I think there is evidence to suggest that women were treated as 2nd Class Citizens but there is also evidence to show that women played a very important role in the society.Source A says the Jews have ‘stolen the woman from us.’ This shows us that women had some value as the Nazis were angry with the Jews.
It also suggests the Jews were making women do other jobs, while the Nazis thought a woman’s place was at home. The Nazi says that women should be restored to their ‘holy position as servant and maid.’ This shows two things: Women were regarded as almost Godlike and a bit like angels with their ‘holy position.’ But also they were inferior to men and were treated as ‘servants.
‘ Servants are definitely second class citizens, so from source A we can see the role of women can be interpreted in two different ways.Source B shows a German family sitting at the dining table. The woman is caring for one child while one child is drawing and the other is sitting on his dad’s lap. This shows that the woman plays an important part in caring for the children but also that she is equal to her husband who is sharing the work and caring for one of the children as well.
Source d shows a woman caring for a child and a man doing lots of hard work and ploughing a field in the background. This shows that a woman’s job was to stay at home and care for the children while the man goes out and works. The poster is in a yellow/gold colour and has ‘Mutter und Kind’ (mother and child) written in big letters. This emphasises the fact that the woman is extremely important.
The way the sun is drawn in the background almost looks as if she has a halo over her head further emphasising the point of her ‘holy position’ (mentioned in Source A.)Source E shows Adolf Hitler saying ‘I detest women who dabble in politics’ and he describes it as ‘utterly unendurable.’ He also says that women have never ‘had the right to hold even the smallest post.’ This shows that he thinks women aren’t good/reliable enough to occupy the least important job in politics.
He thinks that men should look after politics and military matters and women should stay at home. This shows that he thinks women are not good enough to look after the important matters. Later on in the source, however, he says ‘Gallantry forbids one to give women an opportunity of putting themselves into situations that do not suit them.’ This suggests he is trying to protect women and perhaps stop them from embarrassing themselves.
The Nazi Party themselves described women as different not inferior to men. When girls were young they were given equal opportunities as boys in the BDM (they could go camping) and they had a different curriculum specially made to suit their needs later on in life. The Nazi Party said women should stick to cooking, church and children. This was what was encouraged in the BDM.
Women were valued by the Nazi Party because they got medals if they had lots of children and marriage loans to help families expecting Aryan children.You could argue that women were only valued by the Nazi Party because the Nazi Party wanted children so they could train them into loyal young Nazis of the future. I agree that on the whole women were treated ‘different not inferior to men,’ but there is also lots of evidence that women were viewed as 2nd Class citizens by some members people in Nazi Germany between 1933-39.
