How did the Nazis Implement Women's Policies?

Area 1: Increased Births


Key Measures Attempted

• Financial incentives such as birth grants and marriage loans
• Improved maternity services
• Propaganda to boost self-esteem and status of mothers, such as the Mother's Cross
• Higher taxes on childless families
• Stricter penalties for abortion
• Restrictions on contraception information
• Sterilization of 'undesirables'
• Men encouraged to have affairs and more children

Successes

• Birth rate rose, but slowly declined afterwards

Limitations and Failures

• Nazi eugenic processes limited population
• Birth rate still below that of Nazi Germany

Area 2: Reduced Employment



Key Measures Attempted

• Women were given marriage loans to leave their jobs
• Businesses were encouraged to hire women before men
• Women in top civil service and medical jobs were dismissed
• Women were banned from being judges or lawyers

Successes

• Many women conformed to the Nazi policies and became typical housewives
• Marginal impact on the female employment, mainly in professions
• During the war, women were less mobilized than in the US or the UK

Limitations and Failures

• Number of women in employment rose
• Increased further during the war

Treatment of Women in Nazi Germany

--"Nazi policy for women was confused."

I agree with this statement, but not because the Nazi policy was badly organized, but because it ran into many problems. It was not horrible confused, but it did experience some confusion with issues and exceptions. For example, although women were meant to be housewives, there were some very prominent women in Germany that were very successful, such as Leni Riefenstahl, a high-profile film producer. Some women agreed that they were meant to be housewives, while others resented being forced to quit their jobs when they got married. Finally, after all the effort and limiting women to the house, the Nazis eventually had to abandon that policy because the work force was diminishing during the war. The Nazi policy for women was confused because it experienced many ups and downs, and it completely turned around during the war.

--"Nazi policy for women was a failure."

Nazi policy for women did indeed fail, but only because it had to be abandoned to keep up the work force. All along there was some opposition and resentment towards the policy, however there was also a lot of support. The main reason that the policy failed was because nearly all of the working men in Germany had gone off to fight in the war, and the supply of men in need of jobs was dwindling, so the Nazis had to abandon their policy and turn to the women to work in place of the men. The war is what caused the Nazi policy for women to fail.