1. Women & Nazi Germany The impact on the daily life of women by Nazi party rule

2. Nazi Aims  The Nazis had very traditional views about the position of women:  Women were inferior to men  Their job was to raise children and run the household  Working women were taking the jobs of men. ‘The mission of women is to be beautiful and to bring children into the world’ Josef Goebbels 1929

3. Marriage and Children  1933 – the Law for the Encouragement of Marriage was introduced.  Aim was to increase Germany’s falling birth-rate  This was done by providing loans to young couples to marry provided the wife left her job.  Medals were awarded to women with large children  Women classed as ‘unfit’ to bear children because of a physical or mental disability, or having given birth to a weak child, were compulsorily sterilised.  The German Women’s Enterprise organised classes and radio talks on household topics and the skills of motherhood

4. Jobs  Instead of going to work, women were asked to stick to the ‘three K’s’  Kinder - children  Kirche - church  Kuche – kitchen  Female doctors, civil servants and teachers were forced to leave their jobs.  Schoolgirls were trained for work at home.  They were discouraged from going on to higher education ‘Within months of Hitler coming to power, many women doctors and servants were sacked from their jobs. Then women lawyers and teachers were dismissed. By 1939 there were few women left in professional jobs’ Josh Brooman, Hitler’s Germany, 1985

5. Appearance  Women were encouraged to keep healthy and wear their hair in a bun or plaits.  They were discouraged from wearing trousers or make- up, dyeing or styling their hair  The were also discouraged from slimming as this was seen as bad for childbearing.

6. How successful were the Nazi’s policies?  Many women accepted these new policies, especially those who believed in the traditional role of women  However, not all women were prepared to accept these changes. YearMarriagesLive Births Deaths 1929589,600 19311,047,775734,165 1932516,793993,126707,642 1933638,573971,174737,877 1934740,1651,198,350724,758 1935651,4351,263,976792,018 1936609,6311,277,052795,203 1937620,2651,277,046794,367 1938645,0621,348,534799,220 1939772,1061,407,490853,410