Did the status and condition of women improve in Nazi Germany?

Did the status and condition of women improve in Nazi Germany?

1. Children/family

   • If you had children-got a marriage loan. If you had four, fully repaid
   • Mother's honour cross from 1938 for having 4 babies-- hitler youth had to salute
   • Encouraged to have babies and stay at home
   • Had to be racially and medically pure to have babies
   • Contraception forbidden and abortion illegal by 1938- death sentence punishment

2. Work

   • BDM
     • Good leadership opportunities
     • By 1938- 3.5 million girls
     • Elite sent to Poland
     • Bridal schools established
     • Not supposed to show intelligence
   • Jobs
     • Offered jobs in war industry
     • Excluded from all positions of power
     • Not aloud to work in civil service if married
     • Not aloud to be lawyers or doctors
     • Women forced to work without pay

3. Status

   • Mother's day became a national holiday
   • Priviledged status as wives
   • Forced infertility for non-Aryan race
   • 8 million youth boys and girls took oath of loyalty to Hitler at Nuremberg rallies
   • Many tried suicide
   • Over a million widows after war

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