Woman's Hour

Ahead of the 30th anniversary of the Rwanda genocide on Sunday, April 7th, BBC journalist Victoria Uwonkunda returns to the counry for the first time after fleeing the genocide as a child in 1994, to find out how the country, and its people, are healing. Lots of our favourite pop - or rock - stars have had iconic looks to go along with their music. Suzi Ronson is the woman behind a hairstyle many...

An employment tribunal has ruled that describing an expectant mother as 'emotional' at work was discrimination. Described as a David and Goliath case, Nicola Hinds, who had been an account manager at Mitie, a FTSE 250 company, represented herself. The judge upheld her claims of pregnancy discrimination and constructive dismissal saying she was 'inexcusably' ignored by her boss and portrayed as 'ho...

In the run-up to local elections in England and Wales, the Local Government Alliance have called for the law to change around publicising local councillors' home addresses. This is after some councillors are warning that a recent upsurge of abuse and threats is forcing large numbers of women to quit their roles in local government. Emma Barnett speaks to viral lockdown star Jackie Weaver about bei...

Scotland's new hate crime law came in to effect yesterday. The Act creates a crime of "stirring up hatred" relating to age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity or being intersex. To discuss the concerns some women have Emma Barnett is joined by Susan Smith, co-director of the group For Women Scotland, and The Times journalist John Boothman. A new play at the Hampstead Th...

From Beyoncé's new country album to Shania headlining Glastonbury, country music is reaching new heights of popularity. Who are the women leading the charge, who are the icons who inspired them, and how many barriers are still left to be broken? We speak to one of its biggest female stars, Carly Pearce, who went from working at Dollywood aged 16 to becoming a Grammy and three-time Country Music As...

Model turned TV personality Katie Price joins Clare McDonnell to talk about her views on young women getting cosmetic surgery, after having several procedures herself. It’s 60 years since the first Biba shop opened and the Fashion and Textile Museum in London have just launched a new exhibition: The Biba Story - 1964-1975. On until September, it explores how the fashion phenomenon blossomed to bec...

Model turned TV personality Katie Price joins Clare McDonnell to talk about her views on young women getting cosmetic surgery, after having several procedures herself. Today marks ten years since the first marriages of lesbian couples in England & Wales. We speak to women impacted by this change in law, and what being able to marry in a same-sex couple - rather than have a civil partnership -...

Nearly one in five teachers working in England has been hit by a pupil, according to a new BBC commissioned survey of 9,000 teachers. The survey, gathered between February and March this year, also found that 15% of secondary school teachers say they have experienced sexual harassment from a pupil when working at a school. The teacher workforce is predominantly female, 76% of teachers are women. N...

The leader of the Taliban has declared on state television that women who commit adultery will be stoned to death. Nuala McGovern speaks to the former deputy speaker of the Afghan Parliament, Fawzia Koofi. We look at the legacy of children's TV executive Kay Benbow, hailed as “Queen of the Beebies”, who has died with historian Dr Emily Baughan and producer Anne Wood. Our reporter Jo Morris talks t...

Killed Women is a group formed of relatives of women who were murdered in domestic abuse situations. They are campaigning to get the minimum sentence for domestic homicide raised, so it’s the same as if the victim was killed on the street. Julie Devey, a member of Killed Women whose daughter Poppy was stabbed to death in bed, joins Nuala McGovern alongside Clare Ward KC, who led last year’s indepe...

Described as a grim portrayal of human nature, Mothers’ Instinct is a film about the darker side of maternal love. Academy Award-winning actresses Jessica Chastain and Anne Hathaway play best friends raising sons of the same age in the same neighbourhood. The psychological thriller follows their apparently picture-perfect life in Sixties suburbia. The two friends in real life join Nuala McGovern t...

Dame Laura Kenny, Britain's most decorated female Olympian, talks to Emma Barnett about her sporting career, motherhood and her decision to quit cycling. Friday’s Woman’s Hour came live from Doncaster which came bottom of one league table for opportunities for women entrepreneurs in the UK last year, according to the website money.co.uk which analysed data from the Office for National Statistics....

Woman’s Hour is joined by BBC Radio Sheffield in Doncaster for a special live panel show to find out how to be a successful female entrepreneur. Woman’s Hour presenter Anita Rani and BBC Sheffield presenter Paulette Edwards talk to local business women and experts about how to start and sustain a thriving business. They investigate how the stubborn barriers of funding, childcare and confidence are...

A long-awaited report on how women born in the 1950s were affected by increases to their retirement age - the so-called WASPI women, which stands for women against state pension inequality - has been published today. It recommends compensation and says the Department for Work and Pensions failed to adequately inform the women affected. Emma Barnett hears from Steve Webb, former pensions minister f...

On 27 February, Emma Barnett spoke to Zoe Clark-Coates, who runs the baby loss and bereavement charity The Mariposa Trust, about her campaign for baby loss certificates. They were introduced in England in February for parents who’ve lost a baby before 24 weeks of pregnancy. Emma shares her own story and also speaks to a woman who’s decided it’s not for her, and another who applied straight away an...

The Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves is today delivering a speech in which she’ll promise to ‘reform the Treasury’. If Labour were to win the next General Election, she would be the first female Chancellor the UK has seen. But what would her economic plans mean for women? And how do they compare to the current government’s? Economic Adviser Vicky Pryce and Journalist Lucy Fisher join Emma Barnett t...

Dame Laura Kenny, Britain's most decorated female Olympian, talks to Emma Barnett about her sporting career, motherhood and her decision to quit cycling. Are we staying in more since the pandemic? We talk to Kate Nicholls OBE, CEO of UK Hospitality, and Ellen Scott, Acting Digital Content Director at Stylist Magazine. Our pornography series continues with 'Elaine', a woman in her late 60s who's wo...

Cara Dillon won the All Ireland singing trophy aged only 14 and has gone on to receive countless awards and accolades including Album Of The Year at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. She has worked for Disney – singing the title song to the animated movie Tinkerbell and the Great Fairy Rescue, and topped the charts with dance remixes. She joins Emma to discuss her book and a new album – Coming Home – i...

As part of our ongoing series on pornography and how it’s shaping our relationships, we’ve heard from many of our female listeners whose attitudes and feelings towards porn vary greatly. Men are still the major consumers and producers of porn, so today we hear from some of them. Clare McDonnell is joined by the Times journalist Sean Russell, a man in his 30s, and two listeners: Jake, who is in his...

Folk singer Cara Dillon joins Emma Barnett to discuss her book and a new album – Coming Home – which explores themes of family, identity and home. Host of the UK’s first ever maths summit, mathmetician Anne-Marie Imafidon talks about hosting the UK's first ever maths summit and the importance of the subject for business. Seven out of 10 candidates who've been selected to stand for the Conservative...

A new law will be introduced in the House of Commons at lunchtime today to clear the names of the hundreds of sub-postmasters wrongly convicted for theft and false accounting. To discuss what this means Emma Barnett is joined by Jo Hamilton, a former post sub-master who was wrongly charged with stealing £36,000 from the Hampshire village post office she ran and BBC Economics Correspondent Andy Ver...

A group of mums called Mothers' Manifesto are on day three of a five-day hunger strike in front of Parliament. They’re trying to draw attention to food insecurity and the plight of mums who have to go without food to ensure their children can eat. Today they’re meeting MPs to campaign for universal free school meals. Organiser Emma Hopkins tells Emma Barnett what they’ll be asking for. A former da...

For the first time, four mums are speaking out about what it was like to be at the centre of a conspiracy that went viral, even reaching the USA. Accused: The Hampstead Paedophile Hoax is a new documentary that looks at what happened to them. Director Emily Turner and mum ‘Anna’ (not her real name) join Emma Barnett to talk about why they wanted to speak out and share this story. The photograph gr...

The South London singer-songwriter Raye joins Emma Barnett following her record-breaking six wins at the Brit awards last weekend. Raye tells us about her grandma Agatha who joined her on stage after winning Best Album for My 21st Century Blues. She also talks about being a woman in the music industry and the strength she has found from fellow female musician Charli XCX. A new documentary, Copa 71...

A new documentary, Copa 71, follows the trailblazing women who headed to Mexico for an unofficial Women's World Cup in 1971. Woman's football had been banned in many countries including the UK for 50 years. Unperturbed 6 teams gathered and played in front of crowds of 100,000 fans. One of those players, Chris Lockwood joins Anita Rani alongside co-director of the film Rachel Ramsay. On Internation...