Women & The Family Flashcards
Why did Hitler want German mothers out of the workplace and in homes?
he wanted them to raise more Aryan children
he needed their jobs for the unemployed men
What measures did the Nazis take to discourage women from working?
Training girls at school to be housewives & discouraging them from going on to higher education
Introduction of Law for Reduction of Unemployment, which gave women financial incentives to stay at home
Purging civil service & professions of women
Barring women from being judges in 1936
Not allowing them to do jury service or be Reichstag deputies because Hitler didn’t think they were able to “think logically or reason objectively”
Putting single women under pressure to give their jobs to unemployed men
Single women were allowed to work, mainly outside professions & primarily in “caring” jobs, e.g. nursing & childcare, & factories
How did the Nazis try to control womens’ appearance?
Women expected to copy traditional German peasant fashions - told to wear plain clothes, flat shoes & have hair in plaits or buns
They were not to wear make-up, trousers or short skirts, or dye or perm their hair & they were not to smoke in public
They were discouraged from staying slim or dieting, because it was thought that thin women had trouble giving birth
Women’s section of DAF excluded women from meetings if ruled disobeyed
How did the Nazis try to control marriage & children?
Introducing Law for the Encouragement of Marriage in June 1933 which gave newlyweds a loan of 1,000 marks, & allowed them to keep 250 marks for each child they had
Giving incentives to women who had large number of children, such as Motherhood Cross which awarded bronze for 4 children, silver for 6 & gold for 8 or more
Other examples included tax incentives & welfare benefits, cheap theatre tickets & being allowed to jump queues
Starting family allowances to help low income families
Taxing single men and childless families heavily
Making divorce easier by Marriage Law of 1938
For example, if man already had 4 children with woman, he had right to divorce her so he could remarry & have more children
Couples could also divorce if they were childless or after three years’ separation
Ensuring contraception was difficult to obtain
Making abortion illegal in 1933 - although later this was allowed if mothers had “defect”
using propaganda & peer pressure
How did the Nazis try to sustain Aryan race?
Legalising sterilisation & abortions for those with “disabilities” & “undesirables”
Encouraging unmarried women to have babies with Aryan SS men in Lebensborn home
Demanding proof of racial purity before marriage could go ahead under new law in 1935
Passing Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour of 1935, which forbade marriages between Aryans & Jews, people of colour & Roma
What was the impact of Nazi policies on female employment?
Female employment initially dropped
Those in professions were worst affected
In 1933, 15% of teachers lost their jobs & 19,000 female civil servants sacked
Only 11% of university places given to women
Females excluded from decision-making, e.g. they weren’t allowed to be members of Reichstag
Manual workers affected less than those in professions, but some had to accept badly paid agricultural jobs
By 1939 there was shortage of workers, so more females encouraged back into employment
Led to 50% more women working in industry, but women in professions still rare
What was the impact of the Nazi policies on marriage?
Number of marriages increased by over 200,000
Divorces also increased, especially after changes to divorce laws in 1938
About 320,000 men & women sterilised
Infant mortality dropped because of improved sanitation & preventative medicine
How were Nazi policies on women & children successful?
Most women complied with Nazis’ policies
Many women, especially from working class, actually approved of three ‘Ks’: Kinder, Küche, Kirche (Children, Kitchen, Church) & accepted traditional role
Hitler gained supporters because of his policies on women & family
Lots of women pleased with Nazis’ stricter rules in society - they disapproved of moral decline of 1920s
They enjoyed leisure activities, like evening classes, outings to theatres & sports events, run by Strength Through Joy (KdF) movement
How were Nazi policies on women & children unsuccessful?
Although birth rate increased, it was still lower in 1939 than in early 1920s
Many women, especially manual workers, managed to keep their jobs due to lack of replacements
Number of women in employment actually rose by 2.4 million between 1933 & 1939 because there was shortage of workers for rearmament factories & autarky drive
In 1939, Nazis had to reverse their employment policy & encourage women to return to labour force
Annual number of marriages increased at first, but then rate levelled off
Hitler claimed to be supporter of traditional family but some of his policies contradicted this, for example making divorce easier & setting up of Lebensborn
Overall, there were changes to the lives of women, but their status in society was not significantly changed
