The character of "Rosie the Riveter" as a feminist icon, World War II icon, and mid-century heroine is ingrained in the American psyche, a symbol of both the war effort and a historic shift in the American workplace. In the early 1940s, as women flooded the workforce to replace the millions of men who had gone to war, a wide variety of songwriters, illustrators such as Norman Rockwell of Saturday Evening Post and photographers essentially invented the archetype on which all subsequent Rosies were based.
(Pittsburgh artist J. Howard Miller's famous 1942 "We Can Do It!" poster for the Westinghouse House, featuring easily the most famous and recognizable "Rosie" of all, was not widely known by during the war years, and achieved iconic contemporary status decades later.)
Among the photographers who captured this massive and, in a very real sense, revolutionary influx of female workers into traditionally male factory jobs as welders, turners, machinists and, of course, riveters, was LIFE's Margaret Bourke-White.
A trailblazer herself (one of the four original LIFE magazine photographers, America's first accredited female photographer during World War II, the first authorized to fly a combat mission, etc.), Bourke-White spent time in 1943 in Gary, Indiana, recording "women ... operators of an amazing variety of jobs" in steel mills "some completely unskilled, some semi-skilled, and others requiring great technical knowledge, precision and facility," as LIFE told readers in its issue of August 9, 1943. The magazine went on to note:
In 1941 only 1% of airmen were women, while this year they will make up about 65% of the total. Of the 16,000,000 women now working in the US, over a quarter are in war industries. Although the idea of the weaker sex sweating near blast furnaces, directing giant ladles of molten iron, or pouring hot ingots is acceptable in England and Russia, it has always been foreign to the American tradition. Only the increasing need for labor and the reduced supply of labor has forced this revolutionary adjustment.
The women are recruited from Gary and nearby East Chicago. A minority has drifted away from rural areas. They are black and white, Polish and Croatian, Mexican and Scottish... The female steelworkers in Gary are not freaks or innovators. They have been accepted by management, by the union, by the rough, iron men with whom they work day in and day out. In times of peace they may return to home and family again, but they have proved that in times of crisis no job is too difficult for American women.
…
Here, LIFE.com presents a series of images from the Gary steel mills in 1943. See these women, pride shining on their faces, as well as Bourke-White's characteristically wonderful photos of huge machines and greased gears that captivate the creaking and rugged beauty of a factory and its workers in full production mode.
Liz Ronk edited this collection for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LizabethRonk
Women workers clean up spills, Gary, Ind. 1943.
Margaret Bourke-White The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Women wearing gas masks clean a blast furnace top at a Gary, Ind., steel mill, 1943.
Margaret Bourke-White The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Female employees at Tubular Alloy Steel Corp. in Gary, Ind. they dominated the pep rally, 1943.
Margaret Bourke-White The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Bernice Daunora, 31, a member of a steel mill's "top gang" had to wear a "one-hour, lightweight breathing apparatus" to protect against escaping blast furnace gas, Gary, Ind., 1943.
Margaret Bourke-White The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Theresa Arana, 21, downloaded temperature records in draft furnaces, Gary, Ind., 1943.
Margaret Bourke-White The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
A stamping machine at a rail mill in Gary was used by Florence Romanowski (right). Mechanically name IDs on hot rails. Her husband was in the army
Margaret Bourke-White The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Katherine Mrzljak, 34, a mother of two, worked with her husband at the steel mill.
Margaret Bourke-White The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Women Welders, Gary, Ind., 1943.
Margaret Bourke-White The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Scarfing is the operation in which surface defects are removed from plates to prepare them for rolling. The woman in the center of the photo marked flaws with chalk for the man who made the scarf (right).
Margaret Bourke-White The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Bending armor plate for tanks at the Gary Works, these women operated powerful acetylene torches.
Margaret Bourke-White The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Audra Mae Hulse, 20, was a flame cutter at American Bridge Co. in Gary. He had five relatives in the factory.
Margaret Bourke-White The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Lugrash Larry, 32, a worker in the blast furnace department, was a mother of four. Her husband was also a steel mill worker.
Margaret Bourke-White The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Lorraine Gallinger, 20, was a metallurgical observer. From North Dakota, he planned to return there after the war.
Margaret Bourke-White The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Blanche Jenkins, 39, a welder at Carnegie-Illinois, bought a $50 war bond every month. He had two children.
Margaret Bourke-White The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
The flame cutting of a plate was done with a four-blade machine controlled and operated by a woman. Alice Jo Barker (above) had a husband and son who also worked in war industries.
Margaret Bourke-White The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
The "everyman" at Gary Works was Rosalie Ivy. he was mixing a special mud used to seal the casting hole through which molten iron flowed from a blast furnace.
Margaret Bourke-White The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Truck operator Mae Harris, 23, signaled the crane man to return the empty, hot metal bucket to the truck (left). The ladle contained molten iron that had been poured into an open hearth furnace. In the furnace the molten iron was added to molten scrap, which, together with iron ore and fluxes, resulted in finished steel after refining.
Margaret Bourke-White The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Dolores Macias, 26, Gary, Ind., 1943.
Margaret Bourke-White The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Victoria Brotko, 22, was a blacksmith's helper. She took her twin brother's job when he joined the Marines.
Margaret Bourke-White The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Ann Zarik, 22, was a flame in the Armor Plate Division. Another image of Zarik appeared on the cover of the issue.
Margaret Bourke-White The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
At the Carnegie-Illinois Steel Co. foundry, these women worked as core makers. A total of 18 women worked here in two shifts. The functions of the core were like those of the sculptor and the tools used were trowels, trowels and hammers. The castings made in this picture were for use not only at Carnegie-Illinois but also at other factories.
Margaret Bourke-White The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
On the deck of an aircraft carrier women worked as welders and scrapers. Women next to this steel precast section of decking that were bare of headgear and masks operated tools that scraped away imperfections in the loose surface in preparation for welding. The welder in the foreground had her name, "Jakie," written on her helmet, a popular style note among female welders.
Margaret Bourke-White The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Gary, ind. war effort, 1943
Margaret Bourke-White The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
LIFE magazine cover August 9, 1943
Margaret Bourke-White The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
*Cover photo: Women welders, Gary, Ind., 1943 – Margaret Bourke-White The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock