Gender roles and attitudes to women in Nazi Germany were largely shaped by the

personal views of Adolf Hitler. The fuhrer had conservative and traditionalist conceptions of
gender; they were probably influenced by his mother, a simple but caring housewife who had
protected her son from his stern and sometimes brutal father. In Hitlers mind, the natural role for
women was domestic: they were best equipped to tend the home, to care for their husbands, to
bear and raise children. Hitler believed women were kinder, gentler and more emotional than
men. Because of this, they were not equipped to survive the turmoil and pressure of workplaces,
business or politics. Hitler preferred women who were quiet, demure and motherly. He found it
difficult to relax around women who were confident, outspoken, well educated or professionally
successful. These attitudes were reflected in both Hitlers Mein Kampf and some of his speeches:
Women are the eternal mothers of the nation; women are the eternal companion of men; the
triumphant task of women is to bear and tend babies; men are willing to fight women must
be there to nurse them. Hitler rejected ideas of gender equality. He described the push for
womens rights and equal pay for women as a communist plot. In a 1935 speech, the Nazi leader
said that:
The granting of equal rights to women, which Marxism demands, in reality does not grant equal
rights it instead constitutes a deprivation of rights, since it draws women into realms of
society where they are inferior. The woman has her own battlefield. With every child that she
brings into the world, she fights her battle for the nation.
Hitlers patriarchal views about women shaped Nazi policy and propaganda. One of the Nazis
first policy objectives was to return women to motherhood in order to increase the population. In
July 1933 the Nazi regime passed the Law for the Encouragement of Marriage. In effect an early
form of baby bonus, married couples were given a state loan of 1000 Reichmarks that was
partially repaid every time the wife gave birth (one quarter was deemed paid after the first child
and the loan was discharged after four children). Between 1933 and 1936 the Nazi government
issued these state loans to almost 695,000 married couples. German women were bombarded
with speeches and propaganda that suggested their highest aspirations should be husband, home
and healthy offspring. Pregnancy and motherhood were celebrated. Propaganda
praised Kindersegen (women blessed with children) as national heroines. Women who bore
multiple children were awarded a medallion, the Ehrenzeichen der Deutschen Mutter (Cross of

Honour of the German Mother). The cross was awarded in bronze for a fourth child, in silver for
a sixth and gold for an eighth.
The worth of a nation is shown in the willingness of its women to become valuable mothers
Germany must once again become a fertile land of mothers and children the existence or nonexistence of our people is decided solely by the mother.
Mayer, Nazi eugenicist
As well as promoting motherhood, the Nazis also restricted abortion and contraception. During
the 1920s Germany led the world in the development of contraceptive devices, including
condoms, diaphragms and intra-uterine devices (IUDs). But the Nazis outlawed contraception
not only to increase the birthrate but also because many pioneers of contraceptive medicine were
Jewish. Even publicising or discussing birth control was eventually banned in Nazi Germany.
The regime also cracked down on abortion, imposing tough requirements for pregnancy
terminations on medical grounds and harsh penalties for illegal abortions. Propaganda described
abortion as a crime against the body and against the state. In 1932, the year before Hitlers rise
to power, just under 44,000 German women applied to terminate a pregnancy and 34,698 of
these were approved. Between 1935 and 1940 there were only 14,333 applications and 9,701
approvals. Conversely, doctors would approve abortions and indeed, even encourage them if
the patient happened to be non-Aryan. In November 1938 a Nazi-run state court ruled that
abortion should be legal and freely available for all Jewish women.

Gold Cross of the German Mother, for a woman with eight children
While the Nazis hailed German mothers as national heroes, single women and working women
were treated as second-class citizens. Hitler was full of scorn for women in paid employment. He
called it a Marxist ploy, an attempt to clad women in overalls and work boots to strip them of
their femininity. This derision for single and working women was reflected in policy. Unmarried
women were viewed by the law as Staatsangehoriger (subjects of the state), the same legal
status later given to Jews and the mentally infirm. When the Nazis took power in 1933 there
were 100,000 female teachers and 3,000 female doctors working in Germany. Most of them were
eventually sacked, forced to resign or pushed into marriage and motherhood. From 1936 women
were prohibited from working as judges, lawyers, principals and a range of other professions.

Women were also removed from high-ranking or influential positions in government agencies,
charities, schools and hospitals, to be replaced by men. University and college places for women
were restricted to a firm quota of 10 per cent.
A magazine cover depicting the role of women, according to the NSDAP
The Nazis also attempted to re-feminise women and eradicate what they saw as the decadence
of the Weimar era. Cabarets and jazz clubs were closed down in 1935 (though many underground
clubs continued, providing entertainment for SS officers and party members). Nazi-run local
governments passed by-laws restricting women from singing, dancing or appearing bare legged
in public. The Nazis even commissioned fashion designers to develop new styles that would
reflect National Socialist perceptions of gender. Women were encouraged to wear dresses and
skirts rather than trousers. Clothing made of imported or expensive fabrics was condemned as
wasteful. Make-up and excessive hairstyles, such as perms or short cuts, were also discouraged.
Two Nazi groups for women, the Nationalsozialistische Frauenschaft (Nazi Womens League)
and Werk Glaube und Schnheit (Work, Faith and Beauty) ran classes that emphasised fitness,
beauty and domestic work. The objective of both groups was to produce Aryan women who were
loyal to the Nazi regime, appealing to men and prepared for motherhood.
Evaluating Nazi policies with regard to women and population turns up mixed results. Hitlers
attempts to court German women and win their loyalty was for the most part successful. Having
been largely ignored by previous leaders, thousands of German women considered Hitler their
saviour. It was not uncommon for German homes to have a picture of the fuhrer, even a small
shrine bedecked with candles and flowers. But despite their policies and intensive propaganda,
the Nazis failed to achieve much population growth. The German birthrate had been steadily
falling since the 1880s the social policies of the NSDAP did increase it, though only slightly
1. Nazi attitudes toward women reflected the traditionalist, patriarchal views of Adolf Hitler.
According to Hitler, women were best equipped to be wives, mothers and house keepers.
2. Through both Nazi policy and propaganda, professional women were removed and
discouraged from paid employment, while single and working women were marginalised.
3. The Nazis also attempted to boost the birthrate by promoting and rewarding motherhood,
through propaganda, state sponsored loans and medals for women who bore four or more
children.

4. The Nazi regime also introduced restrictions on abortion and contraception (though only for
Aryan women) and attempted to re-feminise women by modifying the way they dressed and
behaved.
5. These assertive gender policies and propaganda produced only a slight increase in the birthrate
in the first five years of Nazi rule.