Woman's Hour

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...

The Paris 2024 Olympics start this evening with the opening ceremony. It's the first time an equal number of men and women will compete in a summer Games. To discuss the sportswomen you should keep an eye out for, Anita Rani is joined by Jeanette Kwakye, a former Olympian herself and now BBC pundit, and also BBC Sport reporter Laura Scott. A new film, The Commandant’s Shadow, follows Hans Jürgen H...

The Paris 2024 Olympics start this evening with the opening ceremony. It's the first time an equal number of men and women will compete in a summer Games. To discuss the sportswomen you should keep an eye out for, Anita Rani is joined by Jeanette Kwakye, a former Olympian herself and now BBC pundit, and also BBC Sport reporter Laura Scott. Adoption England have described an ‘unprecedented’ decline...

Kamala Harris has spoken about making childcare and eldercare more affordable, securing universal paid maternity leave and signing into law a bill that would restore and protect the right to abortion. So could these policies win her female votes, and how does this fit in with her strategy to try and beat Trump in the US presidential election? Anita Rani speaks to Dr Leslie Vinjamuri, director of C...

Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign has been inspired by Charli XCX and her recent album release, brat. The link between the two is all over social media – but what does it all mean? Nuala McGovern is joined by former Editor-in-Chief of Vice and co-host of the Good Bad Billionaire podcast on BBC World Service to explain the trend, and columnist for The Times, Alice Thomson on Kamala Harris’ appea...

What makes women become whistleblowers? And what happens after they’ve brought wrongdoing to light? Nuala McGovern talks to lawyer-turned-author Megan Davis about her experience blowing the whistle on financial crime, how it inspired writing her new thriller Bay of Thieves, and how a whistle-blower can make the perfect character for crime fiction. When is it socially acceptable to bring your partn...

President Biden has bowed to pressure and made the decision to drop out of the US presidential race. He’s endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the potential Democrat Party nominee to run against Donald Trump – but is America ready for another female presidential nominee? Nuala McGovern is joined by Kelly Dittmar, Director of Research at the non-partisan Center for American Women and Politics a...

The Portuguese-Canadian singer-songwriter Nelly Furtado has sold more than 40 million records worldwide and won awards including a Grammy. Her upbeat, genre-defying pop music dominated the charts in the 2000s, from her break out hit I’m Like A Bird to her 2006 album Loose and its stand out hit Maneater. After finding that her music had been rediscovered by a whole new generation of fans on social...

Vula Malinga started out as one of the lead singers for the London Community Gospel Choir, before becoming a lead vocalist with Basement Jaxx and she has also collaborated with the likes of Adele, Dizzee Rascal and Beverley Knight. Tomorrow night Vula will don her flares and sequins as one of the soloists at the BBC Prom – Everybody Dance! The Sound of Disco, at the Royal Albert Hall. Along with t...

The Portuguese-Canadian singer-songwriter Nelly Furtado has sold more than 40 million records worldwide and won awards including a Grammy. Her upbeat, genre-defying pop music dominated the charts in the 2000s, from her break out hit I’m Like A Bird to her 2006 album Loose and its stand out hit Maneater. After finding that her music had been rediscovered by a whole new generation of fans on social...

Today, Woman's Hour comes live from Lord's Cricket Ground as England face New Zealand for the culmination of a five-match T20 International series. To talk us through the upcoming game we are joined by Ebony Rainford-Brent MBE. Ebony is a World Cup-winning cricketer, now turned presenter and pundit. We begin by looking at the grassroots game which is growing at a fast rate. We hear from girls at C...

One of the most iconic musicals of all time, Hello, Dolly!, has returned to the London Palladium, with Jerry Herman’s unforgettable score including Put On Your Sunday Clothes, Before the Parade Passes By, It Only Takes a Moment and Hello, Dolly! It’s a huge, no-expense-spared production, with a cast of 40, and the legendary Imelda Staunton as the witty and charming matchmaker Dolly Levi. Jenna Rus...

Former Old Bailey judge, Her Honour Wendy Joseph KC, lifts the lid on our legal system. Having worked in criminal courts for almost half a century, she is still asking: what is justice? She tells Nuala McGovern some of the ways women and children struggle through the legal system - and why she wanted to highlight these issues in her latest book, Rough Justice. Twisters – the sequel to 1996 disaste...

A record-breaking number of women MPs have been elected following Labour's win at the general election. It's also the first time in parliamentary history that the proportion of women elected is more than 40%. Harriet Harman, the now ex-Labour MP and former Mother of the House, gives her reaction. Three women who say they were the victims of a racial attack have had the charges of assault made agai...

Three women who were the victims of a racial attack have had the charges of assault made against them by their assailant discontinued by the CPS. Selma Taha, the executive director for advocacy group Southall Black Sisters, and Danae Thomas, two of the women, join Anita Rani to talk about what impact the charges being dropped has had, and how they’re hoping this might impact further action against...