Woman's Hour

Multiple protests have been taking place in Delhi over the past week. Hundreds of women have come together in India's capital to protest against a series of sexual assaults - most recently the alleged gang-rape of a 17-year-old near Delhi university's campus. Anita speaks to the BBC's South Asia correspondent Azadeh Moshiri. The manufacturers of a new weight loss drug are warning women to beware o...

New York state prosecutors say they will reopen a criminal inquiry into the alleged rape of a woman at Cornell University in 2024. The woman, referred to in court documents as Jane Doe, alleges in her lawsuit that seven men from Cornell's Chi Phi fraternity chapter assaulted her in an incident involving alcohol and the drug ketamine. The case was investigated by university police but will now go b...

The Prime Minister Andy Burnham has announced an end to the triple lock for the state pension from 2030, and it’s thought that women could be most affected by the proposed changes. Kylie Pentalow is joined by consumer finance expert Sarah Pennells to explain what the news could mean for women’s pensions. The Women’s Art Collection at Murray Edwards College in Cambridge is marking 40 years since it...

Many parents will have just experienced the departure of their children from the family home as they head for university, turning once-bustling households into so-called 'empty nests'. It can leave those left behind feeling unsettled and cut adrift. Denise Turner, Professor of Social Work at the University of Hertfordshire, is researching the impact this life transition has on parents. She joins K...

Ten NHS staff have been removed from duty or suspended after accessing the medical records of three-year-old Noah Woods, without authorisation. A major search for Noah was carried out in the village of Brantham, Suffolk, after the child went missing on 15 September. His body was found the next day in a nearby pond by police divers. An urgent investigation has been launched by East Suffolk and Nort...

Hollywood star Catherine Zeta-Jones joined Nuala McGovern to talk about her new action thriller series, Kill Jackie and taking on one of her most formidable roles yet, not least because she's finally on screen speaking in a Welsh accent. For months Lucy Godley documented the abuse she suffered at the hands of her former partner. Secretly, she photographed injuries, gathered evidence and sent it to...

What is the impact of the Durham breast cancer scandal on the women affected? It's been announced that 4,500 patients will have their medical records reviewed. There has been a range of issues including some women who had unnecessary mastectomies. Health correspondent Sharon Barbour and Denise Howarth from the Pink Justice Campaign join Anita Rani to discuss. ‘Donate to charity shops as if you’re...

Naomi Alderman is an award-winning novelist, broadcaster, TV producer and videogames creator. Her latest novel The Strangers blends memoir and speculative fiction to explore grief, identity and our search for meaning when our lives are uprooted by events out of our control. Naomi joins Anita to discuss why stories can sometimes help us navigate loss more powerfully than facts, and whether the myst...

Hollywood star Catherine Zeta-Jones joins Nuala McGovern to talk about her new action thriller series, Kill Jackie and taking on one of her most formidable roles yet, not least because she's finally on screen speaking in a Welsh accent. She joins Nuala live in the studio. Nearly 30 years after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, 'Swan Song: Diana, My Sister' Earl Spencer recounts his life with...

Author Liane Moriarty’s bestselling novel Big Little Lies followed the lives of a group of women in the affluent Sydney suburbs, exploring some dark themes beneath the suburban façade. It was made into a popular TV drama starring Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman and Zoë Kravitz. Now Liane has written a sequel, Big Little Truths, which rejoins the women 10 years later. She talks to presenter Nuala...

For months Lucy Godley documented the abuse she suffered at the hands of her former partner. Secretly, she photographed injuries, gathered evidence and sent it to the one person she trusted to keep it safe: her mum, Sharon. The evidence would ultimately help secure his conviction and a 23-year prison sentence. For the first time, Lucy Godley and her mother Sharon join Nuala McGovern to tell their...

Dame Meera Syal is a multi-award winning writer and actor, and a name and face very familiar to many of us having graced our screens for decades now. She's just published her first memoir and is also currently on stage in The Children at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre in London. With her trademark warmth and humour she joined Anita Rani in the studio. More than 1,000 children have died in a measles...

Georgia Hunter Bell rediscovered her teenage love of running during lockdown, and two years later won Team GB a Bronze medal in the 1,500m at the Paris Olympics, at the age of 30. This year she's won gold medals at the World Indoor Championships, the Commonwealth Games and the European Championships - and tonight she's competing in Athlos, a brand new all-female track and field event taking place...

Dame Meera Syal is a multi-award winning writer and actor, and a name and face very familiar to many of us having graced our screens for decades now. She's just published her first memoir and is also currently on stage in The Children at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre in London. With her trademark warmth and humour she joins Anita Rani in the studio. A breakthrough breast cancer drug, Enhertu, has...

A new film adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility will be released in cinemas on Friday 25 September. Austen's first published novel tells the story of the Dashwood sisters, who are forced to leave their family estate after their father's death and move to a cottage in rural Devonshire. More than 200 years after its original publication, the story is returning to the big screen. The pro...

A new advert featuring the American actress Sydney Sweeney has sparked a backlash from some female athletes for sexualising women’s sport. The advert, for the sports betting company Novig - a company in which Sweeney has a financial stake - shows her in revealing poses with a series of sporting props. So does the advert undermine the progress women’s sport has made in moving away from the sexualis...

Is artificial intelligence more likely to disadvantage women at work? Women make up more than 60% of the UK’s administrative workforce – jobs considered among those most exposed to AI. As unions debate how the technology could affect women’s employment, Nuala McGovern hears from AI consultant Ella Wicks and Bethan, who was replaced in a previous administrative role by an AI tool, about what AI cou...

The government has announced plans to require smartphones and tablets to block people from taking, sharing or viewing nude images by default, with adults able to switch the protection off after verifying their age. BBC Senior Technology Reporter Chris Vallance explains how it could work, while Soma Sara, founder of sexual violence campaign group, Everyone’s Invited, tells us if it could protect yo...

More than 50 children's charities and parent organisations have written to the Prime Minister, warning that disabled children are being overlooked in the Government's planned reforms to social care. Kylie Pentelow is joined by Anna Bird, Chair of the Disabled Children's Partnership and Chief Executive of the charity Contact to tell us more. The latest artwork for London's iconic Fourth Plinth has...

The number of high earning parents turning down pay rises in order to keep free childcare is on the rise. Research from the University of Warwick and the London School of Economics estimates that by 2030, 12,000 parents will tactically keep their income below £100,000 in order to avoid the 'tax trap.' Kylie Pentelow speaks to Claer Barrett, Consumer Editor at the Financial Times. Emily McBride’s d...

The government has announced plans to require smartphones and tablets to block people from taking, sharing or viewing nude images by default, with adults able to switch the protection off after verifying their age. BBC Senior Technology Reporter Chris Vallance explains how it could work, while Soma Sara, founder of sexual violence campaign group, Everyone’s Invited, tells us if it could protect yo...

High-profile Reform UK member and former cabinet minister Nadine Dorris was alerted by the police that a deepfake pornographic image had been made of her. She joins Nuala to discuss the impact this has had on her and her work on the Online Safety Act when she was in Government, as well as her thoughts on the recent row over funding for Reform. It’s Radio 2 in the Park this weekend, and Nuala speak...

The Irish boxer Katie Taylor sold out Croke Park in Dublin on Saturday night. More than eighty thousand people turned out to see Katie perform one last spectacular time before she retires. Katie is considered by many as Ireland's greatest athlete and one of the greatest female boxers of all time. Nuala McGovern discusses Katie's career with Ireland's first female world boxing champion Deidre Gogar...

The award-winning singer-songwriter and actress Natalie Imbruglia first hit our screens in the early 1990s, playing the role of Beth Brennan in the Australian soap Neighbours. Her 1997 debut single Torn quickly became a worldwide hit, and she’s sold more than 10 million albums. Her latest album, Algorithm, is out now. Natalie joins Nuala McGovern to discuss some of its themes, including doom scrol...

Tomorrow the Sussex Maternity Review will launch in Brighton to examine more than 1,000 cases spanning over a decade. The independent review's chair, the former midwife Donna Ockenden, will meet with families who have been affected by poor maternity care in the University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust. Bereaved mothers, Hannah Robotham and Katie Fowler join presenter Clare McDonnell to sha...