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 their roles, especially as they could have stability and moderate prosperity. However the ideals set by Hitler did include encouragement of birth outside marriage, which conflicted with the role of women staying at home. The effects of the growth in female employment and the encouragement of divorce to ‘undesirables’ meant that the position and role of women diverged and was conflicted.
The role and position of a woman in Germany was to support her family as well, to nurture and care for their children. The Nazi theory and policy was clear; Kinder, Kirche und Kuche (Children, Church and Cooking) summed up the Nazi view of women in German society. Their role was to produce babies, bring up children and care for their homes and husbands. The three K’s were closely connected to the Nazi view of family life. This was ideally a family with four children, father at work but mother staying at home to look after them. Many women’s organisations supported the three Ks because they saw it as a reaction against the decadence of Weimar Germany. In this way the Nazi agenda had a positive effect on women and their position in Germany. However there were significant challenges in practise. The encouragement of birth outside marriage and the encouragement of divorce went totally against the ideals laid out for women. They were encouraged to stay in the home and support the family, yet there was also encouragement to have children outside marriage. Again this is a conflicting part of the role of women, women were usually meant to foster their children by themselves as parents, but instead there was fostering youth assertion in Hitler Youth.
A final part of the Nazi philosophy was for women to uphold and support a traditional, rural society. This meant that the ideal role and position of women was to produce babies, bring up children and care for their homes and husbands. Outside certain specialist areas, Hitler saw no reason for women to work. There were to be no female Nazi members of the Reichstag, but in fact this made the role of women fairly important. In many ways the Nazis gave increased opportunities for mainly middle-aged women to become involved in public life, although they were excluded from decision-making. So in this way some women did have an improved role/position in this aspect of life. Again, there are conflicting issues that arise with this. Remembering that the ideology of women to uphold a traditional and rural society, in fact new organisations were set up for women, the Nationalist Socialist Women’s Organisation (NSF), and the German Women’s Enterprise (DFW). These organisations were set up for with Nazi beliefs, but were actually disagreeing with the traditional, rural beliefs.
From this a mixed picture emerges, some women gained as a result of the personalised and individualised nature of the evidence. Even though the Nazi theory and policy were clear, there were significant contradictions and conflicting issues in practise. The roles issued to women were self-undermining and had logistical inconsistencies, for example, they could not have all the men out fighting and women home, who runs factories etc? These contradictions show some of the irony of Nazism. Some women felt more valued and appreciate and felt more stable, whereas others were sterilised, outlawed, and divorced on spurious grounds. The role and position of women varied between different groups because of the impact of Nazi Policies.