The lives of British women have altered dramatically over the last 50 years, with changes in dominant societal norms surrounding marriage, family and paid employment. These changes may be associated with widening health inequalities. Whilst there is a wealth of literature on the social determinants of health, there are notable gaps, with authors calling for research into “the dominant institutions of adulthood – employment and family”. Others highlight a need for multi-faceted measures of family, work and social capital, with multiple dimensions of social location, for understanding intersectional patterning of women’s health.

This thesis aims to understand the underlying dynamics of intersectional social (dis)advantage, regarding the effect of work and family lives on women’s health. It uses data from the UK household longitudinal study, Understanding Society (2009-2019), utilising analytical techniques comprising group-based trajectory modelling, intersectional multilevel modelling and decision trees.

This thesis shows that both family and work influences on women’s mental health are nuanced by social identity and intersections of these identities. Three mental health trajectories are identified, corresponding to better, average and poorer health, with White women holding no qualifications prevalent in the latter. Family effects are mediated by health trajectory, emphasising non-linear relationships, with differential effects by ethnicity. Family and work social capital are both beneficial, providing alternative routes to better mental health, according to social location. Multiple levels of marginalisation or privilege do not necessarily confer measurable (dis)advantage in women’s mental health.

This thesis contributes to the body of academic knowledge on women’s intersectional health inequalities, both conceptually and methodologically. A conceptual framework is developed, bringing together the social determinants of health, intersectionality theory and social stress theory, with the concepts of biographical disruption and ‘intersectional habitus’ mismatch. This thesis extends the methods literature, enhancing the quantitative intersectional analytical toolkit, for future health inequalities research.