theme 4a - attitudes towards women

Question 1

How were women generally viewed in the Weimar period?

Answer 1

As having different roles to men; only radicals believed in total equality.

Question 2

What shows the accepted differences in the roles of men and women in Weimar Germany?

Answer 2

Children’s literature. ‘The Good Pal’ for boys; ‘The Friendship Circle’ for girls.

Question 3

How did the Weimar Constitution push sexual equality?

Answer 3

Equal political rights, equal educational rights, equal pay in professions.

Question 4

How many female deputies were in the Reichstag in 1926?

Answer 4

32

Question 5

Who was the biggest feminist group from 1918–32?

Answer 5

BDF with 900,000 members.

Question 6

What did the SPD and KPD back?

Answer 6

Equal rights, but assumed women would play a domestic role.

Question 7

Who was the leading conservative group of the Weimar Republic who were anti-female rights?

Answer 7

KDK.

Question 8

What did the KDK believe in?

Answer 8

Anti Americanisation, anti female suffrage, anti birth control, anti homosexuality.

Question 9

What were characteristics of the New Woman?

Answer 9

Economically independent, bobbed hair, smoking, American clothing, lived in cities.

Question 10

How were New Women portrayed in the media?

Answer 10

Often critically — showing New Women leading themselves to ruin.

Question 11

What did conservatives think of the New Woman?

Answer 11

Part of Germany’s path to national decline.

Question 12

What did the sexual reform movement push for in the Weimar period?

Answer 12

Sexual liberation, easier birth control, easier divorce laws, education reform.

Question 13

What did the female vote lead to in the Weimar period for prostitution?

Answer 13

A push to deregulate female prostitution and removal of the Moral Police Force.

Question 14

What was established in the Weimar Period to help prostitutes?

Answer 14

Care Centres to help those looking to leave prostitution.

Question 15

When did the Weimar Republic decriminalise prostitution?

Answer 15

1927

Question 16

What role to the Aryan race did the Nazis believe women had?

Answer 16

A duty to mate correctly in order to bear the next generation.

Question 17

What was a woman’s role in society according to the Nazis?

Answer 17

To nurture the next generation of Germans.

Question 18

What did the Nazis believe about women in politics?

Answer 18

They had no political role; they believed female emancipation was a Jewish Conspiracy.

Question 19

What did the Nazis summarise their view towards women’s role as?

Answer 19

‘Kinder, Küche, Kirche’

Question 20

How did the Nazis incentivise women to bear children?

Answer 20

Reduction of income tax, maternity benefits, glorification of motherhood, establishing of Mother Schools.

Question 21

Why did the birth rate in farming communities drop in Nazi Germany?

Answer 21

Women were unable to inherit farmland and female wages were cut, leading to long hours for female farm workers.

Question 22

How did Nazis encourage women to get married?

Answer 22

1,000RM loan upon marriage, quarter of which was written off after the birth of a child.

Question 23

Who were SS officers encouraged to marry?

Answer 23

Women who had won a Reich Sports Medal.

Question 24

What did Himmler establish in order to ensure racially superior babies?

Answer 24

The Lebensborn program.

Question 25

What were Nazi beauty standards based on?

Answer 25

Being natural-faced and lack of makeup/artificial aids.

Question 26

What was the ideal Nazi woman known as?

Answer 26

Hitler Maiden.

Question 27

What were the characteristics of the Hitler Maiden?

Answer 27

Natural, didn't smoke or drink, wore traditional clothing and had a body suited to giving birth.

Question 28

What was the commercial result of the Nazi beauty standards?

Answer 28

New cosmetics were introduced such as tanning parlours and hormone creams.

Question 29

Who was a Nazi ideal of beauty?

Answer 29

Irene von Meyendorff.

Question 30

What showed there was still a demand for American goods?

Answer 30

SS wives being delivered cosmetics and former possessions of Jewish prisoners.

Question 31

What was an effect of the Reichstag Fire decree on women?

Answer 31

Removal of civil rights meant mass arrests of women suspected of prostitution.

Question 32

How were 'sexual deviants' treated in the 1930s?

Answer 32

They could be imprisoned and forced to hard labour due to the moral problem they presented to Germans.

Question 33

What changed for women in the war?

Answer 33

They were forced to take on men's roles within factories and the workplace.

Question 34

How much did the proportion of women in the workforce rise by during the war?

Answer 34

From 1/3 women to 1/2.

Question 35

How much did women working on farms rise by during the war?

Answer 35

From 55% to 67% of women were involved in farm work.

Question 36

How did Nazi propaganda claim women could help win the war?

Answer 36

By ensuring their home was in order, protected their children and made the most of their rations.

Question 37

How did Nazi female groups help the war effort?

Answer 37

They established kitchens and emergency centres to help those damaged in the war.

Question 38

What showed the horrific conditions foreign female workers endured in Nazi Germany?

Answer 38

90% of women forced to work had their children die due to poor conditions and pay.

Question 39

How did German women help the project of Lebensraum?

Answer 39

They decorated and cleaned Polish farms to make way for German settlers; viewed as bringing civilisation to the East.

Question 40

How were unfaithful women treated in the war?

Answer 40

They were sent to concentration camps for up to a year to prevent men's morale from dropping.

Question 41

How did many male politicians view women in the early FRG?

Answer 41

Men as the main breadwinners and favoured a patriarchal family structure.

Question 42

How many women were in the Bundestag in 1972?

Answer 42

Only 5.8%.

Question 43

How did women finally find a voice in mainstream German politics in the FRG?

Answer 43

The Green Party pushed feminist policies and had many female representatives.

Question 44

Why was there tension between men and women after the war in the FRG?

Answer 44

Many women had kept the country running during the war but were encouraged to give up their jobs to returning men.

Question 45

How much did female employment rise by from 1950 to 1970?

Answer 45

From 44% to 50%.

Question 46

What figures show that women were not able to reach managerial roles in the FRG?

Answer 46

Even by 1980 only 5% of professors and only 4% of doctors were women.

Question 47

How much lower was female salary than males in the 1970s in the FRG?

Answer 47

65% lower.

Question 48

How did the FRG government attempt to rectify the wage gap between men and women?

Answer 48

Creation of the National Office for Women's Affairs.

Question 49

Why did many families break down after the war?

Answer 49

Men expected to return home to the same family structure, which often wasn't the case.

Question 50

What showed the breakdown of traditional family structure in the FRG?

Answer 50

The divorce rate had reached 120,000 a year by 1990.

Question 51

How did abortion issues show the struggle of the feminist movement?

Answer 51

Abortion laws failed in 1971 under Brandt; only limited permission given in 1976 for abortions within first 12 weeks.

Question 52

How did feminists spread their message in the FRG?

Answer 52

Publishing journals such as *Emma* and flaunting their sexuality in public.