Introducing Rosie the riveter. Before the United States entered WWII in 1941 women working in factories totaled about 10 percent of the work force. When the war broke out women were needed to fill in for the men who went to war. The women came in and learned to do the jobs very well. At the peak they accounted for 30 percent of the force. When the war ended the women lost their jobs and their men took over again. The thought that this started the feminist movement wasn't so. Women entered the job market big time in the seventies, and it's been onward and upward since. The picture on the bottom is a receipient of what the original Rosie's did. She also gets paid the same as men do now, the original Rosie's didn't.