The documentary "Rosie the Riveter" by Connie Field and the book Rosie the Riveter Revisited by Sherna Berger Gluck refer to a period in American history that can be considered the beginning of a major shift in the role of women. During World War II, when millions of men were conscripted or voluntarily joined the armed forces, defense plants in the United States had to continue producing needed armaments and other goods for the war effort. At the time, relatively few women worked outside the home, and even fewer would have worked in factories like those producing airplanes and other military goods. This changed as a female work force was enlisted to see to it that production did not decrease in this time of emergency. The women who took these jobs found a new sense of accomplishment, freedom, and possibility, though when the war ended, most returned to their former lives as returning males took back their jobs. The issue addressed by the film and the book is how this consciousness-raising experience changed the lives of these women and perhaps changed society in the long run. In both the film and the book, women who worked in defense plants and who experienced this change in condition speak for themselves and tell the interviewers what they felt at the time, how their lives changed, and how they reacted to the end of the war and the end of their new-found independence.
Today, we continue to see changes in the role of women in the workplace, though the rate of change has accelerated. We also still see ways in which business gives women a secondary role, as if men had to work to support their families and women did not. The tendency of businesses to prevent women from rising beyond a certain management level is referred to as the glass ceiling, an invisible barrier not usually talked about in the company but effective at keeping women from rising to the top echelons. More women are breaking through such barriers to find car...