Weimar VS Nazi VS FRG ( Attitudes towards woman ) Flashcards
What were the Weimar attitudes towards woman?
Weimar culture, with its free expression of arts, culture and music meant that from 1916–1933 it boasted one of the most modern attitudes towards women in Europe. Women had a key role in the artistic expression and social scene centred in Berlin, and independent young women in the vein of the Flappers of America dressed up in provocative attire, drank alcohol freely and attended jazz music performances. The tolerant atmosphere of the 1920s also allowed for the general laxation of sexual morality among German society. Along with homosexuals, women experienced a greater degree of sexual liberty in urban areas such as Berlin where they were free to challenge the traditionally strict morals of Imperial Germany by openly having relations with men outside of wedlock. Women also played a key role in the open sexuality of Weimar culture as erotic dancers and prostitutes in and around the vibrant nightclubs of Berlin, with many being performers in the iconic burlesque and cabaret shows of the 1 920s. Politically Weimar was also forward in its attitude to women. The Weimar constitution granted women the right to vote, to maternal rights and to equality in marriage law, and Clara Zetkin, a leading feminist, was actually a member of the Reichstag parliament.
What were the Nazi’s attitudes towards woman?
Nazi Party spelt the end for the political freedom and sexual liberty that women had enjoyed in Weimar Germany. From the outset, Nazi ideology placed women firmly in their traditional gender role as homemakers
and housewives. As reinforced by the party slogan Kinder, Küche, Kirche (Children, Kitchen, Church) women were expected to be content with their ‘natural’
responsibilities of nurturing offspring and supporting their husbands and maintaining a comfortable home for
their families. This policy extended to political party membership, as women were not allowed in any positions of power or authority within the NSDP. Instead women were venerated and rewarded for their efforts to increase the population of the Nazi State with bronze, silver and gold Honour Crosses of the German Mother being awarded to mothers of four, six and eight children respectively. Loans were also offered as incentives to reproduce; 1,000 marks were lent to women who left work to start families with a quarter of this money becoming a gift from the state (and so would not have to be paid back) for every child born to that family. The women of Nazi Germany were expected to dress modestly, in the fashion of a traditional German peasant. They were not allowed to smoke, wear make-up or wear anything other than flat shoes, and were discouraged from being slim in favour of the ideal well-built female frame that it was believed would be better equipped for childbearing.
What were the FRG attitudes towards woman?
At the end of the war, with so many men dead or captured, much of the burden of clearing away the wreckage of German cities fell to women. They cleared away the bodies and debris of destroyed cities, collecting and stacking bricks so that they might be reused in the rebuilding process. In the new constitution of the FRG in 1949, women’s importance to Germany was recognised by the granting of equal
rights in Article 3 of the new constitution of the FRG, a law that superseded any old rules and legal judgments. This was shortly followed up with the 1957 ‘Law of Equality of the Sexes’ that gave women, for the first time, the right to take up work even without the usual requirement of their husband’s permission. Females were welcomed into industrial employment and were seen as a much-needed addition to the workforce
rather than competition to their male counterparts. At the same time, women were being freed up to work by the advancement of affordable domestic technology such as fridges and vacuums that allowed them to balance both family and working life more easily. However, there were limits to women’s emancipation. Those women that did choose to work faced inequality in terms of pay as the average woman’s wage was less than half of the average man’s.
