What messages did the U.S. government wish to send to women about war work, and how did it convey these messages through these posters?

Describe the women in the posters. What types of women did the Office of War Information choose for its posters, and why? What types of women are not depicted? (The Harvey film will give you ideas to help you deepen your image analysis.)
What messages did the U.S. government wish to send to women about war work, and how did it convey these messages through these posters? Use specific details.
What can we learn about women’s work during World War II from these posters? What can we not learn?
Now, look at images #1 – #31 on the same site. These are photographs of real women, though they were also taken for the Office of War Information.

Describe the women in at least three of these photos. What types of women did the Office of War Information choose as photo subjects, and why? What are the women doing in the photos?
Many of these photos are staged photos. Does that mean that they are still useful to us as historical documents? What might historians learn from some of these specific staged photos? What can we not learn? Give specific examples from the photos.
Imagine that you are an historian writing a history of Rosie the Riveter images. Develop a historical question that you could attempt to answer (or a thesis you could test) through researching these images.

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