According to the sources provided by Hite and Hinton (Which were all published between 1988 and 1997), the Nazi attempt at specifying the role of women in society, was, despite unpopularity, highly successful. According to Tim Mason, "[...] there is scarcely any evidence that the policies adopted on the family and on woman's work work were unpopular [...] which seemed to have been widely accepted [...]" (Mason, 132) Evidently having little, if any, public opposition, the Nazis didn't have a hard time enforcing their policies on women in Germany.
According to Ute Frevert, "[...] the relative rarity of deliberate acts of political resistance [...] suggest that women [...] and the vast majority [...] did not perceive the Third Reich as a women's hell. Much of what it introduced was doubtless appealing, the rest one learned to accept." (Frevert, 250) Clearly, Frevert's comments support the fact that the "vast majority" of people readily accepted the Nazi schemes of specifying a women's role in society; luring people into the scheme with appealing benefits, which forced them to carry the "Nazi women" baggage with them.
Given the evidence at hand, the Nazis were highly successful in imposing their ideology on German women.
Even though the Nazi policies towards women contradicted some of the very basic human rights, it seems as though women "who fit the political, racial and social requirements- and the vast majority did- did not perceive the Third Reich as a women's hell" ("Women in German History", 1988, pp.248) Even if women did not enjoy some of the ideologies and developments in the society, they had to get used to it. The same source states that there is very little evidence of policies towards women being unpopular. That could have been the result of two factors: i) either people were to scared to express their dissatisfaction and simply conformed ii) women were generally satisfied with the policies and their principal role in the society. Either ways this shows that Nazi were successful at imposing their ideology on women. Another important note is that although a lot of restrictive policies were passed, a lot of them were canceled later on (ex. women and universities)
P.S. This conclusion was made from the information provided. The book does not say to what extent were the policies followed
Nazis were successful in imposing their ideology on women. Even if their methods weren't too popular, they were successful. The Nazi idea of the common women became highly accepted and it become the new 'fashion' to have many kids and take care of the family. Because of this common 'fashion', normal women wanted to blend in with the others and therefor they followed the trend. Many women liked the idea of having extra benefits such as receiving loans for married couples and increase in welfare for women, and therefor that led them to support the Nazi system.
In relation to women in Germany the Nazi's implemented, encouraged and required: a) increase of birth rate by increasing the taxes for those families that have no children and awarding medals for those women who have given birth to a lot of children. b) increase of marriages, however marriages with Jews, Gypsies were forbidden. c) improvement of childcare facilities to raise healthy, strong children. d) restricting women to jobs and encouraging them to be at home and taking care of their children and household. *People argued that, "they [women] cannot think logically or reason objectively since they are only ruled by emotion" (German Newspaper) *Women had to obey the "Ten Commandments of Spouce"
In result: birth rates increased, marriages increased, infant mortality dropped, women employment rate did not increase as it did in other countries.
If evaluating this given information, in my opinion the Nazi's imposed their ideology on German women quite successfully, the women felt the need to obey and even though they couldn't force them to the extremes, the areas in which the Nazi's wanted to see improvement did improve as the Nazi's wanted.
It is undeniable, that some of the Nazi ideology they tried to implement in women was a bit harsh, however there is hardly any evidence that their ideology was unpopular. Secondly, they seemingly reached their targets they had set out, hence marriage rate went up, childcare facilities improved, birth rate of "Clean Germans" and children in general went up etc. Thirdly, even though Nazi's implemented their policies by not allowing women to take several actions (at one point go to university, tried to keep them from working) women, who complied benefited, if not directly from the government, then from the several organizations and policies that were set to help women and their families. By evaluating the sources provided, I think, that Nazi's implemented their ideology rather successfully and without too much harm to the people.
Even though the methods of the Nazi's were not widely popular, they were quite successful in imposing their ideology on German women. Their goals towards the women were fulfilled (at least to some sort of an extent), and that is what can measure whether the Nazi's were successful at it, or not. Source 15.31 (Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, Alexander De Grand, pg.302) states: "The conservative and stabilising elements of Nazi ideology - to keep women in their place and maintain them as a pillar of the traditional, hierarchical society - could not be reconciled with the political, social and racial ambitions of the regime." This source reflects exactly what I was previously saying.
Basically, women were made as the family members who had to stay home, take care of the household, and give birth to babies. Birth rates and the amount of marriages increased, the employment rate for women did not increase, and infant mortality decreased. Even though there were a lot of limitations in who to marry and who to not marry, the statistics of the country in this sphere increased, and a lot of people benefitted from it.
"i have donated a child to the Fuhrer" stated by a german mother. pretty self explanatory of how succesful the Nazi ideology was when imposed on women.
Source 15.4 states Children, kitchen, church (the three factors that women then should focus on)
based on that Nazi Slogan, we can figure out whether the ideology imposed was succesful or not.
Children= Birth rates increased Kitchen= the employment rate of women somewhat decreased, so that tells us they were busy doing something else and based on source 15.5, they shouldnt be doing anything else but stay at home and spend time in the kitchen Church= the amount of marriages grew in number
therefore, Nazi Ideology's succes in imposing it in women would be a 6/7 if i were to give it an IB grade. i take one point off because church was a conflicting matter
Referring to sources, and notes from classmates, Nazis ideology was successfully implemented to women. For example, birth rate increased and infant mortality dropped. Source 15.28 table clearly shows the number of marriages increased and birth rate increased as well. number of marriages was 589,600 in 1929 and it increased to 772,106 at 1938. For number of birth, it was 1047775 at 1931 and it increased to 1407490 at 1939. Therefore it is reasonable to conclude Nazis' ideology actually effected women's life.
The Nazis were at least mildly successful in imposing their ideology on German women. The Nazi's wanted several things in regard to women - they wanted an increased birth rate, higher number of marriages, for German women to nurture healthy representatives of the Aryan race, and for the women to be removed from the workforce. And so the birth rate did increase, marriage increases, infant mortality dropped and the women employment did not rise like it did in the rest of Europe.
Also, to prove that the Nazis were successful in imposing their ideology on German women, I provide a few parts out of the sources on pages 302-303:
-"And yet it seems that the overtly anti-feminist policies of the regime after 1933 were at least partially successful, in that they secured the approval, perhaps gratitude, of many German people...At the very least, there is scarcely any evidence that the policies adopted on the family and on the women's wok were unpopular." (Tim Mason, "Women in Germany 1925-1940", in Nazism, Fascism, and the Working Class, 1995, p 132)
-"The immense ability of the regime to mobilize the population, and the relative rarity of deliberate acts of political resistance, however , suggest that women who satisfied the political, racial and social requirements - and the vast majority did - did not perceive the Third Reich as a women's hell." (Ute Frevert, Women in German History, 1988, pp. 248,250)
Whether the Nazi policies on women were popular, or not, women didn't have much of a choice. In the Nazi ideology, "Marriage and childbirth became racial obligation rather than personal decisions" (Nazi Family Policy, Source 15.33). After several years of propaganda many women probably began to live my the policy, "The conservative and stabilising elements of Nazi ideology - to keep women in their place and maintain them as a pillar of the traditional, hierarchical society - could not be reconciled with the political, social and racial ambitions of the regime" (Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, Source 15.31). The child rate did slightly increase, and since males were a lot more preferable for any kind of work but household work, the employment rate of women surely did not increase. Mothers with children were payed good pensions, and marriages increased. Generally speaking, some women were happy with the policy and some weren't, those who wanted to have a job and no children would obviously not agree with the regime. "... women who satisfied the political, racial and social requirements- and the vast majority did- did not preceive the Third Reich as a women's hell. Much of what it introduced was doubtless appealing, the rest one learned to accept." (Women in German History. Source 15.3)
