Original Rosie the Riveter, 93, Still Working at Boeing Factory Where She Started During WWII

[big_dog]

Source: Daily Mail of London

Elinor Otto, 93, picked up a riveting gun during World War II, joining the wave of women taking on the jobs of men sent to fight overseas.
While most of the original 'Rosie the Riveter' women left the workforce just days after the war ended, Otto continued to rivet.

These days she's building the C-17 at Boeing's California plant.
Otto is out of bed every morning at 4am, gets a coffee and newspaper, before starting work by 6am.
She parks as far away from the plant as possible so she can walk over - her morning exercise. She brings cookies for her colleagues every Thursday.

'We hoped we'd win the war. We worked hard as women, and were proud to have that job.
'I'm a working person, I guess. I like to work. I like to be around people that work.

'I like to get up, get out of the house, get something accomplished during the day.'
However it is likely she will finally have to retire next year when Boeing finishes off its last contract for those C-17 cargo planes.



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2434889/Original-Rosie-Riveter-working-aged-93.html#undefined

[BeyondGeography]

1. Unreal

[big_dog]

2. she deserves a medal of some sort

[img][/img]

[avaistheone1]

6. She does!

k&r

[yuiyoshida]

19. absolutely!

[Cooley Hurd]

24. She should get a medal for those legs!

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. Nope. Very real. Not incredible. Credible. nt

[Scuba]

4. Somebody should tell her that we won and the war's over.

Serious role model. Thanks Rosie!!

[BainsBane]

5. My grandmother was another woman who went to work in WW2 and stayed

after the war. I am not sue if it was the same factory and in the same capacity, but we worked at the Ford plant well into her 80s.

[TexasTowelie]

7. So did Boeing give her any pay raises since World War II?

[Posteritatis]

8. Ouch. (nt)

[mahatmakanejeeves]

9. But apparently the original Rosie the Riveter died nearly three years ago.

I always read the obituaries. I saved this one.

Geraldine Doyle, 86, dies; one-time factory worker inspired Rosie the Riveter and 'We Can Do It!' poster
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/29/AR2010122905336.html

By T. Rees Shapiro
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 29, 2010; 11:30 PM

Geraldine Doyle, 86, who as a 17-year-old factory worker became the inspiration for a popular World War II recruitment poster that evoked female power and independence under the slogan "We Can Do It!," died Dec. 26 at a hospice in Lansing, Mich.

Her daughter, Stephanie Gregg, said the cause of death was complications from severe arthritis.

For millions of Americans throughout the decades since World War II, the stunning brunette in the red and white polka-dot bandanna was Rosie the Riveter.

Also:

Geraldine Doyle, Iconic Face of World War II, Dies at 86
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/30/us/30doyle.html

By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS
Published: December 29, 2010

Geraldine Hoff Doyle, who was believed to be the unwitting model for the “We Can Do It!” poster of a woman flexing her biceps in a factory during World War II — an image that later became a symbol for the American feminist movement — died on Sunday in Lansing, Mich. She was 86.
....

In 1942, when she was 17, Geraldine Hoff took a job as a metal presser at a factory near her home in Inkster, Mich., near Detroit, to aid the war effort, Mrs. Gregg said. One day, a United Press photographer came in to shoot images of working women.

The resulting poster, designed by the graphic artist J. Howard Miller, was used in a Westinghouse Company campaign to deter strikes and absenteeism. It was not widely seen until the early 1980s, when it was embraced by feminists.

There are several corroborating articles. Google "rosie the riveter obituary."

[Posteritatis]

10. There were many Rosii, not just Doyle.

The term was often used to refer to any of the women working in industry during the war.

[David__77]

11. She looks a lot younger than 93.

Maybe keeping working and "in the world" has that effect.

[grasswire]

12. that and a redhead wig

Consider that photo if her hair were grey. She would look much, much older.

[David__77]

21. Oh, I know. She looks more like 77 to me.

Something like that. I pictured her with white hair when I was looking at the picture.

[Hayabusa]

13. My Grandmother was a Rosie

Not so much due to a sense of patriotic duty, though I'm sure that thought came into her mind. She was working at a garment factory when they won a war contract not to make uniforms, but make propellers for aircraft. Her job was to polish the props before sending them off for shipping.

[Sunlei]

14. very cool woman! and she brings cookies!

[SomeGuyInEagan]

15. Unreal ... a morning newspaper!

Thought those were all gone.

[Renew Deal]

16. She'll have a nice Social Security payment when she retires

[big_dog]

25. she will definitely be 'maxed out' at the top income totals

a well earned $2,500 per month indeed!

[maxsolomon]

17. She could have retired 27 years ago

And someone younger, man OR woman, could have raised a family with that job.

But it's a cute story so I'm not supposed to make that observation.

[Posteritatis]

18. The nerve of those blasted elderly, inconveniencing us by liking their work. (nt)

[David__77]

22. Wow wow wow...

OR that man or woman could have contributed to the economy by getting a different job - and in all likelihood, he or she did!

There is nothing wrong with older people remaining economically productive! That is a benefit to the whole of society.

It's ironic, because a version of that very argument is why women were fired from their jobs after WW2.

[penultimate]

23. And she's an enabler of the military industrial complex...

I figure while we're attacking her for having the nerve to work, we might as well throw that one in there.

[Javaman]

20. Myth-Making and the “We Can Do It!” Poster

http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2011/01/04/myth-making-and-the-we-can-do-it-poster/

snip

Of course, having a woman represent a default factory employee is noteworthy. But our reading of the poster as a feminist emblem partially rests on the idea that this female worker is calling out encouragement to other women. The authors, however, point out a much less empowering interpretation if you think of the poster not in terms of feminism, but in terms of social class and labor relations:


…Westinghouse used “We Can Do It!” and Miller’s other posters to encourage women’s cooperation with the company’s relatively conservative concerns and values at a time when both labor organizing and communism were becoming active controversies for many workers… (p. 537)

…by addressing workers as “we,” the pronoun obfuscated sharp controversies within labor over communism, red-baiting, discrimination, and other heartfelt sources of divisiveness. (p. 550)

One of the major functions of corporate war committees was to manage labor and discourage any type of labor disputes that might disrupt production. From this perspective, images of happy workers expressing support for the war effort and/or workers’ abilities served as propaganda that encouraged workers to identify with one another and management as a team; “patriotism could be invoked to circumvent strikes and characterize workers’ unrest as un-American” (p. 562).

[lunatica]

26. It has always been a myth that women weren't the breadwinners

That entire thing is propaganda. Women have always worked, even before we became the United States.

And during every single war this country has had it was women who kept the county going by being the farmers and the breadwinners and the businesswomen keeping their family businesses alive. Even when John Adams was Ambassador and later President his wife, Abigail Adams toiled on their farm and raised the children. And our history and the world's history is full of women who worked outside the home. And that includes maids and housekeepers and cleaning ladies and elderly careworkers and nurses and secretaries. Women have always worked, and they've worked as hard as any man.