Impact on Women
- Nazi restrictions on women in employment from 1933–1936 lowered their presence in certain professions, but the demands of rearmament and later war reversed this trend, leading to 7.14 million women in work by 1939.
- Pro-natalist incentives such as marriage loans and the Mother’s Cross raised the profile of large families, but birth rates only modestly increased from 14.7 per 1,000 in 1933 to 20.3 in 1939, falling short of ideological goals.
- Women who met the racial criteria were valued primarily as mothers of future soldiers, with social prestige attached to fulfilling this role.
- The war years saw an increased reliance on women in agriculture, industry, and administration, contradicting the early emphasis on domesticity.
- While some women benefitted from stability, many lost professional opportunities permanently due to Nazi gender ideology.
Women in Nazi Germany
- Nazi ideology promoted Kinder, Küche, Kirche as the role for women, focusing on motherhood, domesticity, and racial purity.
- Policies like marriage loans and the Mother’s Cross rewarded large “Aryan” families.
- Employment restrictions reduced women’s participation in certain jobs from 37% in 1932 to 31% in 1937.
- By 1939, labour shortages and war needs pushed the number of employed women to 7.14 million, contradicting early Nazi ideals.
- This tension between ideology and economic necessity reveals the regime’s pragmatic approach to gender policy.
Impact on Jews
- The Nuremberg Laws (1935) stripped Jews of citizenship and banned marriage or sexual relations between Jews and “Aryans”, reducing them to second-class status.
