( Boston Globe, July 17, 1943)įor Pittsburgh, women welders represented a significant World War II story. But the phrase gained traction and “Winnie the welder” sometimes accompanied “Rosie” in newspaper coverage regarding women workers.Īdvertisement for the Bethlehem-Hingham Shipyard, seeking “Elsie, the Electrician” and “Winnie, the Welder,” 1943. 9.” ix It is not clear what happened to the song. According to Ed Sullivan, Marshall debuted a “daffy tune” called “Winnie the Welder, Queen of the Smelter, Defense Plant No. vii Even Canada saluted “Ronnie, the Bren Gun Girl.” viii (The Bren gun was a light machine gun.) Such personifications attested to the wide experiences of real women defense workers and underlined the value of labels as recruiting tools: soundbites for the 1940s.Īside from Rosie, the most widely used name was “Winnie the Welder.” The idea possibly first appeared in a comedy routine offered by entertainer Jack Marshall at the Belmont Plaza Hotel in New York City in August 1942. iv A Boston shipyard recruited “Elsie, the Electrician.” v One writer advocated for “Typewriting Tess.” vi A California newspaper reported a distraught “Aircraft Annie” lamenting “Rosie’s” rise. Reflecting this, other characters appeared, some in response to “Rosie.” Garbed in work pants and goggles, “Susie the Steelworker” debuted at a Carnegie-Illinois steel plant in Gary, Ind., in March 1943. Women filled many industry roles during the war.
Government Printing Office. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)īack in the 1940s, some women would have reminded us that they were not all riveters.
“Soldiers without guns,” recruiting poster including a woman welder, 1944. Art by Adolph Treidler, U.
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