Woman's Hour

The cover of British Vogue’s February 2022 issue has made history. It’s the first Vogue cover to feature nine black models, titled Fashion Now. The issue celebrates the rise of African models in high-end fashion, styled by Vogue’s first Black Editor-In-Chief Edward Enninful and Brazilian photographer, Rafael Pavarotti. Undeniably it’s been met with celebration but also some nuanced criticism. We hear from Chelsea Mtada, the Arts and Culture Editor at Guap Magazine.We discuss the new legal duties being put on parents who educate their children at home. Parents in England will have to let the local authority know and register their child accordingly. If they don't, they'll be penalised. We hear from Charlotte Ramsden President of the Association of Directors of Children's Services and Gabriella Rook, a young trustee from Education Otherwise, the longest standing and largest home-education charity in England and Wales.The Winter Olympics 2022 in Beijing officially begin on Friday. Around 3000 athletes from 91 n

Stacey Dooley has been presenting television documentaries for over 10 years – on everything from drug cartels in Southern Spain to illegal pornography in South Korea. Now the Sunday Times bestselling author has released a new book, exploring the state of mental health in the UK. ‘Are You Really OK?’ looks at – amongst other things – issues of PTSD, depression, psychosis; and what causes these things. Stacey reveals what she’s learnt.Yesterday on the programme we discussed the culture of policing in the light of misogynistic, discriminatory and violent texts exchanged between serving officers between 2016 and 2018. They were revealed as part of an IOPC investigation at Charing Cross police station in London. These revelations follow the murder of Sarah Everard and the treatment of Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman by serving Metropolitan Police officers. We asked how can a toxic culture be changed? A mother, Amanda, contacted us while we were on air. Her son, George, is planning to join the Police later this y

Gloria Allred is probably the best known women’s rights lawyer in the US. Equally loved, feared and deemed controversial by some, for nearly half a century she's represented women in high profile cases involving Bill Cosby, Jeffrey Epstein, Harvey Weinstein, R Kelly, Donald Trump. She talks to Woman's Hour about the situation facing the Duke of York, the possible retrial of Ghislaine Maxwell & her admiration for Ruth Bader Ginsburg.Vile text messages have come to light which were shared between police officers belonging to the Metropolitan Police. The IOPC has said: "We believe these incidents are not isolated or simply the behaviour of a few 'bad apples'." The Met has said that it is 'sorry'. We get reaction from Zoe Billingham, former Her Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary and Shabnam Chaudhri, who served as an officer in the Met for 30 years.Monica Ali wrote her bestseller Brick Lane nearly 20 years ago. Her new book is called Love Marriage. It's about two families who are brought together when Yasmi

As the Prime Minister apologises for a failure of leadership, accepting Sue Gray's report, and promises to overhaul Number 10 - his place of work and home - what of Carrie Johnson? And concerns about the blurring of lines...The pandemic has changed the way some women work and has blurred the boundaries between home and work for many. A new book by Professor Laura Gowing of King’s College London called 'Ingenious Trade' unearths the stories of women at work in 17th Century London and shows how crucial to their identity paid employment was. For those who remember the late 90s and early noughties, thongs were a defining emblem of popular fashion, often poking out of denim and low-rise trousers. Today, clothes retailers are seeing a surge in their thong sales since 2019, and with the resurgence of ‘y2k’ style among young people, it seems that thongs are back.Joe Biden announced last week that he'd fulfil his campaign promise of the first black female justice just as Justice Stephen Breyer said he would retire. Bi

Nikki da Costa is former director of legislative affairs at No 10. She has a piece in the Times this morning saying that 'No 10 failed us when we needed our leaders most'. Nikki joins Emma for an exclusive broadcast interview.Sarah Brown has worked with some of the biggest names in the music industry. She grew up singing gospel in a Pentecostal church, which first inspired her love of Mahalia Jackson’s music. To mark the 50th anniversary of Mahalia’s death, Sarah has released an album in tribute to her heroine.Last week Mars Wrigley announced a rebranding of the iconic M&M mascots. The green M&M character will be losing her high heels to be replaced with sneakers. We ask whether this kind of ‘activism branding’ leads to any significant change? Lee Edwards is a Professor of Strategic Communication and Public Engagement at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Carly Lewis-Oduntan is a freelance features writer.Following allegations of abuse against footballer Mason Greenwood posted f

Dr Koshka Duff, an assistant professor of politics at Nottingham University has received an apology and compensation from the Met Police after officers were caught on CCTV using sexist, derogatory and unacceptable language during a 2013 strip search. In her first broadcast interview since the apology, she speaks to Emma about that experience and why it has taken so long to get an apology. Chloe Slevin, a 3rd year nursing student at University College Dublin has been painting well-known masterpieces - with a Covid-19 twist. Her latest creation? The 'Corona Lisa' which sees the famous Mona Lisa in full PPE, which she plans to auction off for charity. She joins Emma to talk about all about her paintings.Tareena Shakil is the first British woman to be found guilty of joining the so-called Islamic State. She was jailed for travelling to Syria with her son - who was a one year old baby at the time, in 2014. She speaks to Anita about why she left the UK to join a terrorist organisation - and why she's speaking out.

Tareena Shakil is the first British woman to be found guilty of joining so-called Islamic State. She was jailed for travelling to Syria with her baby son to join ISIS. That was in 2014 when she was 24. She didn't last long in Syria and fled. A trial in the UK followed and it came to light that she lied to police when they questioned her and some of her social media posts encouraged others to do the same as her. She tells her story to Anita Rani, and describes her hopes for the future.Libby Heaney and Nabihah Iqbal are combining music production and AI for their piece Cascade. It's an exploration of the River Thames and includes field recordings of the Thames, AI generated sounds and visuals. One Big Bag is a film installation about a young death doula. That's a carer who supports someone who's dying and their families. Its creator is artist Every Ocean Hughes. She joins Hermione Elliott who's a doula herself, and Dr Helen Frisby.

We’re all too familiar with operatic heroines, dying tragically on stage. The arias they sing are often completely beautiful, the skill of the composers not in doubt, but the stereotyping does modern women no service. It’s a dilemma that award winning, all women string quartet Zaïde address in a new project entitled No(s) Dames. They have teamed up with counter tenor Théophile Alexandre to showcase arias of tragic heroines by seventeen different composers. The twist is that it is male Theophile who sings the arias. First violinist Charlotte Maclet joins Emma.Today is National Holocaust Memorial Day and the Prince of Wales, as chairman of the National Holocaust Memorial Trust has commissioned the portraits of seven Holocaust survivors all of them now in their nineties, whose childhoods were spent surviving the Nazis. The portraits will be displayed at the Queen's Gallery as a living memorial to the six million innocent men, women and children who lost their lives in the Holocaust and whose stories will neve

Chloe Slevin, a 3rd year nursing student at University College Dublin has been painting well-known masterpieces - with a Covid-19 twist. First came 'The Girl with the Surgical Mask' after the famous 'Girl with the Pearl Earring' then she did a version of one of Michaelangelo's famous works. But her most recent painting is that of the 'Corona Lisa' - the Mona Lisa in full PPE and surgical mask, which she's auctioning off for LauraLynn, Ireland's only children's hospice. She joins Emma to talk about her paintings and what it's been like as a trainee nurse during the pandemic.Emma speaks to Dr Koshka Duff who was detained in 2013 after offering a legal advice card to a black teenager during his stop-and-search. On CCTV footage, officers can be heard laughing about her hair, clothes and talking about her underwear. The Metropolitan Police have now apologised and paid the academic compensation for their "sexist, derogatory and unacceptable language".The Ministry of Justice, this week, has announced an unprecedente

Six the Musical is currently on stage at the Vaudeville Theatre in London. The show follows Henry VIII’s six wives, as they take the microphone for the first time in a ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ style sing-off. Originally written by two Cambridge University students and showcased at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2017, it has since taken London’s West End by storm and has just opened on Broadway. Joining Emma are Lucy Moss, co-director and co-writer of the show, and Tsemaye Bob-Egbe, who plays Henry VIII’s fifth wife Katherine Howard in a brand new London cast.Boris Johnson is under renewed pressure after Downing Street admitted staff gathered inside No 10 during the first Covid lockdown to mark his birthday in June 2020. A spokesperson said staff had "gathered briefly" to "wish the Prime Minister a happy birthday", adding that he had been there "for less than 10 minutes". There have been recent suggestions that No 10 would benefit from having more women in high profile roles to sort out what has been repo

Concerns that the criminal justice system is not responsive enough to the specific needs of women are longstanding. In June 2018 the government published its Female Offender Strategy. It sought to reduce crime, pressure on services and the cost of dealing with women in the CJS, and to improve outcomes for women at all points in the system. The National Audit Office have just released a report examining the success of that strategy so far and are critical of the government’s efforts in implementing it. Kate Paradine, Chief Executive of Women in Prison joins Emma. Midwives are under a ‘worrying amount’ of pressure and are being ‘dangerously overworked’ according to former NHS midwife, Piroska Cavell. According to a survey by the Royal College of Midwives from October 2021, over half of their members considering leaving the profession due to the current situation. Emma speaks to Piroska about her own experience of being a midwife on the front line and Royal College of Midwives’ Dr Mary Ross-Davie about the chall

Artist Tracey Emin shares why she wants an artwork she donated to the government’s art collection to be removed from display in Number 10 Downing Street. Last Wednesday afternoon, 23-year-old school teacher Ashling Murphy was killed while jogging along the banks of the Grand Canal in Tullamore, Ireland. The case has shocked the nation and revived concerns about women’s safety in public spaces in Ireland and the UK. We speak to Irish Times reporter Jade Wilson and veteran women's rights activist Ailbhe Smyth.In 1969 Muriel McKay was kidnapped after being mistaken for Rupert Murdoch’s wife. The story dominated front pages for weeks, and hundreds of police worked the case. After 40 days Arthur and Nizamodeen Hosein were arrested, and later jailed, but Muriel was never found. We hear about the re-opening of the case from Muriel's daughter, Dianne McKay.Woman to Woman is the all-star group founded in 2018 and features musical artists Beverley Craven, Julia Fordham and Judie Tzuke. They now have a new album and a n

We discuss the life of Mary Ward the 17th century Catholic nun who actively championed education for girls - and even spent time in prison for her cause. Now, almost four hundred years after her death, Mary Ward's legacy lives on via a network of almost 200 Mary Ward schools worldwide – including St Mary's School in Cambridge. She is considered the first sister of feminism and a pioneer of female missionary work. Sister Jane Livesey and Charlotte Avery headmistress at St Mary’s school for girls tell us about her life and legacy.We hear from Jo Richards from British Wheelchair Basketball about the start of the British Wheelchair Basketball Women's Premier League which begins on Saturday live on the BBC. The league is the first of its kind worldwide, and the UK's first women's professional Para-sport league. What do you remember about ‘ladette culture’? It was a term first coined in 1994 to describe young women who behaved boisterously, assertively and loved a drink. Some considered it a feminist movement – al

Scientists from the University of Edinburgh are preparing to begin testing a new IVF treatment which could allow women to freeze their eggs at a much younger age and increase the likelihood of successful pregnancies in older women. Professor Evelyn Telfer, chair of reproductive biology at the University discusses how this research could change fertility treatment in the future. We hear from artist Tracey Emin about why she she wants an artwork she donated to the government’s art collection removed from display in Number 10 Downing Street. and following Christian Wakeford's defection to the the Labour Party Anna Soubry, who left the Conservative Party to sit as part of a group of independent MPs which later went on to become Change UK ,shares what it's like to defect and whether it works out politically. The world-renowned ballet dancer and artistic director of English National Ballet, Tamara Rojo, joins us following her decision to step down from her role after ten years to become the artistic director of

The Raise the Roof project in Perth in Scotland, is gathering the lesser-known histories of a number of influential and fearless women to feature in the new Perth City Hall Museum when it opens in early 2024. A list of over 50 women who have lived in Perth over the centuries – from a witch to a pioneering photographer and the first female MP has been drawn up. But it is down to a number of different community groups to decide which women will be celebrated. They will work with an artist to help tell their stories and a wire statue of each of those women will be displayed around the city. Chloe Tilley is joined by Anna Day the Cultural Public Programme Manager at Perth & Kinross Council and the artist Vanessa Lawrence. The Children's Commissioner for England, Dame Rachel de Souza, has warned that thousands of children have "fallen off the radar" of schools. She is launching an inquiry to find young people who are not attending school in the wake of lockdown. On the programme Dame Rachel de Souza told BBC

Yesterday on Woman's Hour we talked about the outpouring of grief in Ireland and beyond about the murder of Ashling Murphy. Today we are looking at solutions to ending violence against women. Sarah Benson, CEO Women's Aid Ireland joins Chloe. Universities are being called on to end the use of Non-Disclosure Agreements to silence complainants in sexual harassment cases by signing up to a new pledge today. Higher Education Minister Michelle Donelan MP joins Chloe to discuss her concerns that some establishments are also using the legally-binding contracts to deal with other problems such as abuse, and other forms of misconduct which stops the victims from speaking out and protects the reputations of perpetrators. Nearly seven million adults in the UK have very poor literacy skills – many of whom are too ashamed or embarrassed to ask for help. What impact can struggling to read and write have on a women’s life long-term? Ginny Williams-Ellis is the CEO of Ready Easy UK, a charity offering free one-to-one read

The Winter Olympics begin on 4th February in Beijing and Team GB will be sending around 50 athletes with the hopes of bringing back a clutch of medals. The run up to the Games has been challenging – Covid has made competition extremely difficult for athletes and there have been diplomatic rows over China’s human rights records - but who are our medal prospects? Chloe Tilley speaks to Georgina Harland, Britain’s first ever female Chef de Mission and Lizzy Yarnold, Britain’s most successful Winter Olympian. On Wednesday afternoon, 23-year-old school teacher Ashling Murphy was murdered while jogging along the banks of the Grand Canal in Tullamore, Ireland. It is believed that she was assaulted and killed by a man acting alone. The case has shocked the nation and revived concerns about women’s safety in public spaces in Ireland and the UK. We speak to Irish Times reporter Jade Wilson and veteran activist Ailbhe Smyth, who spoke at a vigil for Ashling outside Irish parliament. Women diagnosed with cervical cell

A midwife from a maternity unit tells us why she and over thirty of her colleagues are refusing to have the Covid jab. We hear from the Royal College of Nursing who want the Government to pause the vaccine mandate for NHS staff immediately because of the threat to an already understaffed NHS. And we speak to Professor Ian Jones, a Virologist at the University of Reading about the science of infection and transmission.Almost 300 years after the Witchcraft Acts were repealed, a bill has been bought forward in the Scottish parliament to pardon those convicted. This comes after a two-year campaign to clear the names of nearly 4,000 people accused of witchcraft. We are joined by Zoe Venditozzi, co-founder of the campaign, and Marion Gibson, Professor of Renaissance and Magical Literatures at the University of Essex.Helen Pankhurst, the great-granddaughter of Suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst, talks about the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill which the House of Lords will debate on Monday. Reflecting on

A midwife from a maternity unit tells us why she and over thirty of her colleagues are refusing to have the Covid jab. They will all lose their jobs when the Government’s vaccine mandate for NHS staff comes into force on April 1st, putting the unit at risk, and leaving pregnant women wondering what it means for them and their babies. We also hear from the Royal College of Nursing who want the Government to pause the vaccine mandate for NHS staff immediately because of the threat to an already understaffed NHS. And we speak to Professor Ian Jones, a Virologist at the University of Reading about the science of infection and transmission, and the impact on the NHS workforce and their patients.Diet and fitness expert Rosemary Conley CBE celebrates fifty years of keeping Leicestershire - and the rest of the country - fit. Rosemary was 25-years-old when she held her first class in a local village hall in 1972. Since then, she's written 36 books, presented dozens of fitness videos and continues to run classes in the

How can we have a healthier relationship with tech, the internet and social media? In her new book Disconnected, podcaster Emma Gannon looks at how we can take back control, set boundaries, and unlearn bad habits from doomscrolling to having opinions for opinion’s sake. She also reflects on whether a constructive call-out culture is more beneficial than cancel culture online.Helen Pankhurst, the granddaughter and the great-granddaughter of Suffragettes, Sylvia and Emmeline Pankhurst talks about the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill which the House of Lords will debate on Monday. Helen argues our right to protest which is a fundamental part of democracy, is under threat. Reflecting on historical and global parallels, she argues that protest is both a safety valve and catalyst for change in the fight for equality, including women’s rights, race, disability, social inequality and climate.Plus can theatre be used as a health and wellbeing tool to support women’s understanding of their relationship with se