Woman's Hour

As the neutral pronouns they/them start to enter the public consciousness, so too has the idea of gender-neutral parenting. Sarah Davies is a new mum to baby Quinn and talks about her experience of practicing gender-neutrality in a highly gendered society. Prof Melissa Hines from the University of Cambridge and Dr Brenda Scott from City University have both studied how children’s gender identity and behaviour develops over time – and are helping to separate what’s innate about our gender expression and what can be influenced by what our parents teach us. Marks & Spencer has said 950 jobs are at risk as part of plans to reduce store management and head office roles. It was already undergoing a transformation that included cutting costs and closing some stores. Job losses have already been announced at John Lewis, Boots and Debenhams. Jobs at Oasis and Warehouse went in April. So many of these shop-floor, customer-facing jobs are done by women. We explore the consequences of these lay-offs with retail ana