Nazi Policies Towards Women and the Family (Cambridge (CIE) IGCSE History)

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

Nazi Views on Women

• The Nazis saw women as a fundamental part of the Third Reich:

  • Goebbels said:

• Nazi Germany had these expectations about women:

• The Nazis believed that a woman’s life revolved around the ‘three Ks’:

  • Kinder (children)

  • Kirche (church)

  • Küche (cooking)

Nazi Policies Towards Women

• The Nazis wanted to:

  • Reverse the changes to women’s roles brought in by the Weimar Republic

  • Increase the birth rate

    • The First World War caused a decline in the male population

    • The birth rate had fallen to one million births per year by 1933

• Gertrud Scholtz-Klink was appointed leader of the National Socialist Women's League and oversaw all policies related to women

The German Women’s Enterprise (DFW) 

• All women-related organisations had to join the German Women's Enterprise (DFW):

  • Organisations that failed to join were banned

  • The DFW enrolled members on courses about childcare, cooking and sewing

1933 - The Law for the Encouragement of Marriage 

• Women could qualify for loans of 1,000 marks (equivalent to eight months’ wages) if they:

  • Married

  • Quit their jobs or stay unemployed

• Mothers who gave birth to four children did not have to pay the loan back

  •  Each child removed a quarter of the loan

1935 - The Lebensborn Programme 

• Started by SS leader, Heinrich Himmler

• Paired SS men with single women to create ‘genetically pure’ children

  • The programme only accepted women and men with a clear ‘Aryan’ ancestry 

• The Nazis created special Lebensborn homes for women to rest after giving birth

1938 - Divorce Laws 

• Husbands could legally divorce their wives for:

  • Failing or refusing to have children

  • Having abortions 

1938 - The Mother’s Cross 

• Awards presented on Mother’s Day in Germany were available to women who had four or more children

• Mothers with gold medals received a public salute from the Hitler Youth

• Families with ten children had to name Hitler as the godfather of the tenth child 

Women and Employment

• With the focus on women staying at home and caring for the family, the Nazis introduced laws to reduce the number of women at work: 

How Effective Were Nazi Policies Towards Women?

• Before the Second World War, the Nazis achieved some success with their policies

  • The number of marriages increased from 500,000 in 1932 to 750,000 by 1934

  • The birth rate gradually increased from 15 per 1000 in 1933 to 20 per 1000 in 1939

• However, the build-up to and during the Second World War impacted Nazi policies towards women

  • By 1937, Germany experienced a national shortage of workers

  • By 1939, women fulfilled factory jobs but women's employment rates did not increase to 1930 levels

  • Over 500,000 women worked in the Wehrmacht as nurses or other non-combat roles