Rosie the Riveter is a cultural icon. We are all familiar with the yellow Westinghouse poster she’s on. She’s depicted in a red, polka-dotted bandana, flexing her right bicep. The phrase "We Can Do It!" shouts from above.
Over the years, her likeness has been used throughout media in representation of “the strong, competent woman (wdl.org/en/item/2733)."
Speci-Women.com, in keeping to this idea, features a revamped version of the image on its site.
Instead of Rosie, however, three women of color are depicted on the poster, shouting We ALL Can Do It!” In smaller font, a subtitle states, “Feminism is worthless without intersectionality and inclusion.”
The image is the perfect representation of SpeciWomen’s mission. The site, created by artist Philo Cohen in 2015, is not just a webpage or blog. It’s a community designed to put forward female artists from around the world.
She initiated the project after interning at two prestigious institutions, where she realized how poorly represented women were in the art world. While they were everywhere in the artwork — as muses or models in paintings — they were rarely featured as independent solo artists.
In fact, ArtNews, in a May 2015 article (artnews.com/2015/05/26/taking-the-measure-of-sexism-facts-figures-and-fixes), confirmed this trend, revealing that in 2000, there was not one woman solo show in NYC’s Guggenheim museum.
Upon coming to this realization, Cohen decided to use her platform as sort of a “micro museum" to present the works of talented women across a variety of disciplines, from music to cinema to food. In addition, she fosters the community by connecting actual professional artists, aka Godmothers, with the younger generation of budding female artists.
Through her project, she hopes to spread the ideals of equality by encouraging today's generation to build the world of tomorrow.
In a Youth@Hewitt TED Talk (youtube.com/watch?v=pbCW97_LJbM), Cohen said, “If everyone steps forward and gives a little bit of themselves, then things are going to happen really fast.”
Follow SpeciWomen:
Instagram: @speciwomen
Twitter: @speci_women
