Abstract

Despite its disapproval of the modernization of the woman's role in the society, the NSDAP could not prevent the consolidation of a female leadership within the party. This was until 1945 in charge of leading the Reich´s woman´s corporation, organized in the NSFrauenschaft and the Deutsches Frauenwerk. After a brief introduction into the structure of female organizations within the NSDAP, the article aims at giving an overview over the recruitment and training of the women cadres. The last part of the article is based on a wide range of biographical sources and deals with the socio-biographical and motivational profiles of the National Socialist female leadership. The article aims at proving the direct female influence on the establishment of a woman´s leadership within the Nazi Party - in terms of defining its competences as well as its political role and function for the women in the Third Reich. The article also shows that the possibilities of female political participation within the Third Reich were not as limited as the Nazi-propaganda would suggest. Instead they expanded, particularly through the nazification of previously conservative and nationalist female political engagement.