Assess the impact of Nazi Policies on the position and role of women in Germany,

1933-39

The Nazi regime aimed to utilise 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 policies adopted. Women were encouraged to have as many
children as possible, however this was not acceptable with undesirables like
Jews and Black people, only Aryans. The policies used like financial incentivesmarriage loans and birth grants, meant that women were placed better when
having children. Their role was to maintain high birth rates, and their position
and situation was desirable for this role. However all women did not accept this
and many did not gain from the measures taken. Underpinned in the policy was
the fact that it would restrict women to the home and reduce employment with
women, which is what the Nazis wanted. However this was not the case as there
was actually a growth in female employment from 1933-39. This was very ironic,
the Nazis set out their policies for women to be able to gain from them in having
children, however by having less children and getting jobs, women still gained as
employment levels rose. Not all women gained from the Nazi agenda, as I have
said it only applied to Aryans, there was compulsory sterilisation of women who
were mentally sick or who had already produced weak offspring were often
classified as unfit, this included Jews and Black women. 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) summed up the Nazi
view of women in German society. Their role was to produce babies, bring up
children and care for their homes and husbands. The three Ks were closely
connected to the Nazi view of family life. This was ideally a family with four
children, father at work but mother staying at home to look after them. Many
womens organisations supported the three Ks because they saw it as a reaction
against the decadence of Weimar Germany. In this way the Nazi agenda had a
positive effect on women and their position in Germany. However there were
significant challenges in practise. The encouragement of birth outside marriage
and the encouragement of divorce went totally against the ideals laid out for
women. They were encouraged to stay in the home and support the family, yet
there was also encouragement to have children outside marriage. Again this is a
conflicting part of the role of women, women were usually meant to foster their
children by themselves as parents, but instead there was fostering youth
assertion in Hitler Youth.

A final part of the Nazi philosophy was for women to uphold and support a
traditional, rural society. This meant that the ideal role and position of women
was to produce babies, bring up children and care for their homes and husbands.
Outside certain specialist areas, Hitler saw no reason for women to work. There
were to be no female Nazi members of the Reichstag, but in fact this made the
role of women fairly important. In many ways the Nazis gave increased
opportunities for mainly middle-aged women to become involved in public life,
although they were excluded from decision-making. So in this way some women
did have an improved role/position in this aspect of life. Again, there are
conflicting issues that arise with this. Remembering that the ideology of women
to uphold a traditional and rural society, in fact new organisations were set up for
women, the Nationalist Socialist Womens Organisation (NSF), and the German
Womens Enterprise (DFW). These organisations were set up for with Nazi
beliefs, but were actually disagreeing with the traditional, rural beliefs.

From this a mixed picture emerges, some women gained as a result of the
personalised and individualised nature of the evidence. Even though the Nazi
theory and policy were clear, there were significant contradictions and conflicting
issues in practise. The roles issued to women were self-undermining and had
logistical inconsistencies, for example, they could not have all the men out
fighting and women home, who runs factories etc.? These contradictions show
some of the irony of Nazism. Some women felt more valued and appreciate and
felt more stable, whereas others were sterilised, outlawed, and divorced on
spurious grounds. The role and position of women varied between different
groups because of the impact of Nazi Policies.