Women In Germany During Wwii Essay Research

Women In Germany During Wwii Essay, Research Paper

In the year 1914, a war swept across the continent of Europe, and drew in military forces from all areas of the globe. This war is known today and forever more as World War I, and is etched in history books as one of the major political turning points for many of the countries throughout Europe. By 1914, the rival alliances, nationalism, imperialism, as well as an arms race had brought Europe to the brink of war. The spark came with the killing of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary. Tension had been building for years between Austria-Hungary and Serbia, and because the killer was Serbian Austria-Hungary used the murder as an excuse to retaliate. Before disengaging force, Austria consulted its main ally, Germany, who quickly agreed to defend Austria and set no limits on their support.

Beyond these freshly sprung battlefields raged an entirely different war, a war between genders. A war fought purely on the basis of equality that took root far across the ocean in the United States during the mid 1800’s. This war is known as women’s suffrage, and is still a raging battle throughout many areas of the world today.

Women’s suffrage in Germany had been a growing turmoil for decades before the start of the war, but the role women played throughout the war helped to bring their suffrage movement to a culminating point that brought them closer to victory. The position of women in Germany during World War I was one where they were pulled out of their families and into the public life, helping them to gain further victory in their battle of women’s suffrage. It became apparent that, if the war was ultimately to be won by fighting men at the front, the country was in need of the active support and co-operation of German civilians in the rear. Women, who could take the places of absent men in factories, fields, and offices and sustain morale on the home-front, were universally recognized as vital contributors to the war effort. The Great War had done more to emancipate women than years, or even centuries, of previous struggle had accomplished. This was apparent during and immediately after the conflict.

Germany before 1914 was the home of the largest, best-organized, and most contentious class-conscious socialist women’s movement in Europe (Quataert). Although the percentage of women employed in Germany was smaller than Austria, Great Britain, or France, it was in Germany that the organizational model for all socialist women was developed. During the 1880’s, a small number of German

working class women began to unite and take action against their depleting rights under the patriarchal government that ruled over their country. Industrialization created a new class structure and accentuated distinctions among women according to work and domestic life. The feminist slogans of “right to work” and “equal pay for equal labor” had different meanings for proletarian women and ladies of the middle class (Koonz, 33). Women began to choose loyalty to class and to gender by allying feminism with socialism. The symbol of their movement was the Social Democratic women’s movement (Frauenbewegung) (Koonz, 34). The formation of the women’s section of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SDP), was a powerful vehicle for women to voice their opinions based upon their desires for equality and their right to vote. By 1914 nearly 175,000 women were enrolled in the SPD. Socialist women envisioned a life radically different from the one reinforced by the dominant society. They sought a new social organization that allowed them a chance to develop both as a human being and as females. This would allow them to be freed from the harsh male dictatorship that they lived beneath on a daily basis. The “new woman” would be allowed to find her place among her family, as well as voice her opinion concerning her society and the politics of her nation (Thebaud, 22).

At first, the SDP put forth much of its energy into campaigning for the right to vote. When the war broke out in the summer of 1914, more and more women were forced from their homes to work in factories and other war-time related jobs. This created a difference from the voting laws, and much emphasis was put on the woman laborer. While their husbands were off fighting on the front lines the women of Germany, from all classes, banned together to work and support their country. In 1914, women organized across political and social divisions to knit, nurse, collect scrap materials, and donate to charity (Koonz, 24). Work was hailed as the great prerequisite for feminine liberation as it freed women from economic dependency on husbands or fathers. Overnight, it seemed, women were not only permitted but begged to mine coal, deliver the mail, drive trucks and trams, keep account books, and work in heavy industry. They did this as well as continue to roll bandages, nurse veterans, and perform charitable work. The Bourgeoisie women who had been confined to the jobs that consisted mainly of housework, and caring for their families were liberated to take part in work that was forbidden before the war started. They united with the working class Proletariat to help support their country while the war raged on for over four years.

The war opened up opportunities for some women who wanted or needed to seek employment, but could not find any prior