What Happened to Rosie?

Abstract

Identifying the relationship between wartime work and women’s lifetime outcomes is difficult due to scant work histories from the 1940s. This study identifies “Rosie the Riveters� using data from the 1973 Current Population Survey matched to Social Security earnings records. Relative to women who did not work during or immediately after the war, Rosies had greater labor force attachment later in life, but had similar earnings. Their husbands’ earnings were also higher. The Rosies’ outcomes were less distinguishable from the women who worked during and/or after the war, though they were more likely to be married as of 1973.