Rosie the Riveter at the IU Art Museum

Rosie the Riveter never existed, but she symbolizes women who started a real revolution.

The working women of World War II are celebrated in a new exhibition called “Photographing Rosie the Riveter” at the IU Art Museum, which opens Tuesday.

Sixteen million Americans were enlisted in World War II. By 1941, 37 percent of the workforce was women. More than a quarter of those women worked in the war industry.

The show features works by famed photographers of the era, with pieces by Andreas Feininger, Alfred T. Palmer and Howard Liberman.

Government photography projects like the Farm Security Administration directed much of their efforts toward supporting the Office of War Information, which was a prominent propaganda agency during the war.

It’s where mantras such as “The more women at work, the faster we win,” came from.

The photos were used as a tool to attract more women away from a domestic lifestyle and into factories, shipyards and bomb plants. They turned from housewives into welders, riveters and assembly line workers.

But the photos weren’t necessarily taken to prove all was fine among women in the workplace. Misogyny isn’t completely missing.

Back then, a woman in a hard hat and overalls was a sight that might have come as a shock. They received plenty of discrimination from their male co-workers.

Their assimilation into working society made a statement that has lasted ever since.

— Ashley Jenkins