Nazi Women Flashcards
What was the Nazis attitude towards women?
They adopted the kinder Kirche kuche slogan but they rejected the church part of it. They wanted women at home in the kitchen and making babies, pure ones.
What did Nazis want to achieve with women and why did they want them to stay at home
They were apparently vital to the state and they were required to increase pure German births. They also wanted to prepare women for their proper and future role of homemakers and mothers.
The reichstag was emptied of women, what organisation had been set up for them instead?
Nationalist Socialist Womanhood (NSF) - which was the womens wing of the nazi party and was used the implement the role of women as mothers
What did the Nazis believe and what did they encourage women to do?
They believed ideas about eugenics and that they encouraged German women to find a pure husband and create Aryan offspring. They made laws to ban the ‘wrong’ kind of breeding.
What incentives did the Nazis offer to encourage women to marry?
Couples were given marriage loans to encourage marriage but only if they had a licence if they were fit and racially pure. These loans offered 600RM to marry.
What incentives did nazis offer for already married women to have more children?
They would help with school fees and transport fares. But this was for suitable and eligible families. Poor suitable families were given grants if 100RM per child
What programme was run by the SS and what did it do?
The Lebensborn Programme, started in 1936, run by a special branch of the SS. It aimed to produce as many healthy Aryan babies as possible. Selected members of SS were encouraged to mate with as many different racially pure women as possible, they were mainly from the BDM. The programme had its own hospitals and clinics and homes for the children born into the programme. The children were adopted by fit Germans who had trouble conceiving. As it expanded it took suitable children from the lands they took over and put them in homes
What was the 1933 law for the reduction of unemployment?
It limited the number of women in employment. Women were often dismissed from their jobs such as doctors and civil servants
What behaviours were discouraged?
Slimming and smoking. There was also punishment for perming hair
What was enrolment for women applying to uni limited to?
10%
What effect did nazi policies have on women?
Large numbers of married women lost their jobs. Some women did find work such as domestic or shop work, as well as secretaries but they were all excluded from the highest levels of work. Highly skilled doctors were expected to work in small ‘suitable’ jobs such as in maternity clinics or as GPs rather than being fully used. Teachers were also sidelined to the lowest form of education like primary school.
How did nazi policies affect the racially pure women?
They received a lot better health care and they had a higher status in Germany than before. Mothers widowed from the war were also given extra support. Mother’s Day was made a national holiday
How did war impact women in nazi Germany?
It was similar to the First World War as men became conscripted, there was a shift in attitude and more women were needed in the workforce. Women were urged to join the workforce even if married. However more child care was provided because of this. The NSV had 31 000 kindergarten and crèches by 1942. However the number of women in work was far less than WW1
How many women went into work in the 1st WW compared to the 2nd?
WW1: between 1913 -18, employment went up by 76%
WW2: between 1933 - 39 employment went up by 27% and 2% between 1939 - 44
Compared to Britain which was an increase of 50% of women In workforce
Why was the amount of women in the workforce smaller than that of WW1?
Nazi propaganda machine worked very well. Many women reluctant to work and many organisations reluctant to have them, telling volunteers who said they had children to go home
The govt did not use them in all kinds of war work, preferring them to replace male teachers or work on the land rather than in mines or heavy industry.(work which they were doing in britain)
Germany used foreign labour from the lands they conquered, so their needs for women in the workforce was no where near as demanding.
