Gender Roles in Nazi Germany

Last week we touched upon several different points regarding gender roles in NAZI Germany during it’s time in power.  The parties influence on the German population went way beyond any sort of political point of view.  The attempted to “purify” the Germany race by glorifying the role of women along with denouncing millions of other people due to their race, physical characteristics and even their religious beliefs.  Although men were effected by the Nazis, women were very much under large scrutiny they were told whether or not they could be married, have kids, work and really had their entire lives controlled due to the laws that were put in place by the Nazi government that was in power.

            History shows that there were two kinds of single women in Nazi Germany; the desirable and undesirable.  Being undesirable could consist of several different factors some being a women’s race, her sexual behaviors and habits, whether or not she was fertile, along with the prospect of the possibility of being A-social.  If the government felt you had any possibility of creating off spring that may not include the correct physical and mental components they would sterilize them so they wouldn’t be able to reproduce.  Once they were taken care of the Nazi’s no longer saw them as a threat to society due to the fact that there would be no way they could interfere with the order that was being put into place during the 1930’s.

            Desirable women, however, were valued in Germany during this time period.  Hitler made it a point that, unlike the situation during World War I, life on the home front in war time would remain good especially life for the German women.  They were encouraged to have children with the incentive of certain policies that offer retribution for every child you have.  Women were deemed desirable after being put through extensive physical examination by German doctors, once passing the test they were given the right to marry and have children.

            The Nazi’s policies were something that really can not be compared to anything that had been done before in modern history.  It can, in some ways, be related to certain race policies that were being conducted to the Hutu’s and Tutsi’s in Rwanda, which ultimately led to a genocide on a much smaller scale than the Holocaust.  However, it is clear that the emphasis on gender during this time period played a major contribution to the travesties that occurred during WWII in Nazi Germany.