The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter

Three African-American women and two white women discuss their defense industry employment, advocacy of labor rights, and societal expectations of them during and after World War II. Interviews are interspersed with newsreels, war department films, and Hollywood movies that promoted women's participation in the war effort and, particularly after the war, reinforced gender norms. The inclusion of black "Rosies" also reveals how racism operated in the war, gender norms, and the image of "Rosie the Riveter." The documentary was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”