ABSTRACT
Any discussion of health in the inter-war years should have the role and experience of women at its centre. A 1924 MRC Report on nutrition of miners and their families argued that poverty had no influence on ill-health, rather it resulted from the 'failure' of mothers. The strongest argument for family allowances, however, was that they would help to alleviate poverty, especially among women, and so reduce the widespread chronic ill health among poorer women. During the inter-war years it became increasingly common for large, well-organised and successful firms to offer their workers welfare services in which health and medical provisions played an important part. Ellen Wilkinson in The Town that was Murdered made the connection between housing, health and poverty. The central government view, which blamed ill health largely on bad habits, ignorance and fecklessness, was increasingly challenged in the inter-war years.
