• Women were expected to stay at home and look after the family. Female doctors, teachers and civil servants were forced to give up their careers. Even near the end of the war, women were not asked to serve in the armed forces.
• Women’s job was to keep the home nice for their husband and family – a woman’s life was to revolve around ‘the three Ks’: Kinder, Küche, Kirche (children, kitchen, church). ‘The three Ks’ were promoted within propaganda and made clear what German women’s roles should be.
• Hitler wanted a high birth rate, so that the population would grow. Mothers who had more than eight children were awarded a gold medal.
• The Nazi ideal of wholesome German womanhood was refl ected in fashion. Women were supposed to wear traditional peasant costumes with fl at shoes, and have their hair in plaits or buns. They were not supposed to wear make-up or trousers, dye their hair or smoke in public.
A poster showing an idealised Aryan family and encouraging people to turn to their local Nazi Party group
CHECKPOINT!
1. How did the Nazis try to reduce unemployment? 2. How did industry expand under the Nazis? 3. How did the Nazis use education to their advantage? Why did they target young people? 4. What roles were women supposed to have in Nazi Germany? How was this promoted? 5. How was a German women meant to dress and style herself? Why?
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I can explain what life was like in Hitler’s Germany in relation to economics, education and the lives of women.
