Life for Women in Nazi Germany Flashcards
What were expected of women?
Women were expected to adopt the traditional roles of mother and housewife. Hitler, however, did not believe that women were somehow less important than men - he described their role as equally important.
What was the law passed down in 1933 and what did it allow for women?
1933: The law for the encouragement of marriage. This law gave women up to 1,000 marks - about eight month wages - if they got married. It also encouraged women to stay at home and for each child that was born, a quarter of the loan was wiped out. Therefore, four, was seen as the optimal number of children to have.
What was the law passed down in 1938 and what did it allow for women?
1938: Change in divorce law. This made it easy for a man to divorce a woman if she was not capable of having children.
What was the Mother’s Cross?
The Mother’s Cross was an award given to mothers for the number of the children they could have. The bronze cross for four or five, the silver cross for six or seven, the gold cross for eight.
What was the Lebensborn (fountain of life) programme?
The Lebensborn (fountain of life) programme encouraged women to have children with SS guards in order to create the most genetically pure children possible for worthy German families. Women would receive money and support in return.
Who was Gertrud Scholtz-Klink?
Reich Women’s Leader from 1934 onwards. She set out to make German women “servants” of the State. She insisted all women’s organisations should join together as the German Women’s Enterprise and through the activities of the group, the Nazi message for women could be easily spread.
What was the appearance of a woman expected to be like?
Women should adopt a natural look and wear long skirts. A perfect hairstyle would be tied back hair or simple plaited hair. A woman should have endeavoured to stay strong so that hips would be strong enough to sustain lots of births. They were discouraged from dyeing their hair or even wearing makeup.
What views did the women who did not follow the Nazi’s have?
Some women believed that the Nazi ideas actually did make them inferior to men and that the ideas harmed family and even degraded women. Some women did not like Gertrud Scholtz-Klink and that she was a slave of the Nazi state that did not represent the true spirit of womanhood.
What was banned for women in 1933?
Women were banned from professional jobs such as teachers, doctors and civil servants.
What happened for women in 1934?
By the end of 1934, about 360,000 women had given up work.
What happened for women in 1936?
No woman could become a judge, lawyer or even do jury service.
What was banned for women in 1937?
Grammar schools for women, which prepared them for university, were banned. The number of female students in higher education was at 6,000 in 1939, compared to 17,000 in 1932.
