Woman's Hour

Whether you have a sister or not, it’s a relationship that has long fascinated us. In this special edition of Woman’s Hour, Nuala McGovern explores what makes the female sibling dynamic so compelling. If you were watching the Paris Olympics, you might have spotted identical twins Lina and Laviai Nielsen taking to the track. The Olympic duo join Nuala to discuss competing together at an elite level...

Listener Week is when all the topics, interviews and discussions are chosen by YOU! We hear from listener Siobhan Daniels. She wrote to us on Instagram: 'I would love you to talk about van life and an alternative way of living.' Siobhan is 65 years old and after selling her home and possessions has lived in her motorhome for five years. She joins Nuala McGovern on the programme. Listener Kitty Dow...

Listener Week is when all the topics, interviews and discussions are chosen by YOU! Woman's Hour listener Elaine asked the programme to discuss the issue of having sex in later life. Elaine is in her seventies and her partner would like to resume a sexual relationship. They are both negotiating medical conditions and she feels reluctant. Elaine would like to know what is typical or normal in your...

Listener Week is when all the topics, interviews and discussions are chosen by YOU! What is it like to parent a neurodivergent child when you are neurodivergent yourself? Anita Rani speaks to listener Rachel, who discovered she had ADHD after her daughter was diagnosed, and Jo, whose children have dyslexia. How one moment or person can change your life’s trajectory. Listener Bettie tells Anita how...

Listener Week is when all the topics, interviews and discussions are chosen by YOU! As part of Listener Week we have been asked by widows to discuss one side effect of bereavement – hyper-arousal, and the term ‘Widow’s Fire’. Nuala McGovern explores these ideas with listener Lizzie, Stacey Heale, who has written a book – Now is Not the Time for Flowers - about her experience of being widowed, and...

Listener Week is when all the topics, interviews and discussions are chosen by YOU! Why do so many of us feel bad about our tummies and why are the rounded or wobbly ones never celebrated? That’s what listener Carole wants to know. Content creator Lottie Drynan created the IBS blog The Tummy Diaries and #mybloatedwardrobe and has learned to love her rounded stomach. She joins Nuala McGovern, along...

Welcome to Woman's Hour's Listener Week, when all the topics, interviews and discussions are chosen by YOU! On today's programme, we hear from listener Siobhan Daniels. She wrote to us on Instagram: 'I would love you to talk about van life and an alternative way of living.' Siobhan is 65 years old and after selling her home and possessions has lived in her motorhome for five years. She joins Nuala...

Fresh from the Paris Olympic Games, the Team GB weightlifter Emily Campbell joins Jessica Creighton on the programme. Best known for her no-nonsense attitude, fabulous hair and of course, lifting extremely heavy weights, she joins Jessica to discuss adding bronze to her silver medal from Tokyo. In 2020, Jade Blue McCrossen-Nethercott had the case against her alleged rapist dropped by the CPS. They...

A new study just published says that perimenopausal women are more likely to experience bipolar and major depressive disorder. Cardiff University academics worked with charity Bipolar UK and the UK Biobank, a large-scale biomedical database, to look at nearly 130,000 UK women and focused on the four years around the last menstrual period. Dr Clare Dolman, an ambassador for Bipolar UK and patient a...

Fresh from the Paris Olympic Games, the Team GB weightlifter Emily Campbell joins Jessica Creighton on the programme. Best known for her no-nonsense attitude, fabulous hair and of course, lifting extremely heavy weights, she joins Jessica to discuss adding bronze to her silver medal from Tokyo. A Glasgow parents group is taking legal action against the city council over planned education cuts. It...

Throughout the summer we’ve been taking a look into the world of 'genre fiction' – the women who read it and the women who write it. In the latest of this series, we’re going to discuss science fiction. Seen by some as 'a genre for men,' there are lots of women authors and readers who think otherwise. Bafta-nominated screenwriter and playwright, Moira Buffini, who's written The Dig and TV series H...

Annie Ernaux’s Booker-nominated book, Les Années, traces her journey from childhood in post-war France to old age in the post-9/11 era. Now adapted for the stage, Gina Mckee, Deborah Findlay and Romola Garai, alongside Anjli Mohindra and Harmony Rose-Bremner, are the five actors portraying different stages in the life of an ‘unnamed’ French woman. Romola Garai joins Nuala McGovern in the Woman’s H...

For the first time in history, the Paris 2024 Olympics saw an equal number of men and women competing. But that's not always been the case - in fact, back in 1912, the father of the Olympic games Pierre de Coubertin said that having women compete in the games would be 'impractical, uninteresting, ungainly and, I do not hesitate to add, improper'. Luckily, the Olympics didn’t just have the father o...

Lottie Tomlinson rose to fame as the younger sister of One Direction’s Louis Tomlinson. At 16, she went on tour with the band as a makeup artist and a decade on, has become an entrepreneur. Lottie’s mother and sister died within a few years of each other, when she was just 20-years-old. She joins Anita to talk about her experience of grief, which she’s written about her new memoir, Lucky Girl. Mad...

This evening at the Olympics, Algerian boxer Imane Khelif will fight for a gold medal in the women’s welterweight event. Tomorrow, Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting will compete for gold in the final of the women’s featherweight boxing. Both boxers have faced serious controversy over their eligibility to compete. To take us through what’s going on, Anita Rani speaks to the BBC’s Sport Editor, Dan Roan. Lottie...

First to the news that thousands of anti-racism protesters gathered in cities and towns across England last night. They were rallying in response to a week of anti-immigration rioting and racist violence, sparked by misinformation over the deadly stabbings in Southport on 29 July. Thousands of extra police officers had been deployed last night but the protests were largely peaceful with few seriou...

Kerry-Ann Knight, who served in the army for over a decade, has spoken out about the years of racist and sexist abuse she received whilst serving saying that it made her life "a living hell". She joins Nuala to discuss her experience of taking the Ministry of Defence to an employment tribunal where she accepted a substantial settlement, along with an apology. Her experience has led to lawyer Emma...

Keely Hodgkinson has won gold in the women's 800 metres at the Paris Olympics. It's only Team GB's 10th ever female gold medal in athletics. Nuala McGovern is joined by five-time Olympic athlete Jo Pavey to reflect on Keely's success and what it means for the career of the 22-year-old. The Paris 2024 Olympics was set to be the first where men could compete alongside women in the synchronised swimm...

Unrest has continued in several towns and cities across the UK this weekend. Downing Street is expected to hold an emergency response meeting called COBRA today. Nuala McGovern explores how women have been involved and affected by what has happened, with BBC News Correspondent Jessica Lane, Iman Atta, Director of Tell Mama, and Dr Elizabeth Pearson, author of Extreme Britain: Gender, Masculinity a...

Amanda Abbington joins Anita Rani to talk about her new role in Tawni O’Dell’s play When It Happens To You. Amanda plays Tara, a mother who is desperately trying to hold her family together after her daughter is brutally attacked. She discusses playing a mother whose own trauma is triggered by her daughter’s experiences and how a culture of shame can lead to women’s silence. The Labour government...

Amanda Abbington joins Anita Rani to talk about her new role in Tawni O’Dell’s play When It Happens To You. Amanda plays Tara, a mother who is desperately trying to hold her family together after her daughter is brutally attacked. She discusses playing a mother whose own trauma is triggered by her daughter’s experiences and how a culture of shame can lead to women’s silence. In the latest in our s...

The prime minister today will be meeting police leaders to discuss the riots in Southport following the horrific attacks which left three small girls dead - and eight other children and two adults injured, with some believed to be in critical condition. A 17-year-old youth is due to appear in court later today charged with the murders, and 10 counts of attempted murder. The violence of the riots t...

The Labour government has confirmed that it will act on its manifesto commitment to change the way private school fees are taxed across the UK. The current exemption from VAT will be removed, in order to fund 6,500 new teachers in England, and the change is coming in January next year, sooner than previously thought. Nuala McGovern gets the latest from the BBC’s Education Correspondent Elaine Dunk...

A stabbing attack in the Southport area of Merseyside has, at the time of going to air, killed a number of children and critically injured others. Nuala McGovern is joined by BBC Home Affairs Correspondent Lauren Moss to give us the latest. She also hears from the Labour and Cooperative Party Police and Crime Commissioner for Merseyside, Emily Spurrell, and the Reverend Marie-Anne Kent on how the...

The Irish novelist Edna O'Brien has died aged 93. President of Ireland Michael D Higgins said she was "one of the outstanding writers of modern times". She is perhaps best known for her portrayal of women's lives against repressive expectations in Irish society. Her first novel, The Country Girls, was published in 1960 and became part of a trilogy that was banned in Ireland for their references to...