America Needs A New ‘Rosie The Riveter’ For Its 250th Birthday

“Rosie the Riveter” wasn’t a single person.

There were actually millions of Rosies: women who stepped up to work in factories and shipyards to keep the United States humming while the men who typically held those jobs were away fighting in World War II. Every “Rosie” was an integral part of the war effort, doing whatever it took to step up for her country.

A new campaign from Independent Women, a nonprofit advocacy group for women, wants to bring that patriotic spirit back for America’s 250th birthday. There isn’t the same workforce crisis as there was 80 years ago, but there is perhaps a greater crisis when it comes to patriotism. A recent Gallup poll found that American pride fell to a 25-year low, with the sharpest decline among women.

In the past year, the number of American women who said they were extremely proud to be an American fell 13 points, to just 26%. Another poll found that two out of every five younger women would permanently leave the country if possible.

“Young women have been taught that patriotism is embarrassing and contempt for America is a badge of intelligence,” Meaghan Mobbs, director of Independent Women’s Center for American Safety and Security, told The Daily Wire.

Mobbs, who is a combat veteran herself, says women should be proud to contribute to America, and that military service is far from the only way to do it. She believes the spirit of “Rosie the Riveter” is what’s needed to reverse that tide.

“Rosie 250 matters because it offers a powerful counterexample — generations of American women who understood that strength meant contributing to their country, not sneering at it,” Mobbs said. “As America turns 250, we have an opportunity to give young women something worth inheriting — a sense of pride, purpose, responsibility, and ownership in the nation they will help lead.”

The campaign says that a Rosie is “a woman who loves her country, chooses her own path, and uses her strength, talent, and freedom to build something bigger than herself.”

“She serves where she is needed, stands alongside the men in her life, and believes America is worth strengthening for the next generation,” Independent Women says.

While the Rosie of World War II was portrayed as a blue-collar factory worker, this campaign makes it clear that there are many more ways to step up in the current era.

“There is no single right way to be a woman,” the campaign says. “She may raise a family, build a career, serve her country, lead her community, or forge a path entirely her own. Every one of those lives helps build a stronger America.”