Most people see the yellow background and the blue denim shirt and think they know the story. They don't. For decades, the world looked at that "We Can Do It!" poster—the one everyone calls the yes we can woman—and attributed it to the wrong person. It wasn't Geraldine Hoff Doyle. It wasn't a fictional composite. It was a woman named Naomi Parker Fraley, a waitress from California who just happened to be working at a Naval Air Station when a photographer walked by.
History is messy. It's often written by whoever speaks loudest or whoever fits the narrative first. For about thirty years, Doyle believed she was the face on the poster. She saw a 1942 photo of a woman at a lathe and thought, "Hey, that looks like me." The media ran with it. Why wouldn't they? It was a great story. But it was wrong.
Finding the real yes we can woman
The truth didn't come out because of some massive corporate audit. It came out because of a relentless scholar named James J. Kimble. He spent six years hunting down the original vintage photograph that inspired J. Howard Miller’s iconic poster.
He eventually found it.
The original wire service photo was captioned. It clearly identified the woman as 20-year-old Naomi Parker at the Alameda Naval Air Station. The date? March 1942. Parker was wearing a signature red and white polka-dot bandana. She was leaning over a machine. She looked determined.
Naomi Parker Fraley didn't know she was famous. She lived a relatively quiet life, working as a waitress at the Doll House in Palm Springs after the war. It wasn't until 2011, at a reunion for female war workers, that she saw the lathe photo with Doyle's name on it. She tried to tell people. "That's me!" she said. Nobody listened at first. It's hard to un-ring a bell once the whole world has decided on a different truth.
The irony of the poster's purpose
Here is the kicker: the "We Can Do It!" poster wasn't even a feminist icon in the 1940s. Not really. It was an internal Westinghouse Electric Corporation poster meant to boost morale and discourage labor strikes. It was only displayed for two weeks in February 1943.
Most people think it was everywhere during the war. Nope. It vanished almost immediately. It only resurfaced in the 1980s when feminists reclaimed it as a symbol of empowerment. Suddenly, the yes we can woman was on coffee mugs, t-shirts, and political banners.
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We love the image because it’s fierce. But the actual history is far more corporate. It was about productivity, not necessarily a social revolution. Yet, the meaning evolved. That’s the beauty of art—once it’s out there, the public decides what it means.
Why the identity of Naomi Parker Fraley matters
Does it matter who the model was? Yeah. It does. Accuracy in history isn't just for pedants. When we credit the wrong person, we erase the actual lived experience of someone like Fraley.
Fraley wasn't looking for fame. When Kimble finally tracked her down in 2015, she was living in Alameda. She was in her 90s. She didn't want money. She just wanted her name back. She wanted the record to reflect that she was the one standing at that machine, doing the work, wearing that bandana.
- She was a real laborer.
- She represented the thousands of women who stepped into industrial roles.
- Her story reminds us that history is often corrected in the margins.
There's something deeply human about that struggle for recognition. Imagine seeing your face on every corner of the internet and seeing someone else's name underneath it. That’s a specific kind of ghosting.
The cultural impact of the "We Can Do It!" phrase
The phrase "Yes We Can" has become inextricably linked to this image, even though the poster actually says "We Can Do It!" The confusion likely stems from modern political campaigns and the general linguistic drift of the last twenty years.
Honestly, the two sentiments are identical. They both signal a refusal to quit. They both suggest that collective action can overcome massive obstacles. Whether it's the yes we can woman or the Rosie the Riveter archetype, the core message is about capability.
Women in the 1940s weren't just "filling in." They were proving a point that didn't need proving, but society forced them to anyway. They built planes. They handled explosives. They kept the economy from cratering while the men were overseas. And then, when the war ended, they were largely told to go back to the kitchen.
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The Rosie vs. Naomi distinction
It's important to differentiate between the character "Rosie the Riveter" and the Miller poster. Rosie was actually a song first. Written by Redd Evans and John Jacob Loeb in 1942. Then Norman Rockwell painted a "Rosie" for the Saturday Evening Post in 1943.
Rockwell’s Rosie was beefier. She had a ham sandwich in one hand and a rivet gun on her lap. She was treading on a copy of Mein Kampf. That was the Rosie people knew during the war.
The Miller poster—our yes we can woman—is a much more stylized, clean-cut version. It’s the version that survived into the digital age because it’s easier to replicate. It’s more "marketable" in a modern sense. It fits on an Instagram grid perfectly.
How to honor the legacy today
If you want to actually respect what Naomi Parker Fraley stood for, don't just buy a poster. Look at the labor statistics. Look at the gender pay gap that still exists in manufacturing and tech.
The "We Can Do It!" spirit isn't about a cute headband. It's about the grit required to do a job when people doubt you belong there.
- Support women in trades.
- Read about the real history of the Lanham Act, which provided the only universal childcare in U.S. history during the war.
- Acknowledge that many "Rosies" were women of color who faced double the discrimination and were the first to be fired when the war ended.
We often sanitize history. We make it pretty. We turn a sweaty, loud factory floor into a bright yellow graphic. But the real yes we can woman was a girl who just wanted to serve her country and then get back to her life.
Actionable steps for history buffs and fans
If you're fascinated by the story of Naomi Parker Fraley and the evolution of this icon, there are a few things you should do to get the full picture.
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First, look up the research of Dr. James J. Kimble. His paper, "Rosie’s Secret Identity," is the definitive source on how the Doyle myth was debunked. It’s a masterclass in archival research.
Second, visit the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond, California. It’s not just a museum; it’s a preserved site where you can feel the scale of the work these women did.
Third, check your own biases when it comes to "viral" history. If a story feels too perfect or too convenient, dig a little deeper. The Doyle story was perfect—a chance encounter leading to an icon. The Fraley story is more complicated. It involves decades of being ignored.
Finally, stop calling her the wrong name. When you see the poster, remember Naomi. She died in 2018 at the age of 96. She finally knew that the world knew who she was. That’s a legacy worth keeping.
The yes we can woman isn't a myth. She was a waitress. She was a factory worker. She was real.
To truly understand this era, start by researching the "Million Dollar Director" Mary Anderson or the Women's Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs). These stories offer the gritty, unpolished reality of 1940s labor that a single poster can only hint at. Read the oral histories. Listen to the recordings of the women who were actually there.