attitudes towards women

• nazi espoused conservative vision of womanhood
• Kinder , Küche , Kirche = Children , Church , kitchen (Nazi slogan for women)
• women contributed to the Third Reich through bearing children , they were expected to produce and raise their children
• Nazi's aimed to created the Aryan master race = Volksgemeinschaft)
• nazi's also focused on size of German population and wanted to increase birth rate
• NSF = Nazi Women's organisation
• The NSF coordinated all existing women's organisations to ensure they're in line with Nazi policy and philosophy
• the Reich Mothers Service looked after pregnant women and young mothers , including those who were unmarried
• The DFW ran Mother's school , teaching women how to be mothers and housewives in line with Nazi ideology
• university places for women restricted to 10%
• 1936 : Women banned from being lawyers or judges
• 1933 : Law for the Reduction of Unemployment - marriage loans were given to women who gave up their jobs or remained unemployed
• 1933; women banned from top civil service and medical jobs , guides issued in October instructed men had to take over teaching and civil service positions
• 1933: Law for the Encouragement of Marriage gave newly-weds loans
• policies to increase Aryan births:

  • higher taxes for childless couples , 1938 - divorce made easier for more fertile couples to be together
  • information on contraception restricted , penalties for abortion raised
  • propaganda , educating girls to be mothers , Motherhood Cross (reward for having kids)
  • Lebensborn programme set up in 1935 , state set up places where Aryan women would be raped by SS men
• Nazi policies did not increase the birthrate -

  1933 : average number of kids per marriage was 3.6

  1939: 3.3
• Nazi women's organisations gave many girls and women more opportunites
• impact of nazi policies on women:

  • women welcomed financial incentives to marry and have kids due to many being in low-paid , hard jobs
  • healthcare and support for pregnant women and new mothers improved
  • women lost jobs in professional jobs and higher education
• women working outside the home: 4.2 million in 1933 , 6.2 million in 1939 - 35% of married women aged 16-65
• 1938 - Nazi introduced Year of Duty , where unmarried women were required to work
• jobs women did to help the war effort:

  • accountants
  • interpreters
  • laboratory work
  • nursing
• from 1939 - women had to do compulsory service in the RAD , heavy German losses in the USSR led to men being taken from their war-related industries for the army forces , so women made up their numbers
• by end of 1943 - 1.5 million women were doing war work
• 3,700 women worked in concentration camps
• women joined auxiliary forces (Navy , Luftwaffe) and SS Helferinnen