Woman's Hour

India remains in the grip of a Covid crisis with record numbers of cases being reported every day. Oxygen and vaccines are running out and hospitals are overwhelmed. Save The Children has warned it could be facing thousands of additional deaths among children under five and an increase in maternal deaths, as hospitals and clinics are directing most of its staff and medicines to coping with Covid-1...

In 2016 Mia Ayliffe Chung was killed at a remote farmworkers’ hostel while backpacking in Australia. What she didn’t realise at the time and what her mum Rosie Ayliffe later discovered was backpackers like Mia were exposed to widespread exploitation including sexual harassment, inadequate health and safety and substandard living conditions. Since Mia's death Rosie has been campaigning to improve c...

Tracey Emin was one of the leading figures of the Young British Artists movement of the 1990s. Hers is a uniquely provocative, confessional style which confronts issues such as trauma of abortion, rape, alcoholism and sexual history. Her famous artworks include: Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963–1995 and she came to greater prominence in 1999 with a Turner Prize nomination for her famous piece...

Fertility rates around the world are declining. It's partly through choice, as couples decide to have smaller families. But it's also the case that sperm levels among men in Western countries have halved in the past 40 years. . So what's going on? Shanna Swan, a Professor of Environmental Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York thinks we should be paying much more attention to the chemicals in our env...

Have you always wanted to get on a bike, but something is holding you back? This is the programme for you, presented by Melanie Abbott. If you're completely new to cycling, there's no doubt it's intimidating on the roads. It's definitely worth sharpening up your road sense and many local councils now offer bike training courses. In East London, Bikeworks run cycling for wellbeing sessions for wome...

Today if you are a woman you are likely to live into your eighties. But what to do with those extra couple of decades? Dawn French is best known for her comedy and acting and is now an author long listed for the Women’s Prize. She talks about reinvention and still being relevant at any age. Kate Wilson talks about her court case against the Metropolitan Police and the National Police Chiefs Counci...

Anita Rani talks to Boss Morris the all-female Morris dancing team based in Gloucester who'll be marking May Day by leading a livestreamed dance. We hear from Bletchley Park veteran Betty Webb and discuss the issue of female football commentary and whether it needs to should become more critical as the success of the game develops. Around 15 British families remain detained in North East Syria.  ...

Arlene Foster, First Minister of Northern Ireland and leader of the DUP, has stood down. She was the first woman and the youngest person to hold both jobs. In her resignation announcement she said that her election as leader of the Democratic Unionist Party broke a glass ceiling, and she also spoke about the trolling she's received. We discuss what her legacy will be. Kate Wilson has been giving e...

Emma Barnett talks to Dawn French about her fourth novel "Because of You" which has been longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction and we'll find out later today if it's made the shortlist. She'll also be talking about the post-menopausal years when women often say they feel invisible, afraid of change, unemployable or just plain 'past it'. If you're an Archers listener you'll be familiar with...

We now know that Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe has been sentenced to another year in an Iranian prison, plus she's banned from travelling abroad. This time she's charged with spreading propaganda. Her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, has not seen his wife since her initial imprisonment in 2016 and is living in London with their six year old daughter Gabriella. He maintains that his wife was imprisoned as l...

New research out today from the charity Breast Cancer Now, indicates that training breast care nurses to deliver Cognitive Behavioural Therapy - or CBT - can be effective in alleviating the distressing menopausal symptoms that some women experience as a result of breast cancer treatment. Emma discusses with Delyth Morgan, Chief Executive of Breast Cancer Now and Natalie, who had breast cancer aged...

We hear from former Prime Minister of Australia Julia Gillard who is working to help children from developing countries get a quality education. Josephine Kamara and Selina Nkoile are Youth Leaders for Global Partnership for Education and are campaigning to keep girls in education. Pauline Black, lead singer of ska band The Selecter talks about her upbringing and the 2 Tone anti-racism message of...

In 'Come Fly the World', journalist Julia Cooke explores the history and legacy of Pan Am, one of the world’s most iconic airlines. Julia focuses on the adventurous lives and careers of the international jet-age stewardesses of Pan Am – a job which no longer exists - who were expected to fit a specific physical profile, speak multiple languages and demonstrate diplomacy. As the women worked to mai...

Angela Merkel steps down as Chancellor or Prime minister of Germany in September. Nicknamed Mutti or mummy she has held the top job since 2005 so her departure is a huge shift at a challenging time in global and national politics. All eyes are focused on possible successors and one candidate in the frame is Annalena Baerbock. On Monday, the Green Party announced she would be its choice to take ove...

Vanessa Frake worked in the prison service for 27 years. For 16 of those years she was the head of security and operations at the notorious male prison Wormwood Scrubs. Her career saw her cross paths with some of Britain's most notorious criminals. She was the main officer responsible for serial killer Rose West whilst she awaited trial, she was made a cup of tea by Myra Hindley, and she looked af...

With the surge in people getting dogs during lockdown, Emily Dean, broadcaster and host of ‘Walking The Dog with Emily Dean’ joins Anita to discuss her shih-tzu called Raymond, the trend for ‘pandemic puppies’ and the unique relationship between women and their dogs. Newspaper reports from the weekend suggest that Prince Charles, Harry, William and Kate spent a couple of hours at Frogmore Cottage...

The original rude girl and ‘Queen of Ska’ Pauline Black was working as a radiographer when she came to prominence in the late 1970s as the lead singer of the 2 Tone ska revival band The Selecter. Pauline joins Anita to talk about being the only girl on tour alongside The Specials and Madness, expressing herself as a young black woman through music, playing the role of Billie Holiday and, 40 years...

Actor and writer Dame Maureen Lipman recently lost Guido Castro, her partner of more than thirteen years, having already been widowed in 2004 when her husband Jack Rosenthal died after 30 years of marriage. She tells us how you come to terms with such a loss after so long. Why do some people live in vans? Is it to save money to put down a deposit on a house or is it a lifestyle choice? We hear fro...

Imelda May is an Irish singer/songwriter discovered by Jools Holland when she supported him on tour and subsequently appeared on Later ... with Jools Holland in 2008. She was the queen of rockabilly, with a Fifties-style frock, trademark quiff – and a voice compared to legendary blues singers such as Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan. The quiff is long gone. She joins Anita Rani to discuss her musi...

A woman who won a settlement from the Catholic Church after reporting the abuse she suffered, is now launching a personal injury claim against Westminster Diocese. It's because of a series of emails which she says describe her as needy, manipulative and a bully. She explains to Woman's Hour what she wants to achieve. A legal challenge began in the High Court this week about municipal waste inciner...

Emma Barnett talks to the former cabinet minister Owen Paterson about the suicide of his wife Rose and the charity he's founded in her memory. Evy Cohen talks about Prince Philip and how his mother Princess Alice saved her family from the Holocaust, Georgia Elliot-Smith asks if we should stop shaming women about waste and recyling and as Sikhs and Hindus prepare to celebrate the festival of Vaisak...

Baroness Shirley Williams has died at the age of 90. She was a titan of British politics and a true trailblazer for women. She appeared on Woman's Hour many times and so we remember her by listening to the archive. We also speak to her good friend, Baroness Julia Neuberger. What do you do if you've just had a baby and you've been called for jury service? We speak to Zoe Stacey who recently receive...

Shepherdess Amanda Owen & the academic Clare Eglin talk about why women tend to feel colder than men. We talk to Clare Balding about Rachael Blackmore the first woman to win the Grand National this weekend. As lockdown eases and the shops reopen, we talk to the Executive Director of John Lewis Pippa Wicks and Andria Zafirakou who won a million dollar global teaching prize tells us how she's sp...

The 2011 Census found that 6.5 million people in the UK are carers and provide unpaid care by looking after an ill, older or disabled family member, friend or partner. It found that women are more likely to be carers than men, with 58% of carers being female and 42% male. Emily Holzhausen, Director of Policy and Public Affairs at Carers UK and Alyson Corner, psychologist and co-runs the 'My Horrid...

A parliamentary report into body image has just been published. The Women's and Equalities Committee has been looking into why so many people feel dissatisfied about the way they look. They did a survey which said that 61% is adults and 66% of children feel bad about how they look most of the time. They wanted to find out whether certain groups are most at risk at poor body image and looked at the...