The "New Woman"

 

I’m certain that this “new woman” is not a new term to anyone as it has been used to describe the woman who came to full fruition in the 1920s. This woman worked outside of the home, wore stylish clothes, and broke from tradition entirely. In Nazi Germany, this woman was seen as a threat because she defied the traditional image a woman was meant to adhere to. In Nazi Germany, the ideal woman was at home with children.

Where did this “new woman” come from? Well, in Germany, this “new woman” was a result of WWI which pushed women into the working world to replace the men who went to the front. In the post war world, the Weimar Era further promoted this image by allowing women the ability to hold pubic positions and vote. Although not all women welcomed this new found freedom, many women found this era new and fun. For young, single, and childless women, the Weimar Era was greatly welcomed as Claudia Koonz argues. For the married woman with children, Koonz’s argues that this Era was not welcomed at all as it placed on them a burden to both work outside the home and support the home itself. In the 20s, this "new woman" also adopted rather masculine fashions too and integrated these elements into her wardrobe. Some elements included trousers, dinner jackets, and ties. Causing alarm in traditional circles, the return of long skirts and feminine detailing in the 30s was greatly welcomed but would be short lived when the 40s arrived. Due to the war, women were once again pushed into the workforce and larger 40s fashion trends called for masculine details, strong shoulders, accentuated waist, and knee length hemlines.

What did the “new woman” do for fashion in Germany and Nazi Germany? Since the “new woman” was stylish, had her own income, and was independent, she adopted rather masculine and stylish clothes. According to Emmanuelle Dirix, this “new woman” also was more likely to wear French clothes, which in Nazi Germany, were not well received by the Nazi ideology. Essentially, the clothes and fashions worn by this “new woman” were the opposite of those worn by the ideal German woman as perceived by Nazi Germany which will be discussed later. Many of the fashion trends this "new woman" adopted were trends that were more typical of the 40s which for German women included many international fashions.

The “new woman” was not the ideal woman in Nazi Germany and there were attempts to remove her image but, her image was in fact never gotten away with but almost promoted during the War years when working women were championed as doing their duty for the war effort. Like in WWI, women were drawn into the workforce by necessity and in WWII, this was no different. Although Nazi Germany tried to push the image of the domestic woman, the war instead promoted the "new woman" image because the war needed a labor force that only women could provide on the home front.


There were efforts though to contain this woman but the efforts fell flat on numerous occasions. One attempt in particular to contain women in the working world was to encourage them to take feminine jobs like clerical or secretarial jobs. Later during the war, women were given jobs that continued to encourage their feminine side. In Occupied Poland for example, female volunteers trained Aryan women the art of housekeeping, German culture, etc. . .all of which were more feminine than masculine.
 

Sources

Dirix, Emmanuelle and Charlotte Fiell. 1940s Fashion: The Definitive Sourcebook. London: Goodman Fiell, 2013.

Koonz, Claudia, Mothers in the Fatherland: Women, the Family and Nazi Politics. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1987.

Lybeck, Marti M. Desiring Emancipation: New Women and Homosexuality in Germany, 1890 – 1933. Albany: State University of New York, 2014.

Harvey, Elizabeth. “Remembering and Repressing: German Women’s Recollections of the ‘Ethnic Struggle’ in Occupied Poland during the Second World War” in Home/ Front edited by Karen Hagemann and Stefanie Schuler – Springorum. New York: Berg, 2002.