Nazi Policy Towards Women

Under the Weimar Republic, 1919-1932, women have a relatively most progressive power but when the Nazis came to power, the progressive power has been reversed. Overall, the changes that Nazi made to policy toward women were mainly significant even though some policies were not. During the Weimar Republic, women have the right to vote (article 17 and 22), equality of the sexes in civic matters (article 109) and non-discrimination against female bureaucrats (article 128). This gave the women a sense of emancipation, a liberated lifestyle. During the first election in 1919, women were able to make political decisions, 49 women were elected to the parliament. This gave women the opportunities to work. In 1925, 36% of German workforce was made

Female emancipation was reversed; her degradation and depersonalization became an element of German ideology. The Nazi attitude towards women was the 3’s K which was ‘Kinder, Kirche und Kuche’ or Children, Church and Kitchen. In 1933, there was job discrimination for women. There were 100,000 female teachers and 3,000 doctors. Women were forced to give up their careers. Nazi believes that there was a natural distinction between sexes. Men were supposed to be productive and creative in the world of politics and war, fighting in the battlefield whereas a women should be serving the state by bearing children, devoting to their husband, keeping a decent home and being a good mother bringing up their children to become a quality future generation. Only “racially fit and pure” women were seen as mothers and housewives, a means of producing a new generation of Nazis. Also Goebbels once said that, “The mission of women is to be beautiful and to bring children into world.” “The ideal women is one who, above all, is capable of being a mother,” and “ We are opposed to women going into the professions which make them ‘manified’ Also, women were discouraged to do any activities such as smoking or slimming and work that would make it harder for them to bear children. Instead the Nazi emphasis on physical training, they encouraged women to do sports and stay fit in order to improve women’s fertility or attend mothercraft

One of them is by setting up a Mother’s day, which helps manipulate women into having more children. In 1939, they started to award mothers in order to encourage more women to have children, the ‘Cross of Honor for the German mother’ was introduced, this was only awarded to genetically fit, politically reliable and socially worthy women on the 12th of April, which was given out by Hitler. The cross was award according to the numbers of children the women had. Mother which has 4-5 children were awarded bronze, 6-7 were silver and 8 or more were gold. It was entitled to additional rights within the Reich so some financial privileges and preferential services were connected to the award. However, this did not really help increase the birthrate so it was not seen to be significant. In 1935, the Nazi set up the abortion law and closed down family-planning centers and banned contraceptives- birth –control organizations. In 1941, Himmler banned all contraceptives production and made the penalty of using them harsher. In 1943, death penalty was introduced to those who were performing an abortion because during the war time, Germans were dying in war and the population is gradually decreasing and by doing is this an act of ‘racial sabotage’. In 1932, before Hitler came to power, 44000 German women applied to terminate pregnancy, of which 34,698 were approved. Between 1935 and 1940, there were only 14,333