Nazi Position Of Women Essay

Throughout the Nazi's rule, the position of women has been one of constant change through time and there has been a debate about whether the position of women improved. When the Nazis came to power in 1933 there were many changes in society. Hitler's goal was to create a super race of people of pure German ‘Aryan’ blood and to expand the German Empire, to make it the most powerful empire during that period. Hitler in doing so many people were affected by these changes that had to be made. Some of these factors are through the political, social and economic factors that play a role in the position of women. It could be argued to a large extent that the position of women did improve under the Nazi rule, socially, due to the fact that women and

The year before Hitler’s rise to power in 1932, “just under 44,000 German women applied to terminate a pregnancy and 34,698 of these were approved. Between 1935 and 1940, there were only 14,333 applications and 9,701 approvals.” This suggests that the Nazis propaganda describing abortion as a “crime against the body and against the state” did influence women within German society to refrain from getting abortions, therefore indicating that the position of women did not improve under Nazi rule, due to the fact that the majority of women were denied abortions due to the ideas of the Nazi regime towards women and children. As well as placing restrictions on abortions, the Nazis placed restrictions on contraceptives. Historian Jill Stephenson states that the Nazi’s attitudes towards contraceptives became “a curious of repression and apparent enlightenment” The Nazis wanted to bring the birth rate up, most significantly between Aryan race and members of the SS - but the need to also understand the debilitating effects of sexually transmitted diseases, meant that condoms remained available in German cities, while most contraceptives were banned. They were supplied and distributed by military doctors, meaning that the position of women remained improved to an extent, as their bodies were not exploited to produce children for the future, but also for the study of sexually transmitted diseases. However, it can be said that the position of women did not improve under Nazi rule due to the Lebensborn Programme - this was a programme created by Nazi authorities to increase the German population. The programme directed its influence to attracting unmarried, pregnant ‘Aryan’ women. During this time, there was a strong pressure in