Females in German war production
 

George Forty states in his book German tanks of World War Two that 2.25 million females worked in the British war industry while only 182,000 women worked in the German war industry. Are these figures correct? Are there available comparison figures for WW1?

Re: Females in German war production
 

I don't think so. I believe this was a myth put out after WW II and in recent decades it has been proved false.

Re: Females in German war production
 

What was a myth?
The German figures or the British?

Re: Females in German war production
 

You might find the answer in either "The Wages of Destruction" by Adam Tooze or "The German War" by Nicholas Stargardt.

Re: Females in German war production
 

One might indeed, but I don't think I am buying two books for just this information.

Re: Females in German war production
 

Both in paperback and very much worth reading, especially "Wages of Destruction" (£12.99) which dispels many misconceptions about the German economy.

Pages 513–515: "German women in 1939 were already more actively engaged in the labour force than Britain's women were to be even at the end of the war. [Reich Labour Ministry data for 1943] the share of women in work was 25.4 per cent in the United States, 33.1 per cent in Britain and 34 per cent in Germany".

Re: Females in German war production
 

Thank you, Nick. That was very helpful. Indeed, I've see many photos of German women working on aircraft assembly. This, of course, does not include women forced laborers also engaged in war production.



Ed

Re: Females in German war production
 

Yes, very hard to tell from photos if they were German or not. Compulsory labour service people from occupied Western Europe might not be easy to spot.

Re: Females in German war production
 

Rosa die Nieterin?

Re: Females in German war production
 

Does that include women who worked in auxiliary roles in the military? Some 500,000 women in Germany were in the military with roles such as health services, secretaries, telecommunications operators and working with anti-aircraft troops.

I also found mention of younger girls who were employed in the agricultural sector. There is also some conflicting reports of anywhere between 1.2 million and 15 million women working in the arms section during the war.

Re: Females in German war production
 

"On the eve of war 14.6 million German women were working, with 51% of women of working age (16–60 years old) in the workforce. Nearly six million were doing farm work, as Germany's agricultural economy was dominated by small family farms. 2.7 million worked in industry. When the German economy was mobilized for war it paradoxically led to a drop in female work participation, reaching a low of 41% before gradually climbing back to over 50% again. This still compares favorably with the UK and the USA, both playing catchup, with Britain achieving a participation rate of 41% of women of working age in 1944. However, in terms of women employed in war work, British and German female participation rates were nearly equal by 1944, with the United States still lagging. The difficulties the Third Reich faced in increasing the size of the work force was mitigated by reallocating labor to work that supported the war effort. High wages in war industries attracted hundreds of thousands, freeing up men for military duties. Prisoners of war were also employed as farmhands, freeing up women for other work.[22]


"The Third Reich had many roles for women, including combat. The SS-Helferinnen were regarded as part of the SS if they had undergone training at a Reichsschule SS but all other female workers were regarded as being contracted to the SS and chosen largely from Nazi concentration camps. Women also served in auxiliary units in the navy (Kriegshelferinnen), air force (Luftnachrichtenhelferinnen) and army (Nachrichtenhelferin).[23][24][25][26] Hundreds of women auxiliaries (Aufseherin) served for the SS in the camps, the majority of which were at Ravensbrück.