The Impact of Nazi Policies on the Position and Role of Women in Germany, 1933-39
The Nazi regime aimed to utilize 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
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Those women who had been sterilised were not allowed to marry.
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)
The document serves to support Hitler’s plan to create a community of German people, the Volksgemeinschaft, in which women played a crucial role. Nazi ideology defined the community in opposition to the individualistic society produced by liberal democracies and the false sense of community promoted by the communists. In other words, Hitler aimed to create a German community of people that
Prior to World War II, many women were unemployed, due to the Great Depression which had started a decade before. With men always getting preference for jobs, there were very few jobs left for women. Consequently, not only were many occupations were reserved for men, but men were also paid wages up to five times higher for the same task as women. Some states also barred married women from holding jobs. However during World War II, America produced at an efficiency which was higher than ever. This meant that the women had an increasing number of jobs. Jobs in the public sector opened up. Since 1939, women progressively changed the idea of patriarchy and the cliché thinking of an average woman in the United States to be a wife and mother.
Hitler had a very clear idea of women’s role; she was the centre of family life, a housewife and the mother. Their job was to keep the house nice for their husband and family – their lives should revolve round the three ‘ks’, church, children and cooking. This ideal was based around Hitler wanting to achieve his long held goal of Lebensraum to increase the German Aryan population. Strasser argues that ‘National Socialism intended to restore the natural order, and states that this was to accord women the respect they deserved as mothers and housewives’, therefore improving their status. However Carey argues that women’s position did not improve and “throughout the civil war
This investigation will attempt to answer the question: “To what extent did the two major woman’s contributions in World War II, the WAACS and nurses, undergird the women fighting for equal rights achieve their goals of economic and social independence in the job force, during the years following WWII?” This research question will allow for exploration on women involvement in the war and how involvement affected woman’s independence in the United States. This investigation will analyze women rights and war involvement from 1939 to 1964 when title VII was passed.
Hitler used many tactics to control German society during the Nazi era; his outlook on how women should act is embodied in the Speech to the National Socialist Women’s Association. The speech was given by Gertrud Scholtz-Klink, the organization’s leader, with the intent to convince women to take their place in Hitler’s Nazi movement. The emphasis on women’s natural roles in the home, as mothers and wives, and the discouragement of women’s right are manifested in the persuasive language of national identity and involvement. Hitler uses Scholtz-Klink to fight for the minds of German women in a speech that asks for feminist ideals to be cast aside all for the good of the country.
In the book Frauen: German Women Recall the Third Reich by Alison Owings, we are provided with plenty of women who describe their lives before, during and after Hitler received power. This book provides us with different views of the time era and as well as how the impact of Hitler affected every woman differently through social class, age, marital status and etc. This paper will explore the lives of three German women who seem to be in the Grey area during the over control of Hitler but mostly with the killings of the Jews. This paper will further explore the complicity and the different levels of resistance that these three women had during this time era which is 1933-1945. The three women that will be discussed in this paper are Margarete (Margrit) Fischer, Ellen Frey, and Christine (Tini) Weihs. When looking into the lives of all three women these women it seems as though women didn’t have much of a responsibility for the events that were happening around them. Although these women seemed to be complaint to a certain degree with the events there were going on around them. These women would have been complaint due to the fear of what happened to Germans when they stood against the events that took part.
Women were immensely affected by the policy of Volksgemeinschaf as Nazi Party had conservative aims when it came to the role of
On the morning of December 7, 1941 a surprise attack conducted by the Japanese Navy on the United State naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii resulted in America’s involvement in World War II. While the rest of the world was at war, America stayed neutral until the attack on Pearl Harbor which ironically was intended as a preventive action towards America’s involvement in the war. After the attack, America entered the war, a war that the Americans were not prepared for. America just has gotten out of the Great Depression in the 30s and was still recovering. The war brought about draft and new job opportunities for men and women. Nancy Potter, a teen during the time described the effects of the war, "I think for girls and women, and perhaps
When Britain declared war against Germany in 1939, the Australian Prime Minister, Robert Menzies, proclaimed that Australia was also at war. The declaration of war saw Australians respond to another world conflict. On this occasion, Australia itself would be under the threat of attack. World War II would not only require young men to travel overseas and fight but it also significantly impacted the lives of Australian women. The contribution Australian women made towards the war effort and their roles on the Homefront and overseas was a vital part of Australian History. Australian women had a range of duties and responsibilities they were encouraged to perform. Since most men had to go overseas to
During the year 1942, most of the world was occupied with World War II; for the US, it was a period of hardship, unity, sacrifice, and pain. Men were selected to go fight while women were encouraged with the “Rosie the Riveter” poster to work in areas they were not familiar with. About six million women were motivated from it and worked the jobs men usually took and jobs that contributed to helping the men who were fighting; however, women were still responsible for their daily house work.
The Nazis' Control of Everyday Life in Germany after 1933 In this project I intend to explain how the Nazis controlled everyday life in Germany from 1933 onwards. I shall look at how Youths, Women, Workers, Control and Propaganda and the Jews, were all either part of the control or a victim of it. Adolf Hitler was born on the 20th of April 1889 at Braunau, on the Austro-Bavarian frontier.
In the aftermath of World War II, German civilians become the target of hatred due to the Holocaust. The mass rapes that happened to German women during the occupation of Berlin are not remembered due to the hatred of the German population as a whole. In her diary A Woman in Berlin, Anonymous catalogues her perspective of the mass rapes. In order to cope effectively with the rapes and to survive, Anonymous manipulates her sexual assaults to become a method of obtaining necessary goods because she, like other women, could not depend on men.
Emphasized Femininity During World War II World War II was considered a start for women’s liberation. On the surface, it appears so; women entered the work force in large numbers and performed tasks previously considered masculine. This is just face value, when looking deeper, it is clear that women entered the labour force not because of a right to work or a struggle for gender equity but for the war effort. Supposed gains were lost at the end of the war because the attitude towards women’s role in society had not become more egalitarian. In fact, gender roles were even more strictly enforced.
In world war II, many women received secondary jobs after men came back from the war. They felt the need that they should get to work and do the same work men do. The women demanded to work just the same as men so that they can be taken more serious and not as a joke. Women increased their dependence on themselves by working and doing things, the men do instead of having men do it for them. Post-world war II, many women were discharged from their jobs, and the ones who were able to keep their jobs were relocated to secondary jobs; women who returned home lost a bunch of their financial independence and the women who were allowed to keep their jobs continued to gain more autonomy.
During the ruling of the Weimar Republic, women in Germany was one of the most progressive in Europe. They had the right to vote, work and had the a greater equality to men, but on 1933 the Nazi came to power, and Hitler have significantly changed the laws of the Weimar republic which affected the women in Germany tremendously. The Weimar republic had fixed laws on the rights of women in Germany, articles 17 and 22 allowed women to vote, article 109 state the quality of gender in jobs or other activities, article 128 made sure that there were no unfairness against female bureaucrats, article 19 assured the female maternity rights and lastly article 119 gave spousal equality within marriage. Even though the Weimar republic wanted an equal gender society, woman’s most important role from the public was still to raise a child, this was shown through how female