Beyond Rosie: Women in World War II - Kennesaw State University

Beyond Rosie: Women in World War II
Part 2: American Film Propaganda Analysis
1. As a class watch some propaganda clips from http://worldwar2propaganda.info/films-andcartoons.
Ask the students to watch for similarities and differences between these film
clips and the posters from Part 1. These may include the messages, emotions evoked, and
visual techniques.
2. Ask the students to write a compare and contrast essay for these two film clips. Once they
have finished this, discuss their findings and analysis as a class.
3. Having established the central themes, emotional targets, and visual techniques of these
clips, discuss as a class the similarities and differences that film propaganda and posters
had during World War II. Ensure that the students understand how the two different
mediums allow the creator to achieve different effects.
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Part 3: American and International Propaganda
1. Distribute one of the three international posters attached (Source Sheets 6 – 8.) Ask the
students to conduct the same analysis on their international propaganda poster as they
did on the American posters earlier in the lesson.
• What does the poster show?
• How do you think this image would have made a woman feel in the country that this
poster was created?
• What action do you think this poster was designed to elicit from its viewer?
• What parts of the poster do you think are particularly successful? (e.g. the slogan, the
color scheme, the images, the message)
• What parts of the poster do you think are not successful?
• Why do you think the government that designed this poster created it?
• What does this poster tell us about how the government of this poster viewed women
during World War II?
2. Divide the class up in to groups of students with the same poster and ask the students to
discuss and consolidate their answers as a group.
3. Ask each team of students to present their analysis to the class and lead a discussion
with the class of their particular poster and what it tells us about other countries views
of women during World War II.
4. As a class discuss the similarities and differences between these international posters
and the American propaganda that was analyzed earlier in the lesson. What do these
similarities and differences tell us about the different ways that women were viewed
around the world by their governments?