![]() ![]() The contribution of women to victory was enormous, and today as we celebrate Women’s History Month one of the enduring iconic symbols of the achievement of women in World War II is the Rosie the Riveter poster with the inspiring message: “We Can Do It!” The image and theme of the Rosie character, representative of millions upon millions of women who worked in industry on the American home front, carried over as a stirring symbol into the feminist movement of the postwar decades. For example, women pilots were relegated to ferrying aircraft within the United States, not in combat zones in Europe or the Pacific, where the closest women generally came to combat were as nurses behind the lines. ![]() ![]() However, the Americans sought to limit the exposure of women to combat as much as possible. In the United States, over 350,000 women served in the armed forces in World War II. Composed of the voices of over 500 women describing in their own words their lives during the Soviet Union’s Great Patriotic War against Nazi Germany, what sets this work apart is its centering women in the violence of war not only as victims, but combatants. Perhaps no one has documented the immersion of women in a total war like Svetlana Alexievich in her book The Unwomanly Face of War. ![]()
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