time in a very busy city, on a very busy street, in two very small apartments, lived... Herman and Rosie. Herman liked playing the oboe, the smell of hot dogs in the winter, and watching films about the ocean. Rosie liked pancakes, listening to old jazz records, and watching films about the ocean. They both loved the groovy rhythm of the city, but sometimes the bustling crowds and constant motion left them lonely, until one night ... A Neal Porter Book