[ . . . ]
Finally, the Führer commented more or less as follows: 'The principles I have outlined must be adhered to even during the war. Otherwise, we would pre-empt the implementation of our peacetime plans along national socialist lines; indeed, we would run into difficulties even during the war. For a complete equalization of female with male wages would inevitably result in the tendency for an increase in male wages to occur. Thus, we must stick to the existing regulation which does not exclude the possibility in particular exceptional cases for a female wage to be equalized with a male wage. A complete equalization of female wages with male wages would ignore male contributions to the national community which I wish to avoid at all costs.'
In addition, the following may be noted:
In the course of the meeting mention was made of the fact that in a number of plants, e.g. in high precision engineering, men and women carry out the same relatively light and clean work side by side. Dr. Ley remarked that in such cases unequal pay seemed unjust. The Führer commented that in such plants where typical women's work was carried out only women should be employed, since then not only would there be no inequality in wages but the men who had been working there hitherto could be transferred to work which was more appropriate for them. The Führer added that one must start thinking whether, when peace comes, certain occupations should be banned for men, e.g. the occupation of waiter, which could just as easily be carried out by women, or this was even more the case with women's hairdressing, for it was a thoroughly undignified occupation for a man to be a women's hairdresser. Above all, one could employ female teachers to teach children up to a certain age.
Source of English translation: Jeremy Noakes, ed., Nazism, 1919-1945, Vol. 4: The German Home Front in World War II. Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1998, pp. 353-55.
Source of original German text: Bundesarchiv Berlin R43 II/542.
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