Nazi Policies Towards Women and the Family | History for GCSE/IGCSE - Year 11 PDF Download

How Did Life For Women Change Under the Nazis? - Summary

• Before the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, Nazi policy towards women primarily focused on ensuring they remained at home to care for their families.
• Women were expected to adhere to conservative dress, maintain good health and fitness, and marry strong Aryan men. This policy aimed at increasing the declining birth rate, which had significantly fallen by the early 1930s.
• Similar to other sectors of society, the Nazis consolidated organizations under a central figurehead. Gertrud Scholtz-Klink, the leading female Nazi politician, was tasked with overseeing all policies related to women.
• The Nazi Party implemented laws regarding marriage and employment, with varying degrees of success. Women who complied with Nazi policy received financial incentives and gained social status. However, the Nazis also prohibited many women from pursuing careers, such as those in medicine and law.
• Assessing the effectiveness of Nazi policies towards women in Germany is challenging. By 1939, several laws aimed at confining women to domestic roles had been reversed. The demands of the Second World War necessitated the involvement of women in the workforce to sustain industrial production, aligning with the needs of the Allies.

Nazi Views on Women

• The Nazis viewed women as essential to the Third Reich, with Goebbels emphasizing their role in being beautiful and bearing children.

• Nazi ideology dictated that a woman's existence centered around the 'three Ks': Kinder (children), Kirche (church), and Küche (cooking).

Nazi Policies Towards Women

• The Nazis aimed to revert the changes in women's roles introduced by the Weimar Republic.
  • They sought to boost the birth rate as a response to the decline in the male population after WWI.
  • By 1933, the birth rate had plummeted to one million births annually.
• Gertrud Scholtz-Klink was appointed to lead the National Socialist Women's League. She supervised all policies concerning women during the Nazi era.

The German Women’s Enterprise (DFW)

• All women-centric organizations were mandated to join the German Women's Enterprise (DFW); those that refused were prohibited.
• The DFW conducted educational programs on childcare, cooking, and sewing for its members.

1933 - The Law for the Encouragement of Marriage

• Women were eligible for loans of 1,000 marks (equal to eight months' wages) if they:
  • Got married
  • Quit their jobs or remained unemployed
• Mothers who gave birth to four children were exempt from loan repayment
  • Each child's birth reduced a quarter of the loan

1935 - The Lebensborn Programme

• Initiated by SS leader, Heinrich Himmler, the SS Lebensborn Program aimed to pair SS men with single women to produce 'genetically pure' offspring.
  • Participants were required to have a clear 'Aryan' ancestry, reflecting the Nazi ideology of racial purity.
• The Nazis established specialized Lebensborn homes to provide postnatal care for women involved in the program.

1938 - Divorce Laws

• In 1938, divorce laws permitted husbands to legally separate from their wives for reasons such as the failure or refusal to bear children and the act of having abortions.
• Specifically, husbands could divorce their wives for reasons including infertility or the termination of pregnancies.

1938 - The Mother's Cross

• The Mother's Cross, introduced in 1938, was a decoration awarded to German women who exhibited exceptional motherhood qualities. 
• It symbolized the Nazi regime's emphasis on promoting traditional family values and encouraging childbirth.

Women and Employment

• During the Nazi era, emphasis was placed on women staying at home to care for their families, leading to the implementation of laws aimed at reducing the number of women in the workforce.

How Effective Were Nazi Policies Towards Women?

• Before the outbreak of the Second World War, the Nazi regime saw some success through their policies:
  • The number of marriages rose from 500,000 in 1932 to 750,000 by 1934.
  • The birth rate showed a gradual increase from 15 per 1000 in 1933 to 20 per 1000 in 1939.
• However, as the Second World War approached and during the conflict itself, Nazi policies towards women faced challenges:
  • By 1937, Germany encountered a national labor shortage.
  • By 1939, women started taking on factory roles, but overall women's employment rates did not reach the levels of the 1930s.
  • More than 500,000 women served in the Wehrmacht in non-combat roles like nursing.