HITLER’S APPROACH TO WOMEN AND FAMILIES Sonja S. & Anni V.

 Kinder, Küche and Kirche = children, kitchen and church  Women’s duty was to stay at home and take care of the home and children  Laws restricting women in higher education and employment  Women also excluded from participation in the judiciary or in the jury service  Propaganda to discourage females in the workplace  Women were strictly controlled even at home  Liberation of women from the liberal democratic policies of the Weimar Republic  Hitler often referred to the biological roles of men and women commanded by nature  Organizations to promote Nazi-approved values among women established but their role was secondary (DFW, NSF and RMD)

PRO-NATALIST POLICIES  Policies to encourage growth in the birth rate  Included for example marriage loans, income-tax reductions to married couples with children, maternity benefits and child support  Mother’s Cross award  Illegalization of abortion and closing down of birth control centers  Unmarried women encouraged to have children.  Lebensborn= buildings where selected unmarried women went to get pregnant by ’racially pure’ SS-men

DURING THE WAR TIME  Hitler had to compromise his ideology concerning women when labour power in the factories was needed  Women employment became a necessity  Duty Year programme introduced where women were forced to do one year of compulsory work  Women’s role in the factories increased during Speer’s programme

SOURCES Authoritarian States – IB History Course Book germany/