How successful were Nazi policies towards women and the family?

Question 1

What were the Nazi’s main aims for women?

Answer 1

• Childbearing to increase declining birth rate
• Return to trad roles as wives + mothers instead of careers during Weimar
• Bring up healthy Aryan children for the Reich

Question 2

Did they achieve these aims?

Answer 2

• Many rural Germans supported traditional Nazi ideals
• Women in urban areas resented losing freedoms
• Number of marriages increased from 500,000 - 750,000 (1932-1934)
• Birth rate increased from 15 per 1000 to 20 per 1000) in 1939
• But war forced them to change direction

Question 3

What were Nazi views about women and the family?

Answer 3

• Traditional
• Husbands as breadwinners
• Women are wives and mothers

Question 4

How did the Nazis achieve these aims?

Answer 4

• Incentives
• Propaganda
• Repressive Measures

Question 5

How did the Nazis achieve these aims using incentives?

Answer 5

• From 1933, loans of 1000 marks were offered to newlyweds if women gave up work to raise a family
• The Honour Cross of the German Mother introduced in 1938, a bronze (>=4), silver (>=6), gold (>=8)

Question 6

How did the Nazis achieve these aims using propaganda?

Answer 6

• Goebbels showed ideal family as Aryan with lots of children (women as mothers, fathers as soldiers/workers, women encouraged to stay fit and conservative)
• In school and other Nazi organisations, marriage to an Aryan husband was promoted
• Nazis promoted 3ks (“children, church, kitchen”)

Question 7

How did the Nazis achieve these aims using repressive measures?

Answer 7

• Women forced out of political roles
• Women banned from professions such as medicine, civil service and law

Question 8

How did the war force Nazis to change direction?

Answer 8

• In 1935, Hitler reintroduced conscription + rearmament so many left factory jobs + farms to join the new armed forces
• By 1937, national shortage of workers in war industries so Nazis encouraged women to fill shortages in factories
• Number of women in work increased by 1939 (still < than numbers in 1930) as some resisted going back due to low wages
• By 1939 and outbreak of war, Nazi’s women policies were confused: over half a million served in the armed forces with nursing + non-combatant roles