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Gender Equality In Nazi Germany

Decent Essays

At the turn of the twentieth century, a new representation of the female race was beginning to emerge in German society. The was primarily a result of the brutal impact of WWI on the population of men in Germany. They had suffered immense loss of life and nearly drained their supply of young men because so many had died in the war. Meanwhile, German women had been forced to fill in the gaps in the labor force. While the men were off in battle, they would do the jobs that men would normally be doing. Consequently, many women became accustomed to working, being paid, and excelling in their careers. This gave way for the emergence of petitioning for other women’s rights such as women’s suffrage, equal pay, and other emancipations. Women began challenging fashion norms and breaking the stigma that a woman’s purpose was limited to the family and home. However, as veterans began to return from war, they began to reclaim their old jobs, women were laid off, and although progress had been made, there was (and still is) a long way to go in order to achieve true equality. Things began to slide back to the way they were, and with the enabling of the Third Reich any ideas of gender equality came crashing down completely. This is not to say that women were viewed as useless or worthless in Nazi Germany. It was quite the contrary. Women were a crucial part of Hitler’s plan to expand the “Aryan” race to maximum capacity. Women were exalted and celebrated on all kinds of propaganda

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