Women's March inspires Rosie the Riveter book for young readers
Five women are standing together in the drawing, each wearing factory coveralls, each with bright scarves tied around their heads, each raising their right arms and flexing their biceps.
They are all Rosies, "a group of women defined not by the identity of a single riveter in a single factory, but by the collective might of hundreds of thousands of women whose labors helped save the world," explains the introduction to "Rosie, a Detroit Herstory."
The Wayne State University Press book, which officially arrives Monday, is special in several ways, starting with the fact that it was created by two Detroit women: author Bailey Sisoy Isgro and illustrator Nicole Lapointe, whose friendship just happened to begin through a Rosie-themed trivia question.
Then there's the way the idea for the book was born in January 2017 during the long drive from Detroit to Washington, D.C., for the Women's March.
Add two more essential bits of information — the resurgence of Rosie the Riveter, a World War II icon, as a feminist symbol and the ongoing need for more female characters in children's literature — and you've got an empowering work aimed at young readers.But there's really no age limit to the book's appeal. Whether you're old enough to be the granddaughter of a Rosie or one of the originals, the vivid art, rhyming text and historical timeline could draw your interest, too.
Rosie the Riveter, of course, is the nickname bestowed on the flood of American women who stepped up in the 1940s to keep America's factories and shipyards running as men were sent overseas to fight in World War II.
It was a historic moment for women in the workplace, interwoven deeply with Detroit's legacy as the Arsenal of Democracy: the place that churned out the tanks, trucks, planes and other machines necessary for the Allied victory.
Rosie's southeast Michigan roots don't stop there. Real women associated with Rosie the Riveter include Rose Will Monroe, who worked at the Willow Run Bomber Plant in Ypsilanti and appeared in a movie about the war effort at home.
A Michigan woman named Geraldine Hoff Doyle, who worked briefly at an Ann Arbor factory, is often credited with being the real-life inspiration for the iconic Rosie the Riveter poster bearing the slogan "We Can Do It" (although some insist the poster girl was based on Naomi Parker, who worked in a naval machine shop in Alameda, California).
Most recently, Rosie's image was revived on signs and memorabilia for 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. After she lost, the Rosie iconography was used as a symbol of resistance to Donald Trump's administration and its policies on women's issues.
And it was Rosie who helped introduce author Sisoy Isgro, 31, of Highland Park, an automotive clay sculptor and the owner of Detroit History Tours, to her future book collaborator Lapointe, 36, of Detroit, a freelance artist, part-time teacher, pedal pub driver and part-time Detroit History Tours guide.
The two met several years ago through a contest for a free tour through Detroit History Tours. Lapointe, who was one of the winners, recalls it contained a trivia question about, you guessed it, Rosie the Riveter.
"My husband and I ended up going on a tour. We loved it," she says. "I started asking Bailey questions about some obscure Detroit history because of another project I was working on at the time. So we got in touch. A couple of years later, she was asking for extra tour guide help. I thought, 'That sounds fun!' It's crazy how things happen."
"I just think she's one of the coolest people I've ever met," says Sisoy Isgro. "I'm so surprised she wants to be my friend."
A book is born
For a while, the friends had been kicking around ideas for a collaborative project, maybe a coloring book, perhaps themed to famous women from Detroit. But it was during Sisoy Isgro's long drive from Detroit to D.C. for the Women's March last year that the Rosie idea really emerged.
Inside a car also carrying her mother and two close friends, a married couple who volunteered to drive, Sisoy Isgro started texting Lapointe, who was in the Motor City, about their potential project..
"On the way out ... Nicole sent me a message. She had said: 'I love the part you wrote about Rosie the Riveter. Why don't we just do all Rosie?' " she recalls. "I'm in the back of this car on a seven-hour drive. I pulled out a laptop and started writing. And as I was writing, I'd send it to Nicole and she'd say, 'Keep going, keep going!' "
By the time she got home a week later, Sisoy Isgro says, she had a first draft. The duo launched a Kickstarter campaign to see whether they could get $3,000 through crowdfunding in order to self-publish the book. They raised more than $10,000 in three weeks.
After the Kickstarter version of the book came out in fall 2017, Sisoy Isgro and Lapointe were contacted by Wayne State University Press editor-in-chief Annie Martin, who was interested in expanding it for a wider market.
Drawings were added, text was tweaked, and the history of the Rosie timeline in the back of the book was expanded and supplemented with vintage photos of Rosies at work.
Sisoy Isgro says she is "beyond proud" of the final result, which is recommended for readers ages 8-12. For a young generation raised on superhero movies, it's a lesson in the real heroism of female workers in the World War II era.
"There were real superheroes with these women who were incredible," she says. "It speaks to a time in American history where women of all different backgrounds, all different economic statuses, ethnicities and ages came together and took on a challenge that they didn't know how they were going to achieve. They did it in incredibly innovative ways under incredibly difficult circumstances."
A strong female character
Sisoy Isgro and Lapointe are both concerned about the lack of female characters in children's books, a factor that reinforced their commitment to making "Rosie, a Detroit Herstory."
A 2011 Florida State University study of close to 6,000 children's books published between 1900 and 2000 reveals a startling bias. Women and female animal characters appear in no more than 33 percent of books from any given year, while men and male animal characters are featured in up to 100 percent.
A study done last year by a British newspaper and the Nielsen market research company of the 100 most popular children’s picture books from 2017 showed that the majority were led by male characters. One-fifth of them had no female characters, and characters who had a chance to speak in the books were 50 percent more likely to be male.
"It's an abysmally low number," says Lapointe of the research done on such gender bias. "That was a reason we knew we were going to do something with women. Being on the sidelines for so long is ridiculous"
Sisoy Isgro says participating the Women's March gave her confidence that the inequality could be changed.
"I'm looking out — and it really was a sea of people, these women, these men, these little girls and little boys, all these humans — and thinking: 'These people believe in female leads. These people believe in female superheros. Why am I questioning myself that no one will read a book with a woman superhero? Why am I telling myself that can't be possible when I'm standing here, looking at (potential readers)?' For me on a personal level, it sort of jump-started me into believing it could be possible."
It also was important to both women that the Rosie history included the obstacles faced by women after World War II. "It was important to me not to gild the story, to tell the whole story. When the men came back, most of the women got laid off," says Sisoy Isgro.The writing-illustrating team plans to continue the "Detroit Herstory" series with other notable women from the region. They consider it an honor to be able to tell the Rosie story, which they say is more timely now than ever.
"It's incredible to be able to say to these girls and to these boys, 'Look ... what history tells us happens if you can work together and make your differences an advantage,' " says Sisoy Isgro.
" 'Look what you can accomplish.' "
Contact Detroit Free Press pop culture writer Julie Hinds: 313-222-6427 or firstname.lastname@example.org.
'Rosie, a Detroit Herstory'
Wayne State University Press, 40 pages, $16.99