Compare and contrast the impact of the policies of two authoritarian states on women.

The question requires that candidates give an account of the similarities and differences between the impact of policies on women in two authoritarian states. The two states may or may not be from different regions and they may or may not have been contemporaneous with each other. The impact may extend briefly beyond the timeframe of the world history topic but it must be clearly linked to the issue raised in the question. Candidates may refer to, for example, Castro’s educational policies and provision of childcare, Mao’s marriage law, Hitler’s policies towards female employment, or Peron’s reforms of maternity rights. Both similarities and differences must be clearly indicated but there does not need to be an equal number of each.

The question required candidates to give an account of the similarities and differences between the impact of policies on women in two authoritarian states. This was quite a popular question with candidates able to draw some appropriate comparisons and contrasts with most responses referring to Nazi Germany and Maoist China. Comments were rather general including such examples as Hitler wanting a high birth rate among Aryan women whilst Mao implemented more “liberating” policies that increased women’s rights and integrated them into the workforce. More developed responses added some analysis such as the reintroduction of women into the workforce in Nazi Germany as early as 1938 and how being “equal” did not always improve the lives of women in China. Some candidates had difficulty with the command term, tending to discuss the treatment of women by one leader/state and then the other with some comparison/contrast included in the conclusion. This suggested that the demands of the question had not been well understood as the Guide explicitly states for comparison/contrast, reference should be made to the two examples throughout the response.