themes for looking at 5 generations of women's lives

[iskra]

I am pondering a writing project that would look at 5 generations of women (going back to the mid 19th century to the current day), particularly considering it through further education... I would also look at the themes of motherhood, working life, & marriage equality (I think). But that feels reductive somehow, as if the only light you can ever consider women's lives is through the same old kurche, kinder, kitchen (too lazy to google that, definitely misspelt). But on the other hand, those ARE the themes that affect our lives, aren't they?

Any thoughts or themes to add?

politics and activism (women's suffrage etc)?

Friendship groups
Hobbies/interests
Fashion

How they have been affected by changing technology?
Health?

Relationships (sexual and other; socially permitted versus forbidden versus tacitly accepted)
You also mentioned "working life" which is presumably outside the domestic area--and what about being responsible for a family business?
Being someone else's servant versus having servants (lots and lots of people were servants, especially women)
Education--who was the first in this family to learn to read?
Young people moving away from their parents
Emigration, even?

This is brilliant, thanks very much! Of course, now I read your suggestions I realise that I had thought of many of them but not made it explicit to myself, if you see what I mean.

I am thinking of looking at 5 real women in my family - I feel like I have a grip on the first two but it all gets a bit hazy with number 3 (who was born in the 20s).

The 2 that spring to mind are sex and education.

Ooh, exciting project! I agree with education - it'd be really interesting to see about that and especially maybe literacy/access to books in the home? People often say women are the ones who keep family records so it'd be interesting to see how much they all did that - it'd make your study sort of fold in on itself, a history looking at women looking at history, maybe?

Ah well, I am looking at this particular 5 generations because they have all been university educated. The first of them was born in 1841 & managed to get herself a university education, her daughter was the first female science lecturer at another university & so forth. This means they are an extremely privileged & unusual couple of women to think about.

The one born in 1841 got her mother to write a short memoir of her life - kind of an early feminist reclaiming of the female story - it's a few years since I've read it but I remember it being pretty interesting.

This sounds really exciting - I'd love to know how you get on!

You could look at wages. I am sure that the female university lecturer wasn't earning the same as her male colleagues.

how about self-determination - if that's the right phrase. to what extent have they been in a position to make their own choices about their lives (which you could look at in relation to everything - food, clothes, sex, work; or indeed, pulling out the areas for each one in which they had or lacked self-determination particularly)