We can do it!

The front cover of the ‘We can do it!’ issue of Making It has been the subject of many appreciative comments but also quite a few asking about the origins of the image. Here is a brief explanation of the process that we went through to end up with this cover.

Responding to the commission to come up with some sketches for a cover illustration for an issue of Making It focusing on the economic empowerment of women, the illustrator/designer – Maya Zankoul – sent a selection, one of which in particular caught the eye.

Zankoul says, “One of the first visuals that occurred to me for the cover with the theme, women’s economic empowerment, was the 1940s poster, ‘We can do it!’, which has subsequently become a cultural icon whenever women’s empowerment is mentioned”.

This image is commonly believed to be ‘Rosie the Riveter’, and is widely seen as a symbol of women’s empowerment and a sign of major gender transformations that occurred during the 1940s. In fact, the ‘We can do it!’ poster was created by J. Howard Miller as part of a series of posters for the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company. It was displayed in Westinghouse factories for two weeks in February 1943. The image that was more widely seen, and that became known as ‘Rosie the Riveter’, was Norman Rockwell’s May 29, 1943, cover for the Saturday Evening Post.

Back to the Making It cover illustration, Maya Zankoul adds, “In the original ‘We can do it!’, the woman is simply showing her physical strength, but I think that in today’s world, strength and power isn’t physical anymore. It’s not about working in a factory anymore – it’s about making revenue. That’s why I added ‘money’ in the drawn woman’s hands in the initial sketch I sent.”

The Making It editor, Charles Arthur, and the editorial assistant, Lauren Brassaw, liked Zankoul’s sketch but proposed a twist, suggesting that Zankoul repeat the illustration of the woman, three times, one behind the other, to give the idea of many women. They also had the idea of each woman holding something that suggested a different aspect of economic activity – one holding cash (as in the original sketch), one holding a tool, maybe a hammer, and one holding a mobile phone.

As Arthur says, “I thought that these amendments would lend the image a broader sense of empowerment, of the different aspects of economic empowerment, and would also provide a nice play on the original poster.”

Zankoul agreed, “Your feedback made the cover even better and appealing to an even wider audience – women from different parts of the world, holding different symbolic elements: a mobile phone and a hammer. All those elements together represented today’s woman’s versatility and ability to participate economically on different levels, from all around the world.”

While most people commented favourably on the cover, some have asked why an image of a ‘dolly-bird’ was used to represent working women, suggesting the woman/women on the cover are not representative of working women.

Zankoul responded, “I don’t agree that the women on the cover do not look like working women. Working women are not necessarily manly, or unhealthy. To me, the women on the cover look healthy, active, powerful, middle-aged women, who are still feminine. The original poster showed the woman with manly features. This cover emphasizes the fact that feminine features don’t necessarily mean submission or lack of intelligence.”

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● Maya Zankoul is an illustrator/graphic designer from Lebanon, author of the comic blog-turned-book ‘Amalgam’. She currently works from her design office in Beirut on mobile and tablet app design, and illustrations for personal projects and for magazines. Her latest work includes an avatar-creating online app (The Zankoulizer), and an illustrated poster exhibition about Lebanese cuisine and culinary traditions. Her next project is creating an animated cartoon series from her drawings. http://pro.mayazankoul.com