We Can Do It ! " We Can Do It ! " is an American wartime propaganda poster produced by J . Howard Miller in 1943 for Westinghouse Electric as an inspirational image to boost worker morale . The poster is generally thought to be based on a black - and - white wire service photograph taken of a Michigan factory worker named Geraldine Hoff . The poster was seen very little during World War II . It was rediscovered in the early 1980s and widely reproduced in many forms , often called " We Can Do It ! " but also called " Rosie the Riveter " after the iconic figure of a strong female war production worker . The " We Can Do It ! " image was used to promote feminism and other political issues beginning in the 1980s . The image made the cover of the " Smithsonian " magazine in 1994 and was fashioned into a US first - class mail stamp in 1999 . It was incorporated in 2008 into campaign materials for several American politicians , and was reworked by an artist in 2010 to celebrate the first woman becoming prime minister of Australia . The poster is one of the ten most - requested images at the National Archives and Records Administration . After its rediscovery , observers often assumed that the image was always used as a call to inspire women workers to join the war effort . However , during the war the image was strictly internal to Westinghouse , displayed only during February 1943 , and was not for recruitment but to exhort already - hired women to work harder . Feminists and others have seized upon the uplifting attitude and apparent message to remake the image into many different forms , including self empowerment , campaign promotion , advertising , and parodies . Background . After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor , the US government called upon manufacturers to produce greater amounts of war goods . The workplace atmosphere at large factories was often tense because of resentment built up between management and labor unions throughout the 1930s . Directors of companies such as General Motors ( GM ) sought to minimize past friction and encourage teamwork . In response to a rumored public relations campaign by the United Auto Workers union , GM quickly produced a propaganda poster in 1942 showing both labor and management rolling up their sleeves , aligned toward maintaining a steady rate of war production . The poster read , " Together We Can Do It ! " and " Keep ' Em Firing ! " In creating such posters , corporations wished to increase production by tapping popular pro - war sentiment , with the ultimate goal of preventing the government from exerting greater control over production . Westinghouse Electric . In 1942 , Pittsburgh artist J . Howard Miller was hired by Westinghouse Electric ' s internal War Production Coordinating Committee , through an advertising agency , to create a series of posters to display to the company ' s workers . The intent of the poster project was to raise worker morale , to reduce absenteeism , to direct workers ' questions to management , and to lower the likelihood of labor unrest or a factory strike . Each of the more than 42 posters designed by Miller was displayed in the factory for two weeks , then replaced by the next one in the series . Most of the posters featured men ; they emphasized traditional roles for men and women . One of the posters pictured a smiling male manager with the words " Any Questions About Your Work ? . . . Ask your Supervisor . " No more than 1 , 800 copies of the 17 - by - 22 - inch ( 559 by 432 mm ) " We Can Do It ! " poster were printed . It was not initially seen beyond several Westinghouse factories in East Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania , and the Midwest , where it was scheduled to be displayed for two five - day work weeks starting Monday , February 15 , 1943 . The targeted factories were making plasticized helmet liners impregnated with Micarta , a phenolic resin invented by Westinghouse . Mostly women were employed in this enterprise , which yielded some 13 million helmet liners over the course of the war . The slogan " We Can Do It ! " was probably not interpreted by the factory workers as empowering to women alone ; they had been subjected to a series of paternalistic , controlling posters promoting management authority , employee capability and company unity , and the workers would likely have understood the image to mean " Westinghouse Employees Can Do It " , all working together . The upbeat image served as gentle propaganda to boost employee morale and keep production from lagging . The pictured red , white and blue clothing was a subtle call to patriotism , one of the frequent tactics of corporate war production committees . Rosie the Riveter . During World War II , the " We Can Do It ! " poster was not connected to the 1942 song " Rosie the Riveter " , nor to the widely seen Norman Rockwell painting called " Rosie the Riveter " that appeared on the cover of the Memorial Day issue of the " Saturday Evening Post " , May 29 , 1943 . The Westinghouse poster was not associated with any of the women nicknamed " Rosie " who came forward to promote women working for war production on the home front . Rather , after being displayed for two weeks in February 1943 to some Westinghouse factory workers , it disappeared for nearly four decades . Other " Rosie " images prevailed , often photographs of actual workers . The Office of War Information geared up for a massive nationwide advertising campaign to sell the war , but " We Can Do It ! " was not part of it . Rockwell ' s emblematic " Rosie the Riveter " painting was loaned by the " Post " to the US Treasury Department for use in posters and campaigns promoting war bond s . Following the war , the Rockwell painting gradually sank from public memory because it was copyrighted ; all of Rockwell ' s paintings were vigorously defended by his estate after his death . This protection resulted in the original painting gaining value — it sold for nearly $ 5 million in 2002 . Conversely , the lack of protection for the " We Can Do It ! " image is one of the reasons it experienced a rebirth . Ed Reis , a volunteer historian for Westinghouse , noted that the original image was not shown to female riveter s during the war , so the recent association with " Rosie the Riveter " was unjustified . Rather , it was targeted at women who were making helmet liners out of Micarta . Reis joked that the woman in the image was more likely to have been named " Molly the Micarta Molder or Helen the Helmet Liner Maker . " Geraldine Hoff photograph . Miller is believed by many to have based the " We Can Do It ! " poster on a monochrome United Press International ( UPI ) photograph taken of Ann Arbor , Michigan , factory worker Geraldine Hoff in early 1942 when she was 17 . The photograph of Hoff shows her wearing a polka - dotted bandana on her head , standing up and leaning over a metal - stamping machine , and operating it with her hands at thigh level firmly on the controls . Hoff left her factory job soon after the publicity photograph was taken ; she heard that the metal - stamping machine had injured the hand of the previous operator , and she did not want to ruin her ability to play the cello . She obtained a new job as a timekeeper for another factory . If Miller was inspired by the UPI photograph at all , he freely re - interpreted it to create the poster , putting Hoff ' s right hand up in a clenched fist , her left hand rolling up the right sleeve . Miller turned Hoff ' s head to face the viewer , and made her more muscular . He also put a Westinghouse employee identification badge on her collar . Hoff knew nothing of this ; she was unaware that Miller was making a poster . She married in 1943 to become Geraldine Doyle . Westinghouse historian Charles A . Ruch , a Pittsburgh resident who had been friends with J . Howard Miller , said that he doubted Doyle ' s connection to the image . He said Miller was not in the habit of working from photographs , but rather live models . Penny Coleman , the author of " Rosie the Riveter : Women working on the home front in World War II " , said that she and Ruch could not determine whether the UPI photo of Doyle had appeared in any of the periodicals that Miller would have seen . Rediscovery . In 1982 , Doyle saw the " We Can Do It ! " poster reproduced in a magazine article , possibly " Poster Art for Patriotism ' s Sake " , a " Washington Post Magazine " article about posters in the collection of the National Archives . Doyle immediately recognized it as an image of herself , though she had never seen it before . In subsequent years , the poster was re - appropriated to promote feminism . Feminists saw in the image an embodiment of female empowerment . The " We " was understood to mean " We Women " , uniting all women in a sisterhood fighting against gender inequality . This was very different from the poster ' s 1943 use to control employees and to discourage labor unrest . History professor Jeremiah Axelrod commented on the image ' s combination of femininity with the " masculine ( almost macho ) composition and body language . " " Smithsonian " magazine put the image on its cover in March 1994 , to invite the viewer to read a featured article about wartime posters . The US Postal Service created a 33¢ stamp in February 1999 based on the image , with the added words " Women Support War Effort " . A Westinghouse poster from 1943 was put on display at the National Museum of American History , part of the exhibit showing items from the 1930s and ' 40s . Doyle gained a degree of notice from the connection to the iconic image . From time to time , she visited the Michigan Women ' s Hall of Fame to sign posters and greet well - wishers . She said it was probably best that she had not known in her youth that she was represented on a famous poster : " I couldn ' t have handled all the excitement then . " Legacy . Today , the image has become very widely known , far beyond its narrowly defined purpose during WWII . It has adorned t - shirts , tattoos , coffee cups and refrigerator magnets — so many different products that the " Washington Post " called it the " most over - exposed " souvenir item available in Washington , D . C . It was used in 2008 by some of the various regional campaigners working to elect Sarah Palin , Ron Paul and Hillary Clinton . Michelle Obama was worked into the image by some attendees of the 2010 Rally to Restore Sanity and / or Fear . The image has been employed by corporations such as Clorox who used it in advertisements for household cleaners , the pictured woman provided in this instance with a wedding ring on her left hand . Parodies of the image have included famous women , men , animals and fictional characters . A bobblehead doll and an action figure toy have been produced . The Children ' s Museum of Indianapolis showed a replica made from thousands of Jelly Belly candies . After Julia Gillard became the first female prime minister of Australia in June 2010 , a Melbourne street art ist calling himself Phoenix pasted Gillard ' s face into a new monochrome version of the " We Can Do It ! " poster . " AnOther Magazine " published a photograph of the poster taken on Hosier Lane , Melbourne , in July 2010 , showing that the original " War Production Co - ordinating Committee " mark in the lower right had been replaced with a URL pointing to Phoenix ' s Flickr photostream . In March 2011 , Phoenix produced a color version which stated " She Did It ! " in the lower right , then in January 2012 he pasted " Too Sad " diagonally across the poster to represent his disappointment with developments in Australian politics . Geraldine Doyle died in December 2010 . " Utne Reader " went ahead with their scheduled January – February 2011 cover File : a parody of " We Can Do It ! " featuring Marge Simpson raising her right hand in a fist . The editors of the magazine expressed regret at the passing of Doyle , " the likely inspiration for the Rosie character " . A stereoscopic ( 3D ) image of " We Can Do It ! " was created for the closing credits of the 2011 superhero film " " . The image served as the background for the title card of English actress Hayley Atwell . The Ad Council claimed the poster was developed in 1942 by its precursor , the War Advertising Committee , as part of a " Women in War Jobs " campaign , helping to bring " over two million women " into war production . In February 2012 during the Ad Council ' s 70th anniversary celebration , an interactive application designed by Animax ' s HelpsGood digital agency was linked to the Ad Council ' s Facebook page . The Facebook app was called " Rosify Yourself " , referring to Rosie the Riveter ; it allowed viewers to upload images of their faces to be incorporated into the " We Can Do It ! " poster , then saved to be shared with friends . Ad Council President and CEO Peggy Conlon posted her own " Rosified " face on " Huffington Post " in an article she wrote about the group ' s 70 - year history . The staff of the television show " Today " posted two " Rosified " images on their website , using the faces of news anchors Matt Lauer and Ann Curry . However , Seton Hall University professor James J . Kimble and University of Pittsburgh professor Lester C . Olson researched the origins of the poster and determined that it was not produced by the Ad Council nor was it used for recruiting women workers .