According to the Nazi worldview, women were supposed to play the role of housewife and mother. Initially, the Nazi government used a series of legal measures—such as tax breaks and interest-free loans for married couples that defrayed the costs of setting up a household—in an attempt to get women to marry and leave the labor market. By 1939, however, the number of both married and unmarried women working in all sectors of the economy, and especially in industry, had risen to fourteen million.

The photograph shows female factory workers during their lunch break. A large portrait of Hitler hangs on the back wall; next to it are smaller portraits of Robert Ley, the head of the German Labor Front [Deutsche Arbeitsfront or DAF], and Joseph Goebbels, Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda.