I’m recording this in May of 2021, and we’re in the middle of recovering from a pandemic that has exposed the tenuous position of American women at work. Over the past year, Women have left the workforce in far greater numbers than men. And women with racialized identities have been impacted the most.

We Can Do It! — the sentiment attributed to Rosie the Riveter — rings a bit hollow in light of this recent news. 

Even so, Rosie the Riveter is the most iconic image of American womanhood. One full of contradictions. For one, she didn’t start as an image at all. So how did we come to worship at Rosie’s altar?