Las Otras Rosas: Mexican American Women Workers and World War II

Author

• Talisa Flores, Chapman UniversityFollow

Date of Award

Summer 8-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

War, Diplomacy and Society

First Advisor

Charissa Threat

Second Advisor

Jennifer Keene

Third Advisor

Renee Hudson

Abstract

The image of Rosie the Riveter has become one of the most enduring symbols of patriotism, women's empowerment, and gender equality in the United States. Yet this iconic representation has obscured the experiences of many women whose wartime labor remains marginalized in both public memory and historical scholarship, particularly Mexican American defense workers. This thesis reexamines the history of Rosie the Riveter by centering the voices of Mexican American women employed in wartime industries during the Second World War. While the war undoubtedly shaped their lives, this study argues that the conventional Rosie narrative, one that portrays wartime employment as a singular catalyst for women's liberation and social transformation, fails to account for the complexities of Mexican American women's experiences. Rather than marking a unique change, wartime labor represented one moment within longer trajectories of racialized labor, community formation, and struggles for belonging.

By privileging Mexican American women's own recollections, this study challenges histories that portray Rosie the Riveter as a universal symbol of female empowerment and questions broader historiographical claims that World War II fundamentally transformed American society. Extending beyond the wartime years, the thesis also examines the postwar period to trace how these women's experiences shaped their lives after demobilization and informed subsequent generations of activism. In particular, it explores the continuities between wartime labor, postwar struggles over work, family, and citizenship, and the emergence of the Chicana Movement, demonstrating how Mexican American women's wartime experiences contributed to evolving political consciousness and demands for racial and gender equality. vii Instead, it demonstrates that the meanings and consequences of wartime labor were contingent upon race, ethnicity, and class, revealing a more nuanced history in which continuity existed alongside change. In doing so, this thesis reconstructs a more inclusive history of the wartime home front and reconsiders the place of Mexican American women within the broader narrative of twentieth-century United States history.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Flores, Talisa. "Las Otras Rosas: Mexican American Women Workers and World War II." Master's thesis, Chapman University, 2026. https://doi.org/10.36837/chapman.000755