In the second series of A Feminist Family History, DrKate Carruthers Thomas shares insights into her research on three generations of the Kelynack family of Newlyn, Cornwall, spanning three generations from 1860 to 1950. She highlights how social, economic, and gender roles evolved within a changing community, emphasising women's experiences and family dynamics.

There's a family tree at Series 2 - A Feminist Family History in Three Generations

Life Chances

This episode follows the Kelynack family through three erasto show how health, illness, healthcare, and women’s reproductive lives changed over time. Kcompares child mortality in the 1870s, working-class healthcare in 1911, and the growing but still limited world of contraception and infertility treatment in the 1920s and 1930s. The episode discusses the pressures ofpoverty, the impact of infectious disease before antibiotics, and how medical knowledge expanded while access remained unequal.

Key Sources:

National Insurance Act 1911 | Policy NavigatorJose Harris Private Lives Public Spirit: Britain 1870-1914

History of the Atlantic Cable & Submarine Telegraphy - Western Union

Marie Stopes opened the UK’s first birth control clinic 100 years ago – she was also a eugenicist

Poor law but better care - British Society for the History of Medicine

Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918