Assess the impact of Nazi Policies on the position and role of women in Germany, 1933-39

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Assess the impact of Nazi Policies on the position and role of women in Germany, 1933-39

The Nazi regime aimed to utilise the family for its own needs.  Women were obligated to marry and have children, instead of having their own personal decisions.  The functions of the family were reduced to the single task of reproduction.  They aimed to break the family, and to place it as a breeding and rearing institution completely in the service of the totalitarian state.

        The main objective of Hitler and the Nazis was to increase population to help with ‘Volksgemeinschaft’.  Germany had a declining birth rate, so they wanted to promote higher birth rates among the Aryan race.  This was another key element of the policies adopted.  Women were encouraged to have as many children as possible, however this was not acceptable with ‘undesirables’ like Jews and Black people, only ‘Aryans’.  The policies used like financial incentives-marriage loans and birth grants, meant that women were placed better when having children.  Their role was to maintain high birth rates, and their position and situation was desirable for this role.  However all women did not accept this and many did not gain from the measures taken.  Underpinned in the policy was the fact that it would restrict women to the home and reduce employment with women, which is what the Nazis wanted.  However this was not the case as there was actually a growth in female employment from 1933-39.  This was very ironic, the Nazis set out their policies for women to be able to gain from them in having children, however by having less children and getting jobs, women still gained as employment levels rose.  Not all women gained from the Nazi agenda, as I have said it only applied to Aryans, there was compulsory sterilisation of women who were mentally sick or who had already produced weak offspring were often classified as ‘unfit’, this included Jews and Black women. Those women who had been sterilised were not allowed to marry.

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        Another aspect of the Nazi ideology on women was that they wanted women to stay at the home.  The effect that this had on the position and role of women was that it limited their opportunities and categorised them to a specific responsibility.  However although this seemed to be a degrading policy towards woman, which it was, Hitler did aim to make a point that women were just as important as men, there was equality, the only difference being the roles which they played, which were equally important.  This did mean that some women felt more valued and appreciated in ...

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