the Nazis believed that women should concentrate on childbearing and

support their husbands. This distinct role for women was seen as

important and of equal value to the role of men. Many of the nazi’s

reactionary ideas were widely held and many women viewed their role

positively.

- The government provided marriage loans and increased welfare

services for mothers and the nazi’s set up several women’s

organisations such as the NSF and the DFW that involved women

outside the family sphere. The Honour cross was awarded to women

who had many children.

- Women’s experience of the 3 rd Reich was varied and was not simply a

reflection of Nazi ideology. The Nazi’s initially encouraged and forced

women to give up some jobs but the trend was then reversed in the

rearmament drive when the Nazi’s needed women in the labour force,

it was difficult to reverse policies which they had put in place.

Girls were taught to be healthy mothers.

Women were rewarded for having large families (eg with medals like the ‘Mother Cross’).

Women were discouraged from going out to work, smoking, using make-up, wearing latest fashions.

Nazis set up youth groups – the Hitler Youth to spread their ideas among young Germans outside of
school.

If Nazis wanted a future world of ‘German’ people who believed in their ideas, then the women who
would be bearing and bringing up these children would play a huge part in this. Hitler saw men and
women as very different who had very different roles and responsibilities in the ‘new’ Germany

What the Nazis wanted from women in their society was really quite simple – they wanted, and needed
them to produce their ‘master race’ of perfect German children. Mothers were portrayed as heroines of
the German Nation in Nazi propaganda, stories and radio programmes and there were rewards and
incentives for women who had children:

• The Law for the Encouragement of Marriage in 1933 stated that all couples who married would get a
loan from the government of 1000 marks. For every child the couple had, 25% of the loan could be kept
by them. This meant that if the couple had four children, they did not have to pay back the loan at all!

Mother’s crosses were awarded – a bronze cross for four children, a silver cross for six and a gold cross
for eight.
There were Mother’s Schools which ran courses in looking after the home and bringing up children.

However, there were other, more negative policies which were aimed at encouraging women to play
their roles as wives and mothers

From the beginning there were pressures to exclude women from jobs in teaching, the civil service,
politics, medicine and the law.

• Young women were discouraged from going to university. In 1934 it was ruled that the number of girls
entering higher education should be just 10% of the male students.

• Contraception was not allowed and abortion was illegal for Aryan women. As well as laws and
incentives to influence their behaviour, there were also ideas about how women should look. Wearing
make-up, high-heels or trousers were discouraged and dyeing or perming hair was not allowed. Smoking
was frowned upon. The perfect woman was portrayed as being physically strong and well-built as this
was seen as better for pregnancy

Nazis policies for women were geared towards them producing as many Aryan children as possible.
Women were discouraged from working.

The task of the girls section was to prepare them for motherhood: • Girls, at the age of 10, joined the
League of Young Girls and at the age of 14 transferred to the League of German Girls. • Activities were
again dominated by physical ones. Girls had to be able to run 60 metres in 14 seconds, throw a ball 12
metres, complete a 2 hour march and swim 100 metres. The rest of the activities were focused on
domestic activities and looking after children. • Nazi beliefs about race and the removal of those
thought to be inferior played a large part in girls’ education.

Gender roles and attitudes to women in Nazi Germany were largely shaped
by the personal views of Adolf Hitler. The fuhrer had conservative and
traditionalist conceptions of gender; they were probably influenced by his
mother, a simple but caring housewife who had protected her son from his
strict and sometimes brutal father. In Hitler’s mind, the natural role for women
was domestic: they were best equipped to tend the home, to care for their
husbands, to bear and raise children. Hitler believed women were kinder,
gentler and more emotional than men. Because of this, they were not
equipped to survive the turmoil and pressure of workplaces, business or
politics. Hitler preferred women who were quiet, modest and motherly. He
found it difficult to relax around women who were confident, ‘]
“bourgeois familyfrank, well educated or professionally successful. These
attitudes were reflected in both Hitler’s Mein Kampf and some of his
speeches: “Women are the eternal mothers of the nation”; “women are the
eternal companion of men”; “the triumphant task of women is to bear and tend
babies”; “men are willing to fight … women must be there to nurse them”.
Hitler rejected ideas of gender equality. He described the push for women’s
rights and equal pay for women as a communist plot. In a 1935 speech, the
Nazi leader said that:
The granting of equal rights to women, which Marxism demands, in reality
does not grant equal rights … it instead constitutes a deprivation of rights,
since it draws women into realms of society where they are inferior. The
woman has her own battlefield. With every child that she brings into the world,
she fights her battle for the nation’’
Hitler’s patriarchazl views about women shaped Nazi policy and propaganda.
One of the Nazis’ first policy objectives was to return women to motherhood in
order to increase the population. In July 1933 the Nazi regime passed the Law
for the Encouragement of Marriage. In effect an early form of ‘baby bonus’,
married couples were given a state loan of 1000 Reichmarks that was partially
repaid every time the wife gave birth (one quarter was deemed paid after the
first child and the loan was discharged after four children). Between 1933 and
1936 the Nazi government issued these state loans to almost 695,000 married
couples. German women were bombarded with speeches and propaganda
that suggested their highest aspirations should be husband, home and healthy
offspring. Pregnancy and motherhood were celebrated. Propaganda
praised Kindersegen (women blessed with children) as national heroines.
Women who bore multiple children were awarded a medallion,
the Ehrenzeichen der Deutschen Mutter (‘Cross of Honour of the German
Mother’). The cross was awarded in bronze for a fourth child, in silver for a
sixth and gold for an eighth.
As well as promoting motherhood, the Nazis also restricted abortion and
contraception. During the 1920s Germany led the world in the development of
contraceptive devices, including condoms, diaphragms and intra-uterine
devices (IUDs). But the Nazis outlawed contraception – not only to increase
the birthrate but also because many pioneers of contraceptive medicine were
Jewish. Even publicizing or discussing birth control was eventually banned in
Nazi Germany. The regime also cracked down on abortion, imposing tough
requirements for pregnancy terminations on medical grounds and harsh
penalties for illegal abortions. Propaganda described abortion as a “crime
against the body and against the state”. In 1932, the year before Hitler’s rise
to power, just under 44,000 German women applied to terminate a pregnancy
and 34,698 of these were approved. Between 1935 and 1940 there were only
14,333 applications and 9,701 approvals. Conversely, doctors would approve
abortions – and indeed, even encourage them – if the patient happened to be
non-Aryan. In November 1938 a Nazi-run state court ruled that abortion
should be legal and freely available for all Jewish women.
While the Nazis hailed German mothers as national heroes, single women
and working women were treated as second-class citizens. Hitler was full of
scorn for women in paid employment. He called it a Marxist ploy, an attempt
to clad women in overalls and work boots to strip them of their femininity. This
derision for single and working women was reflected in policy. Unmarried
women were viewed by the law as Staatsangehoriger (‘subjects of the state’),
the same legal status later given to Jews and the mentally infirm. When the
Nazis took power in 1933 there were 100,000 female teachers and 3,000
female doctors working in Germany. Most of them were eventually sacked,
forced to resign or pushed into marriage and motherhood. From 1936 women
were prohibited from working as judges, lawyers, principals and a range of
other professions. Women were also removed from high-ranking or influential
positions in government agencies, charities, schools and hospitals, to be
replaced by men. University and college places for women were restricted to a
firm quota of 10 per cent.
The Nazis also attempted to ‘re-feminise’ women and eradicate what they saw
as the decadence of the Weimar era. Cabarets and jazz clubs were closed
down in 1935 (though many underground clubs continued, providing
entertainment for SS officers and party members). Nazi-run local governments
passed by-laws restricting women from singing, dancing or appearing bare
legged in public. The Nazis even commissioned fashion designers to develop
new styles that would reflect National Socialist perceptions of gender. Women
were encouraged to wear dresses and skirts rather than trousers. Clothing
made of imported or expensive fabrics was condemned as wasteful. Make-up
and excessive hairstyles, such as perms or short cuts, were also discouraged.
Two Nazi groups for women, the Nationalsozialistische Frauenschaft (Nazi
Women’s League) and Werk Glaube und Schönheit (Work, Faith and Beauty)
ran classes that emphasised fitness, beauty and domestic work. The objective
of both groups was to produce Aryan women who were loyal to the Nazi
regime, appealing to men and prepared for motherhood.
Evaluating Nazi policies with regard to women and population turns up mixed
results. Hitler’s attempts to court German women and win their loyalty was for
the most part successful. Having been largely ignored by previous leaders,
thousands of German women considered Hitler their saviour. It was not
uncommon for German homes to have a picture of the fuhrer, even a small
shrine bedecked with candles and flowers. But despite their policies and
intensive propaganda, the Nazis failed to achieve much population growth
1. Nazi attitudes toward women reflected the traditionalist, patriarchal
views of Adolf Hitler. According to Hitler, women were best equipped to
be wives, mothers and house keepers.
2. Through both Nazi policy and propaganda, professional women were
removed and discouraged from paid employment, while single and
working women were marginalised.
3. The Nazis also attempted to boost the birthrate by promoting and
rewarding motherhood, through propaganda, state sponsored loans and
medals for women who bore four or more children.
4. The Nazi regime also introduced restrictions on abortion and
contraception (though only for Aryan women) and attempted to ‘re-
feminise’ women by modifying the way they dressed and behaved.
5. These assertive gender policies and propaganda produced only a
slight increase in the birthrate in the first five years of Nazi rule.

Women were to be confined to a domestic role, raising healthy

children and caring for their family.
 Kinder, Kuche, Kirche(children, kitchen. Church) was the slogan
used by the Nazis to denote the position of women under the new
regime.
 May 1933 Robert Ley established the FrauenFront or Women’s
Front. All other women’s groups were banned.
 Due to the Law for Restoration of Civil Service, women, like
Jewish people, lost their jobs and became part of the ‘invisible’
unemployed. (Copy out statistics in notes)
 Despite this the number of women in profession actually rose by
1939 due to economic necessity.
 Conscription and rearmament created a labour shortage in
Germany and women were increasingly encouraged back in to the
workplace.
 Medals were given to women who had several children and the
birth rate grew slowly but steadily between 1933 and 1939. This
policy was known as ‘Pro-natalism’ ( The support of birth).
 Marriage loans were introduced with the condition that women
who received them could not work outside the home.
 Tax cuts were introduced for families and state allowances were
paid.
 Abortion was banned by the Nazis but the number still remained
high with illegal abortions taking place throughout the country.
  The Lebensborn (Fountain of Life) project was Himmler’s
brainchild and led to the setting up of hospitals where soldiers
and particularly SS men home from the front would be
encouraged to have children with members of the BDM (League of
German Maidens).
 The divorce rate rose during the Nazi era despite the lip service
paid to ‘family values’.

When Mao was young he was active with groups opposed to the feudal
marriage traditions in China. In 1919, he wrote an article about the suicide of a
young woman named Miss Chao in which he attacks the oppression of
women: "The circumstances in which Miss Chao found herself were the
following; (1) Chinese society; (2) the Chao family of Nanyang Street in
Changsha; (3)the Wu family of Kantzuyuan Street in Changsha, the family of
the husband she did not want. These three factors constituted three iron nets,
composing a kind of triangular cage. Once caught in these three nets, it was in
vain that she sought life in every way possible. There was no way for her to go
on living ... It happened because of the shameful system of arranged
marriages, because of the darkness of the social system, the negation of the
individual will, and the absence of the freedom to choose one's own mate."
In 1945, on the verge of revolution, he demanded that it "ensure freedom of
marriage and equality as between men and women," (from Women in The
Little Red Book).
 Mao focused a lot on equality from the moment he gained power. This was
also one of the reasons why he won over GMD
 The initial years of the People’s Republic of China (PRC)
 In the beginning Mao wasn’t extreme, and for some time, different parties
were also members of the government
 In his Little Red Book (1945) he wrote that he wanted to ‘ensure freedom of
marriage and equality between men and women’ and that ‘women hold up half the
sky’
 ‘In order to build a great socialist society it is of the utmost importance to
arouse the broad masses of women to join in productive activity. Men and women
must receive equal pay for the equal work in production. Genuine equality between
the sexes can only be realised in the process of the socialist transformation of society
as a whole’
 However:
 Mao complained that China had an excess of women; he suggested
sending tens of thousands to the US, later increasing his offer to 10 million; Mao also
meant women gave birth to too many children; and stated women didn’t know how
to fight
 Marriage reform
 Made in 1950
 Both genders were equal and both had to agree on getting married - the
elimination on arranged marriages had two benefits: 
 1) Mao gained support of many women 
 2) Life was improved for many young people who feared arranged
marriage 
 Further human rights were installed (women couldn’t be sold into
prostitution, foot binding, unwanted babies couldn’t be disposed), the government
abolished foot binding, rehabilitation programmes introduced to aid women
 Women could own their own property and land 
 However it was replaced in the First 5 Year Plan in 1953 
 Even though the new marriage reform tried to get rid of the traditional China
some Chinese in the West were Muslim and felt it went against the Koran. 
 This created more equality between the genders
 The First Five Year Plan
 Main aim was to industrialise as rapidly as possible 
 All private businesses and commercial enterprises were nationalised under
state control 
 Human Report 1927: he saw the peasants as leading China forward towards
socialism – men and women should work equally hard
 Mao believed that while the peasants were leading the way forward, the CCP
was becoming too reactionary and that many members ‘were tottering along like a
woman with bound feet, always complaining that others were going too fast’ –
suggesting men were still important than women
 Women were able to be employed in all kinds of areas and were considered to
be equal in that sense just like men 
 However prejudices against women were still present as social values and
attitudes cannot be changes in such a short time
 The new constitution of 1954
 Article 86 of the Constitution, for example, stated “all citizens of the People’s
Republic of China, who have reached the age of 18, have the right to vote and strand
for election, irrespective of their nationality, race, sex, occupation, social origin,
religious belief, education, property status, or length of residence”. 
 Article 96 declared that “women in the People’s Republic of China enjoy equal
rights with men in all spheres of political, economic, cultural, social and family life”.
Provisions for maternity leave and childcare also made workplaces more accessible
for women. 
 The All-China Women’s Federation, formed in 1949, helped deliver some of
these new freedoms to women 
 However historians Lily Lee and Sue Wiles argue that Chinese women were
still largely excluded from the all-male party hierarchy. They note that women
continued to work on issues related to women, traditional gender segregation
making it easier for them to have contact with other women. 
 The All China Women’s Federation (formed 1949 and retitled eight years later)
was more about rubber stamping government policies than developing into a
politically significant body
 However, CCP operated a very much male-dominated system where the
domestic chores were carried out by female comrades 
 Education of women
 According to the United Nations figures from UNIFEM, women made up 39%
of the workforce, 39% of students in secondary education and over 20% of the
parliament
 By the 1970s almost 50% of China's doctors were women and 30% of
engineers and scientists
 The “Great Leap Forward” program had many benefits in women’s movement,
in china. Because of their extreme low status in china, they had suffered seriously
just like many women in other parts of the world. 
 The “filial piety” of the women, in china, subjected them in total abuse of their
rights as equal citizens. They experienced abusive practices like wife beating, female
infanticide, and sale of women. 
 At the time, china was considered to be the most brutal towards women in
the world. In the cause of time, educated women in china began advocating for
democracy, which would provide for equal rights. Their main motivation in
advocating for women liberation was to revolutionize the Chinese society, and make
it stronger and equal for both genders than was before.
 They apportioned blame of poor Chinese economy to poor a family structure
that undermined women. Women without education as Ebrey argues could not
“bring up a healthy family”. Their future was also grim and hopeless without
education. 
 Consequently, the need to liberate women against humiliation was developed
with the few educated ones spearheading the push. 
 The “Great Leap Movement” in china was a landmark season in Chinese
women history. This season brought profound benefits and developments to
women. 
 On February 1960, women federation of china convened the second executive
delegation of women. In this conference, women’s role in “The Great Leap” was
improved and adjusted
 The Cultural Revolution
 The Cultural Revolution officially sought to deconstruct gender inequality. 
 The official policy towards women in the 1960s clearly expected women to
sacrifice themselves for the revolution. During this time, there was an ambiguous
policy towards women in simultaneously emphasizing the duty of women to
participate in production but also to keep their duties at home. 
 The policy had a one sided emphasis on production without taking into
consideration the dynamics of the family. Additionally, the Red Guards included both
male and female students, showing no gender bias in who was participating in Mao’s
mobilization. 
 However, feminism was severely criticized as being a bourgeois manifestation
and counterrevolutionary; women were urged to become like men in terms of
political activities and labour. 
 Thus the Cultural Revolution proclaimed to achieve gender equality but in
reality, women’s roles were merely reformed to allow them to have traditional male
roles and state policy focused on how women should emulate men in joining the
revolutionary cause.
 During the Cultural revolution, women gained the right to health care (which
had only been for men before)
 According to a study by Bauer et al., of women who married between 1950-
65, 70% had jobs, and compared to 1966-76: 92% had jobs
)Since 1950s the status women changed in many different ways in China
and it was great one of the opportunities for the new government to get rid
of the obstacles for the development of China. The PRC offered women
with equality between the two genders and better marriage laws for
women. Specifically, the implementation of the new system gave women
with more freedom, because it allowed women to be out of traditional
ways such as arranged marriages, unintentional abortion. Also, the
family’s property was equality distributed to both wife and husband. The
reason why the new government introduced this legislation was mainly
because to bring modern changes to China. Mao believed that China was
falling back due to its slow and old traditions of living, so it was limited for
them to develop into a better or stronger country. Therefore, when China
gets rid of its old traditions which means that they are able to transform
into a modern country. In addition, as this support of women was strongly
favourable and gave a lot of freedom for women, it brought greater
chances for the PRC to gain more support and also seek more into control
of women, because woman will listen and assist the PRC due to their trust
to the government.

2)During the power of the Nazis, women were supported in variety of ways
just like China did in the 1950s. However, processes of these supports in
both countries were different, but somehow the aim correlated each other
at the end. Firstly, in the Nazis gave women to obtain a lot of services
such as grants, good repetitions, and newly couples gained loans, which
aimed to create a great mother who has an ability to take care of
households, and to breed high quality children for the future of German
race. In comparison to this, PRC offered women with equality and freedom.
They had the same status as the men. This intended to get rid of the
tradition to modernise the country. Although the ways of supporting were
different, the both countries had the same aim to bring supports,
development, and control over the public.
1. The three obediences of women to their father, husband, and
son were elements rooted deeply in traditional Chinese
history. However, the abolishment of this order was a clear
sign of the modernization Mao had promised to his people.
Communism did not promote gender discrimination, thus Mao
thought such revolutionary, socialist movement was
necessary. In addition, Mao believed that the oppression of
women was a fault in the capitalist system that needed to be
changed. After legislations were passed, women were no
longer obligated to arranged marriages, were given rights to
seek divorces, and were granted joint-properties with their
husbands. However, the main obstacles this legislation
encountered were husbands, mother-in-laws, and cadres
(Benson, p. 26). Most husbands felt that they had nothing to
gain from this legislation as they had joint-properties with
their wives, money had to be paid to their bride’s family at
 marriage, and could face divorces. Meanwhile, in the past,
mother-in-laws enjoyed their superiority over their daughter-
in-laws, which now was not tolerable to the law. In reality,
divorces were still hard to obtain as cadres were unwilling to
accept them without clear evidence of family struggle.
Despite the PRC's words that women “held up half the sky”,
reality did not portray such grand statement.

2. In China, Mao focused on the freedom and equality given to

women, whereas Germany’s Hitler focused on controlling
women to be at home and take care of their families. In
Germany, women were stripped from their work as Hitler
thought men were being replaced by women at workplaces
during the Great Depression. Hitler believed that the role of
women was to be caring mothers and wives, breeding racially
pure children. In addition, Hitler took a different approach
compared to Mao by passing the Law for the Encouragement
of Marriage, giving loans to newly married couples and
reducing paybacks by 25% per birth of a child. A major reason
for such legislation was to increase Germany’s population for
more soldiers and people to fill up Germany’s Lebensraum.
Hitler also focused on educating young girls to learn their
roles as child-bearers and home-makers. On the other hand,
the PRC allowed women to get divorces and seek more
control over their own lives. This was an attempt to
modernize society and abandon old traditions that were
causes to China’s backwardness. It was part of a progressive
revolution that Mao believed was necessary for Communism
to be fully implanted in China.
2. 1. Prior to the establishment of Mao's Communist regime in
China, male dominance and authority had been very prominent
aspects of society. The majority of women were deprived of
rights and had to face great oppression and inequality. Mao
believed that a number of reforms were necessary to
encourage women to take a more active role in the process of
modernizing China. Furthermore, Mao was strongly convinced
that Communism was a modern, egalitarian movement that
ensured gender equality. Perceiving gender discrimination as
an obstacle to the modernization Mao had envisioned, the CCP
introduced a series of legislation. In 1950, Mao enacted the
Marriage Law, revolutionizing the patriarchal Chinese
traditions. This radical law enabled women to seek divorce
and it dissolved arranged marriages. Women were shortly
 granted more rights, such as the equal ownership of land, the
abolishment of forced abortions and work place
discrimination. Although these reforms had liberated women,
many males felt as if they had been robbed of the power they
had been accustomed to. 

2. While both Communist China and Nazi Germany had

introduced new laws concerning the status of women, these
legislations differed. While the CCP aimed to liberate women
from male dominance, the Nazis focused on binding the
women to specific roles. The Nazis permeated the belief that
women were supposed to support the family and continue the
pure, Aryan race. Rather than encouraging women to obtain
jobs, Hitler ardently supported early marriage. Consequently,
Hitler introduced the Law for the Encouragement of Marriage
in 1933, which stated that all newly wed couples would
receive financial aid of 1000 marks. This loan would not have
to be reimbursed if the couple had four children. Through laws
like this, it was evident that Hitler regarded women as a
means to increase the German population.
3. The CCP, in the midst of the May Fourth Movement, was
formed upon the premise of creating a united modernized
China. The party believed that traditional aspects of Chinese
society were a hindrance to China's development and,
therefore, had to be discarded and reconstructed according to
modern ideologies. Gender equality was one of the goals the
party aimed to achieve. The CCP's determination to create
egalitarian society can be seen from early on. For example, in
the constitution of the Chinese Soviet Republic (formed in
Jiangxi, November 1931) the party emphasizes the equality of
gender by declaring that 'Hired farm hands, coolies, and
toiling laborer’s shall enjoy equal rights to land allotments,
irrespective of sex' (Mackerras 64). Therefore, it is not
surprising that the birth of the PRC is marked with a series of
reforms that abolish man supremacy over woman. The
enactment of such reforms confirms that Mao was an
advocate of equal rights for women since the legislation of
reforms required his approval.
The reforms, in addition to their egalitarian aims, also had
practical purposes. Many of the women emancipated from
domestic 'slavery' became a part of the urban work force and
assisted the industrialization of China. Furthermore, many
young women became loyal doctrinaire supporters of the
 party and participated in movements institutionalized by Mao
and his party such as the Cultural Revolution.
However, the gender reforms failed to achieve full equality for
women, largely because they collided with the patriarchal
tenets of China's traditional order. Domestic customs (i.e. the
three obediences: obedience to father, husband, son) used to
tolerate male control of women. As a result, women are paid
less, given poor jobs, become victims of infanticide, and
receive little education. Although all forms of discrimination
of women were prohibited by the new constitution, bigamy,
prostitution, and other forms of women trafficking continue to
exist.
4. . "A man in China is usually subjected to the domination of
three systems of authority [political authority, family authority
and religious authority].... As for women, in addition to being
dominated by these three systems of authority, they are also
dominated by the men (the authority of the husband). These
four authorities - political, family, religious and masculine -
are the embodiment of the whole feudal-patriarchal ideology
and system.” – Mao Zedong

A modernized and industrialized China was central to Mao’s

political vision. Mao perceived Confucianism, a key part of
which was male dominance over females, as a major obstacle
to his vision. In order to eliminate this millennia-long paradigm
from the minds of his people, Mao legislated the Marriage
Laws. These laws abolished bigamy, arranged marriages and
the killing of babies while introducing divorcement to Chinese
family life. These laws transformed the Chinese society from
one of outdated and backward thinking to one that is much
more compatible with the democratic global trend of the 20th
century. 

2. "With the completion of agricultural cooperation, many co-

operatives are finding themselves short of labour. It has
become necessary to arouse the great mass of women who
did not work in the fields before to take their place on the
labour front.... China's women are a vast reserve of labour
power. This reserve should be tapped in the struggle to build a
great socialist country.”

If Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party regarded women as bearers

of pure “Aryan” men, Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist
 Party regarded women as an untapped reserve of agricultural
labor. Germany. This makes perfect sense given the two very
different environments these two parties found themselves in;
the Nazi Party came to power in a developed and
industrialized Germany that lacked what they considered
“Aryan” men, while the CCP came to power in an over-
populated, overwhelmingly rural China. Mao, in his desperate
quest to industrialize China, saw women as potentially
increasing China’s agricultural output, in turn fueling his
industrialization.
 2)The legislation of the PRC differs from the Nazi attitude towards women
in that the former aims to create an equilibrium between the genders by
"[making] women the legal equals of men" (Benson 93), whereas the latter
clearly demarcates the role of each gender and indirectly states that the
roles cannot be interchangeable or mixed. The legislation of the PRC
continually emphasizes the necessity "to strive jointly for the welfare of
the family and for the building up of the new society" (Benson 93) and
simultaneously denounces any form of discrimination of sex such as
"Bigamy, concubinage, child betrothal, interference in the remarriage of
widows, and the exaction of money or gifts in connection with marriages"
(Benson 93). On the other hand, Hitler states that the "world" of the man
and the "world" of the woman are clearly different. He confines women to
purely domestic niches but reconciles their limit by praising the
significance of the position they have. 

These differences, however, are understandable when one puts them into
historical and ideological context. In Nazi Germany, the constant need for
more men (rearmament, industrial projects, WWII) coupled with the
ideological belief of racial superiority, naturally required that women stay
at home and focus on child bearing. China, until recently, had no laws
protecting the rights of women. The PRC intended to modernize the
1. 1. When the CCP assumed political power in 1949, one of the
first policies implemented by the party included the equal
rights for women in society. China traditionally had had a
history of unfair treatment between genders due to Confucian
ways of thinking. In a nation where revolutionary ideas were
rapidly emerging, the rights of women were also being
questioned by activists and political parties. Especially, the
idea of women’s equality was deeply entwined into the
fundamental beliefs of the communist party.
The perception of the CCP during this era revolved around
several key themes. These themes include, but are not limited
to, modernism, revolution (need for change), elimination of the
class elite, and faith in the masses. Up until the 20th century,
China was in a political turmoil greatly initiated by the
presence of foreign powers. The division in China due to
western powers was popularly blamed upon the weakness of
the Qing dynasty. This weakness was identified as the
backwardness of domestic policy which was content in
staying rooted to old traditions and ideas. With the growing
sense that China needed to modernize, numerous
‘modernization campaigns’ were attempted since the New
Culture Movement. By the 1900s, women’s rights were already
developing at a rapid pace through activists and protests.
More and more women were being admitted to education,
whereas previously, education was solely for men. The CCP,
like the Kuomintang, was committed to modernizing and
strengthening China. And women’s rights were simply part of
the CCP’s policy for modernization. However, it may also be
argued that the party was only speeding up a process that
would inevitably manifest itself even without official policy.
On a similar note, the CCP was also intrinsically tied with the
idea of a revolution. The party symbolized the radical need for
change. In order to do this, they needed to attack old
tradition, old ideas, old habits, and old culture. This meant
that China would need to overthrow traditional Confucianism
and its patriarchal system. As one of the most basic elements
of Confucianism, inferiority of the female gender was one
priority that the CCP had to be quick to tackle. In order to
maintain the revolutionary reputation for change, the party
was also keen to demonstrate its difference to Imperial China
and the Kuomintang. Although interested in modernization,
Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang were more concerned
with ‘preserving the special qualities of motherhood’ when it
came to feminism. Notably this idea is not far removed from
Hitler’s idea of women in nationalist Germany.
Communist ideology called for the elimination of class. Mao
himself believed in what may called ‘attitudinal classes’:
those that mentally believed they were superior to others. In
China, the status of women may be considered as a class
itself. Women were deemed inferior in all aspects to men and
were obliged to obey their fathers, their husbands, and their
sons, as well as their mother-in-laws. Therefore, in order to
eliminate class, the distinction between genders also needed
to be demolished. 
Lastly, Mao’s own faith in the masses must not be ignored.
Women, as a separate category, obviously make up a
significant portion of society. It would have been expedient
for the party to not forget the potential of women’s support. 
Although on its way to modernization, China during this stage
was not fully separated from its traditional views, especially
in the early stages of the CCP’s power. The new policy would
be met with dissatisfaction from those that had something to
lose. These included husbands and predictably, divorce rates
escalated after the implementation of the laws. Mother-in-
laws would also lose their traditional influence over their
daughter-in-laws. Regional cadres would be placed in difficult
situations as such policies could only serve to alienate the
middle classes. Essentially the obstacles to the CCP’s
women’s rights laws would be the traditional paradigms that
still clung to most aspects of society. 

2.The political approach to women as a gender differs

between Mao’s Communist China and Hitler’s Nazi Germany.
Whilst the CCP worked to equalize gender and liberalize
oppressive traditions, the Nazis had a specific idea of
women’s roles in society. Ideologically, it makes sense how
these contrasting parties perceive feminism. However, we
must take into account that the societal values of China and
Germany are not the same during these times. 
China’s history has not been favorable towards women. A long
tradition of male superiority has almost been part of what it
meant to be Chinese. This would not be an overstatement,
considering the extent that Confucianism permeates oriental
customs, even today. In this respect, German and Chinese
values cannot be compared. Issues such as ‘bigamy,
concubinage, child betrothal, interference in the marriage of
widows’, would not have had to be addressed in Nazi
Germany. German women were already in professions and
education, whereas women’s education in China was just
beginning at the start of the century. It can be supposed that
if the Nazis were faced with ‘bigamy, concubinage, and child
betrothal’, they too would have seen the necessity for some
gender equality. The CCP was not doing something
extraordinary, but addressing the basics that were already
commonplace in Germany. This was the difference between a
modern Germany and a backward China. It is a matter of a
different playing field. 
Nonetheless, Nazi and CCP legislation may be tied to their
 separate ideologies. Hitler and the Nazis deliberately placed a
distinction between genders by indicating the ‘natural’ roles
of men and women. Hitler describes men in terms of ‘the
State, his struggle, and readiness to devote his powers for the
community’. Men were clearly depicted as having a worldly
duty. Women had the ‘smaller world’ their husbands, family,
children, and house. They were argued to naturally serve and
support men, and to have the specific role of motherhood.
These ideas are entwined into the Nazi ideology of ‘Social
Darwinism’ where everyone has a rightful place in society.
Contrary to China, women were discouraged from full-time
jobs and academics. Instead, they were to focus on child-
bearing in order to increase the population of Germany. This
was part of Hitler’s vision for the ‘Thousand Year Reich’: the
dominance of the Aryan race over the world. It is possible to
understand that the Nazis and the CCP cannot but be
juxtaposed in their ideas about women. Whilst the Nazis
wanted to create an elite section of society, the CCP wanted
to eliminate it. 
A large portion of CCP policy on gender equality was devoted
to marriage and divorce laws. These laws gave women more
freedom, choice, and power over a traditionally ‘compulsory
feudal marriage system’. Whilst China was liberalizing the
marital process, the Nazis were censuring it in order to create
a ‘purer’ race. Women were limited on what kind of men to
marry. Child-bearing without marriage was encouraged
(providing the partner was Aryan) and Lebensborn homes
were set up for single mothers. In Germany, women were
solely child-bearers, mothers, and home-makers. In China,
women were being accepted as an equal part of society. In
simple terms, this is the difference between deliberate
division and deliberate equalization.
 Never forget that, despite having different ideological objectives, control
is always a major factor that needs to be considered. It is always a
dynamic as these regimes attempt to achieve total control...they are
totalitarian. The question is always how well they achieve this.
1.