The Rosie the Riveter National Monument at Richmond

Richmond, a city northeast of San Francisco, was already a bustling industrial town before the break of the 2nd World War. The city's harbor which had been dredged, filled and expanded and the vast
shipping port terminals had already enticed substantial industries from wineries, canneries and automotive assembly plants to relocate in the area.

The onset of World War II further gave rise to the shipbuilding industry in Richmond. Kaiser Shipyards, one of the biggest shipbuilding operations in the West Coast moved their operations to the city's south shoreline and Richmond emerged as a boom town for wartime industries. The wartime industries also gave rise to migration of job seekers into booming industrial towns like Richmond for good paying wartime industries. The enlistment of men of working age opened opportunities for women who would later be referred to as Rosie based upon a song popularized in 1943.

The widely held fixed and oversimplified image of women as being pregnant  and barefoot  in the kitchen changed with women entering the American labor force during World War II. While it was a long way to the concept of women empowerment,   skilled women working with drills, wielding machines and rivets momentarily seemed to have broken some  gender stereotyping.

 A rivet is a short metal pin much like a headless nail used to fasten two metal sheets together.  Rosie the riveter was a shipbuilder. As the song goes, women like Rosie became part of the assembly line for the booming  home front war time industry. Home front referred to the civilian population and the activities of a nation whose armed forces are engaged in war abroad.