‘Rosie the Riveter’ comes to RHS

Dr. Frances Carter, an “original Rosie the Riveter” came to Russellville High School Sept. 10.

By Macy Reeves

For the FCT

The famous poster that stood for women who worked on the homefront to help win World War II in the 1940s was just a symbol. But the workers, at least 6 million of them, worked in many kinds of jobs that men usually did, since so many men were away at war.

On Thursday, Sept. 10, an original Rosie the Riveter came to Russellville High School.

Dr. Frances Carter, who visited RHS, is 93 years old and was an original Rosie the Riveter who helped build B-29 bombers.

Originally a schoolteacher, she married John T. Carter and had two children. She was a freshman in college when the Japanese attacked at Pearl Harbor, which is why the United States joined the war.

“I woke up to the fact that I was the same age as John and, if I was a boy, I would have been drafted. I decided to go to Birmingham and get a job as a riveter,” Carter said.

She was hired to work as a riveter on the B-29.

“We were Rosies, trying to help win the war, but we weren’t looking for rights. Although some didn’t want to quit when the war was over, we were all dismissed when the war was over,” said Carter.

Although the women who were riveters didn’t mean to, they influenced women to seek women’s rights and to desire jobs that were not available to them before.

“Two things we did that we didn’t know we were doing: we opened the door for women to do all kinds of work, work we’d never done, and we also influenced fashion … Before the war it was disgraceful for women to wear slacks,” Carter said.

“We were not the real heroes; the real heroes were the soldiers who took the risk, risked their lives – they’re the heroes,” she added.

Rosie the Riveter started as an inspiration poster to get women to work jobs normally worked by men, but she became more than just a symbol during WWII; she would become a rallying symbol for women wanting rights.