Kinder, Küche und Kirche

Today one of my students brought up the three K´s, Kinder, Küche und Kirche, and their importance in German culture. This phrase means "Children, Kitchen and Church." I had always thought that the expression was Konrad Adenauer´s and that he used it to get women out of the workplace and back home after WWII. It turns out that the phrase long predates Adenauer. Kaiser Wilhelm II used it in the 19th century and the Nazis strongly promoted it. (See Wikipedia.com for a full description).

Funny thing is that the Nazis came to rely on women in the workforce as the war progressed. And Adenauer urged women to give up their jobs and careers by adopting the Nazi slogan in the face of reality.

Women in Germany are still struggling against this attitude. Unlike other Western European countries there is no national child care system. Child care, as in the States, is expensive and difficult to find. Many German women struggle immensely with maintaining their careers after giving birth but most find it extremely difficult to do so given the paucity of decent child care.