The role of women in Nazi Germany.

Alex Yianni

The role of women in Nazi Germany

If women were to play a crucial role, it was not in politics. Even Gertrude Scholtz-Klink, head of the women's Bureau never had any real political power. The Nazi party was run by men who believed politics was not part of the women's world. One of the first Nazi edicts was to ban women from positions of leadership in the party. Gertrude did as she was told! The Nazis wanted some tradition from women. In 1933 they wanted mothers.

Hitler believed women were crucial to the success of the Aryan race because most of them had blonde hair and blue eyes. This was thought to be the ideal German woman. Hitler thought this made the 'Superior race'.

Women were encouraged in various ways to have more children. Nazis thought that the woman role and the man role were two totally different things. The men role was that of a worker, soldier, defender and provider and a woman's role was in the house, having children and caring for her family. The Nazis worried about the decreasing birth rate and therefore decreasing families, due to contraception. The Nazis took measures to resolve this problem by encouraging the women to stop smoking, stop sliming and do sport. The drastic measures that they took were to make contraception and abortion illegal. This type of action was more forceful than 'encouraging'. All of these actions did the aim well. As a result of all this there were 30% more births in 1936 than there were in 1933.

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They were discouraged from doing things, which might harm their chances of having children such as, stop smoking, stop slimming, and to do sport. Also contraception and abortion were made illegal.

It was the duty of mothers to bring up their children to believe in many things, for instance, to be loyal Nazis, they are encouraged to worship the Fuehrer and join the Hitler youth group.

At home women were encouraged to set an example by not going to work, being blonde, heavy hipped and athletic, in a full skirt and wearing flat heels and no make-up, and when cooking using up all the leftovers and cooking the food in a certain way and using certain foods. If they did not obey these rules the SA could always check up on them. They also had to dress and behave in certain ways; you can see that the impact of these rules had a huge effect on normal everyday life.

At first married women were encouraged to stay at home because it was believed that a woman's place was at home having children and caring for her family. When Germany rearmed the government faced a problem, because they needed the woman back that they had encouraged to stop working and stay at home. They solved this by abolishing marriage loans and introducing a compulsory duty year for all women entering the labour market.

Later when there was a labour shortage when Germany was rearming, the government needed more women to work. They solved this by abolishing marriage loans and introducing a compulsory duty year for all women entering the labour market. Even though women were back working the Nazis could not give up their aim for women to produce more children.

In appearance and behaviour the Nazis liked women to be blonde, heavy hipped and athletic in a full skirt and flat shoes and no make-up. Their behaviour was important as well, there was pressure to stop women smoking. If you were seen smoking you would be reminded of German women and workers.

So, unlike a man's role, which was that of a provider and defender, a women's role was a place in the house, having children and caring for her family.