Rosie the Riveter and other women workers – in pictures

Women install a motor on a transport plane at Willow Run during the war. The former Ford Motor Company plant near Ypsilanti, Michigan, is now managed by a trust set up to oversee the properties owned by a pre-bankruptcy General Motors
Photograph: Howard R Hollem/US office of war information/Library of congress

Part of the former Willow Run Bomber Plant today. The trust set up to oversee properties owned by a pre-bankruptcy General Motors announced last week it was extending until 1 October the deadline for fundraisers to bring in the cash needed to preserve a portion of the former property Photograph: Paul Sancya/AP

'Steady of eye and hand,' read the original caption, 'women workers at the great Willow Run bomber plant are among those throughout the country who are relieving serious shortages of skilled workers by doing such semi-skilled jobs as the one shown here. She's welding parts of the cooling system direct to the supercharger' Photograph: Ann Rosener/Office of war information/Library of congress

One of the many women at Willow Run operates a drill to bore holes in the 'Y' section of a supercharger bracket. While women worked in factories all over the country during the war, it was Rose Will Monroe at Willow Run worker who caught the eye of Hollywood producers casting a 'riveter' for a film about the war effort Photograph: Ann Rosener/Office of war information/Library of congress

The Rosie character became one of the best-known figures of the era as well as an enduring symbol of female empowerment. Here, an electronics technician works at a Goodyear aircraft plant in Akron, Ohio, in 1941 Photograph: Alfred T Palmer/Office of war information/Library of congress

A young woman at the Willow Run plant uses her tiny flashlight to discover any internal defects in a fuel tube in July 1942 Photograph: Ann Rosener/Office of war information/Library of Congress

A woman works on the electrical assembly and installation line at Douglas Aircraft Company in Long Beach, California, in October 1942 Photograph: Alfred T Palmer/Office of war information/Library of congress

Women workers install fixtures and assemblies to a tail fuselage section of a B-17 bomber at the Douglas Aircraft Company plant in Long Beach Photograph: Alfred T Palmer/Office of war information/LIbrary of congress

A young woman works over the landing gear mechanism of a P-51 fighter plane in Inglewood, California in October 1942 Photograph: Alfred T Palmer/Office of war information/Library of congress

A woman at North American aviation's plant in Inglewood, California, installs switch boxes on the firewalls of B-25 bombers in October 1943 Photograph: Alfred T Palmer/Office of war information/Library of congress