RICHMOND’S HOME FRONT EFFORT
IS STILL MAKING WAVES
Come dressed for the ‘40s at this year’s Rosie Rally
By Matt Larson
Richmond’s efforts during World War II account
for some of the proudest moments in Bay Area history.
Building ships faster than the enemy could sink
them was what the city became known for, but the
longstanding impacts that the war effort had on modern
day society is what the Rosie the Riveter Trust is most
interested in, and that will be the message for this year’s
annual Rosie Rally Home Front Festival on August
11th.
“The focus is really on the domestic side, and not the
military side, for us,” said the Rosie the Riveter Trust’s
Executive Director Marsha Mather-Thrift. Honoring
“Rosies” who are still with us today is really what led to
the festival first getting started, as they wanted to find a
way to formally acknowledge these trailblazers.
“They made enormous advances for women’s rights
and for women in the workplace,” Mather-Thrift said.
“But the reality was that they weren’t just women.
There were men who couldn’t go to war for various
reasons, there were disabled people who were brought
into the workforce—so it was men and women working
together, learning new ways of getting along, learning
more skills in the workplace; there were amazing social
change efforts that came out of the war.”
Many original Rosies (and “Rogers” for their male
counterparts), some of whom are now in their 90s,