Woman's Hour

Jess Folley has been a popstar for almost a decade and she's still only 22. At 14 she won The Voice Kids and later triumphed on X Factor: The Band, with pop group RLY. Since then she's been carving out a career as a songwriter and releasing music under her own name. Jess tells Datshiane Navanayagam about stepping into the corset and heels made famous by Christina Aguilera to play the lead role of...

Sister Bliss started out DJing on London’s gay club scene, before co-founding Faithless in 1995 and became one of the few women of her generation to help shape UK dance culture. Faithless have sold more than 20 million albums and amassed close to a billion streams. 30 years on from the hit dance anthem Insomnia, she joins Nuala McGovern to discuss their latest album - Champion Sound. Too many reco...

If you knew the world was about to end, what would you do? That’s the dilemma Karen Gillan’s character faces in new film, The Life of Chuck, in which she stars opposite Chiwetel Ejiofor. Karen tells Nuala McGovern about her latest role, her evolving relationship with the Marvel films and her hope to return to directing. 'This report must act as a line in the sand…it should be read as a snapshot of...

As Mounjaro increases its prices, there are fears that more women will turn to black market drugs. Nuala McGovern talks to pharmacist Sehar Shahid about how easy it is to swap brands of the weight loss drug, and to Jeanie Annan-Lewin, who buys the medicine privately, about whether she will still be able to afford it. If you pop into a nail bar in a big city in the UK, you may notice the technician...

Four years after Taliban fighters retook the capital Kabul on 15 August 2021, UN Women, the gender equality agency, is warning that the situation for women and girls in Afghanistan is increasingly untenable. They say without urgent action, this untenable reality will become normalised and women and girls will be fully excluded. To discuss further Anita Rani was joined by Fawzia Koofi, former deput...

Four years after Taliban fighters retook the capital Kabul on 15 August 2021, UN Women, the gender equality agency, is warning that the situation for women and girls in Afghanistan is increasingly untenable. They say without urgent action, this untenable reality will become normalised and women and girls will be fully excluded. To discuss further Anita Rani is joined by Fawzia Koofi, former deputy...

Rooprit Gill ran the Post Office in Handsworth, Birmingham, a business started by her father. But that came to an end when, like hundreds of other postmasters and mistresses, she was falsely accused of stealing money due to a faulty Post Office computer system. Rooprit — known as Roopie — joins Anita Rani on her first day back in the family Post Office after more than a decade. As rugby fans acros...

As a heatwave grips the UK, we ask whether soaring temperatures impact women differently to men and what should be done about it. Professor Mike Tipton, Professor of Human and Applied Physiology at the University of Portsmouth, joins Nuala McGovern to explain. The author Paula Sutton has written her second novel, The Body in the Kitchen Garden. The interiors stylist and TV and social media persona...

The chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing says their members are facing "abhorrent" levels of violence in accident and emergency departments. Nicola Ranger tells Nuala McGovern that their Freedom of Information request to hospital trusts in England found that there were more than 4,000 incidences of physical violence against staff in 2024, almost double the amount five years ago. She bel...

England goalkeeper and Lionesses legend Hannah Hampton joins Nuala McGovern on Woman's Hour fresh from winning the UEFA European Women's Championship. Born with a serious eye condition, doctors told her she should never play football. She came into the recent Euros with questions over her ability to fill the gloves of recently retired Mary Earps. To add to that, she revealed her grandfather had di...

What happens when a woman earns more than her partner, or is the sole earner in a household? For some couples, it’s a practical arrangement that works well. For others, it can bring unexpected tensions, challenging traditional ideas about gender, identity and power. Listener Karla emailed the programme to say that she wanted to talk about what it means to be a female breadwinner. She joined Anita...

It's the final day of Woman's Hour's Listener Week, where all the topics in the programme have been decided by YOU! Listener Brenda wrote in about her situation: “I would love to hear you talking about a mother's play-book or instruction manual for getting through cancer. I would love to know how others are doing it.” Ailsa McDonagh also got in touch after an on-air shout out. She has been living...

Listener Week continues on Woman's Hour as we bring your stories, ideas and the issues you want to hear about to the air. What happens when a woman earns more than her partner, or is the sole earner in a household? For some couples, it’s a practical arrangement that works well. For others, it can bring unexpected tensions, challenging traditional ideas about gender, identity and power. Listener Ka...

Motor Neurone Disease is a condition that affects nerves found in the brain and spinal cord which tell our muscles what to do. The disease is life shortening and there is no cure. One listener, Diana Keys, was diagnosed in May 2023. She tells us about her experience and asks why does representation of MND in the media skew so heavily towards men? Diana is joined by Dame Pamela Shaw, an academic ne...

Listener Week continues on Woman's Hour as we bring your stories, ideas and the issues you want to hear about to the air. Carola got in touch to ask if we could find out more about the benefits of testosterone for post-menopausal women. Dr Joyce Harper, Professor of Reproductive Science at the Institute for Women’s Health at University College London, joins Nuala McGovern to discuss the evidence....

To kick this week off, we heard from listener Melanie Williams. Melanie is forever having to adjust her seatbelt because of her bust size. She worries if she were to be in an accident she would end up choking or being strangled by her seatbelt rather than protected by it. Melanie joins Nuala McGovern to discuss, along with motoring journalist Maria McCarthy who has been looking into the issue. How...

The Lionesses have made history by becoming the first England football squad to win a major trophy on foreign soil, they successfully defended their European title in Basel last night. The match went to extra time and penalties - Clare McDonnell got reaction and reflection from guests including 5Live commentator Vicki Sparks, BBC Sport correspondent Katie Gornall, chief executive of the Women's Pr...

Hattie Williams lost her mother when she was 18 years old leaving her feeling anchorless and needing to embark on a self-exploratory journey to recover some stability. When she experienced motherhood, she felt that she had achieved that. She tells Anita Rani how these experiences inspired her first novel, Bitter Sweet, which she wrote on her maternity leave. The US has announced fresh tariffs on m...

The Women’s Open begins at Royal Porthcawl on the south coast of Wales where over the next four days the biggest names in women's golf will compete to win the fifth and final major of the year. Datshiane Navanayagam is joined by The Telegraph's golf correspondent James Corrigan. Actor Michelle Collins, best known as Cindy Beale in the BBC’s EastEnders, makes her Edinburgh Festival Fringe debut in...

The Lionesses have made history by becoming the first England football squad to win a major trophy on foreign soil, they successfully defended their European title in Basel last night. The match went to extra time and penalties - Clare McDonnell gets reaction and reflection from guests including 5Live commentator Vicki Sparks, BBC Sport correspondent Katie Gornall, chief executive of the Women's P...

The BBC has found that five women who were exploited by so-called grooming gangs in Rotherham as children say they were also abused by police officers in the town at the time. One woman says she was raped repeatedly in a marked police car, and threatened with being handed back to the gang if she didn't comply. The BBC's Ed Thomas brings us the story and Clare McDonnell hears from Professor Alexis...

Lynda La Plante joins Clare McDonnell to discuss her latest novel, The Scene of the Crime, which follows CSI Jessica Russell and her team as they investigate a high-profile robbery and assault in East London. Now in her eighties, the prolific author talks about the in-depth research behind her writing and what keeps her motivated to write. The family and friends of Simone White who died from alcoh...

Baroness Margaret Hodge joined Nuala McGovern to talk about why she thinks routine mammograms should be extended to women over 70. The former Labour MP was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 80. She requested a mammogram after realising she hadn’t been invited to have one in nearly a decade. Routine screening is currently only available in the UK for women aged 50-70. Dame Imelda Staunton,...

In July Woman's Hour took a deep dive into the world of women and gaming. It’s an industry worth more than music, TV and film combined, with women making up almost half of gaming audiences. So we explored all aspects of it by hearing from gamers, creators, leaders and gamechangers in the industry. Nuala McGovern discussed the current situation for women with games reporter Frankie Ward and Twitch...

From today, websites operating in the UK with pornographic content must ‘robustly’ age-check users. Under the Online Safety Act, platforms must protect young people from encountering harmful content relating to suicide, self-harm, eating disorders and pornography. Kylie discusses the issues with the BBC’s senior technology reporter Graham Fraser and Head of Policy and Public Affairs at CEASE, Gemm...