A very very detailed outline for the essay question: “The domestic policies of authoritarian states rarely benefitted women'. Discuss with reference to two states.”, it has the perspective of Nazi Germany and Mao's China, and quotes from many historians
Compare and contrast the methods used to maintain power in two authoritarian states, each from a different region.
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“The domestic policies of authoritarian states rarely benefitted women'. Discuss with reference
to two states.”
INTRO:
HISTORIAL CONTEXT: (Hitler and Mao’s stance on women)
Hitler – Nazi ideology and Volkgemeinschaft plans were extremely opposed to social and
economic equality for women, thus even to the educational and employment rights that
women gained in the era of the Weimar republic
Nazi’s believed that that women should not be involved in politics/ paid employment,
they should rather focus on their role as a mother and homemaker
Mao – Mao himself was a firm believer in women’s rights, insisted on them being equal to
men, ON THE CONTRARY – Mao and the party often failed to respect the principle of
women’s equality (in his personal life, Mao used women and patronized them quite often, he
became a notorious womanizer in his later years)
oppression of women was a symbol of feudalism – need to get rid of it
“women hold up half of the heavens”
THESIS: As much as Mao Zedong seemed as the perfect feminist both on the outside – with
countless policies that were supposed to help women, and on the inside – his personality and history of
supporting women ( the marriage that he didn’t go through at 7,etc.), the truth was far from that. Many
of the domestic policies Mao put out turned out contradictory and even worsened the status of women,
furthermore in his late years Mao even became a womanizer and used women quite frequently. Hitler
on the other hand never had good intentions and didn’t hide the fact that he fully believed that women
belong in the home as mothers and homemakers. His reign damaged the lives of German women and
set them back a couple of years. What they had in the Weimar republic (voting rights, employment
right) was now abolished. Therefore, it can be said that the domestic policies in authoritarian states
rarely benefitted women.
PARAGRAPH 1: education
HITLER:
Nazis discouraged women from pursuing their goals in higher education
In Weimar Republic - women were granted equal opportunity to attend higher education
as men - 18,315 women studied in German universities, aim in reducing the number of
women in higher education
Nazis only allowed 10% of women to continue with their education after high school
(only 1,500/10,000 girls who passed Abitur were granted university admission)
women were also forbidden from taking Latin, which was the requirement for going to
university
Domestic education the main area of focus in terms of female education , the household is
a woman’s primary domain, thus most of the subjects revolved around it, plus some on race
theory and social arithmetic were added, so NSDAP could establish Aryan superiority
reduction in female teachers → by 1935 the number of female teachers at girls' secondary
schools had decreased by 15%
propaganda about the ideal German family (photographs and posters showing a woman
looking after the children and the man going out to work and protecting the wife)
, the female literacy rate in Nazi Germany decreased radically
MAO:
when Mao and the CCP came to power, as any party ever, they tried to consolidate it – one of
the factors was general literacy – they had hope of raising all education levels by 1950
It was tradition in China that the woman remained mostly uneducated and the home keeper
and mother, essentially fulfilled a fully domestic. Males, on the other hand, were then often
enrolled into school.
Mao wanted to change this and hugely encouraged the illiterate women in rural areas to
study and learn
With Mao’s support a rise in women’s education came : mainly in two periods - the
1950s to 1958, and the late 1960s to mid-1970s
The policy was so successful that educational progression ratios indicate that at higher
levels of education, females have, since the early 1950s, enjoyed educational opportunity
nearly equal to males
However, it wasn’t all so bright - the famine of 1959-61 was a major setback for rural
elementary education which opened large regional disparities in female literacy
SYNTHESIS: The education of the citizens is a primary factor in destroying or creating an
authoritarian figure’s cult. Even though, Hitler and Mao acted extremely differently in the case of
education, they both got what they wanted – they consolidated their power. Hitler could not bare the
fact, that a woman could be smart enough to go into university with men instead of staying home and
having one child after another, which was even what they were taught (after the change of the
curriculum for both women and men) .Thus, he implemented many policies that almost made higher
education impossible. Not only that, but he also used many types of propaganda to propagate his
cause. Some women may have not registered it at first but the drop in literacy of women all over
Germany was substantial and definitely not beneficial in the long run. In China, Mao acted completely
differently. He supported the higher education of women and the rates of literacy in China rose,
women were encouraged to study and it might be the only reform on women that didn’t turn sour for
chairman Mao. However, we still have to keep into consideration, that he knew that raising the literacy
amongst women would give the CCP further support and therefore might’ve did it for that. In
conclusion, in Germany this policy did not benefit women at all, however in China it was a great
change to the better and thus I considered it beneficial and successful.
PARAGRAPH 2: marriage and children
HITLER:
Nazis tried to increase Germany’s birth rate
laws against abortion were imposed
birth-control clinics were closed (abortion made illegal) and contraception was
increasingly restricted
maternity benefits and family allowances were increased
newlyweds were offered loans (Law for the Encouragement of Marriage Loan
of 1000 marks from government Money can be claimed by birth of children
Women needed to give up job)
women with large families were awarded the Honor Cross of the German Mother
(awarded for 4+ babies)
Lebensborn (1936) = SS members meet Aryan girls to impregnate and increase Aryan race
Law for Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring - Sterilized women “unsuitable”
to have children i.e., non-Aryans
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