Woman's Hour

England goalkeeper Mary Earps has been voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year. She was a big part of the Lionesses' win at the Euros in 2022 and was named goalkeeper of the tournament in this year's World Cup. But back in 2019 she was ready to quit the game. Jessica Creighton speaks to Rebecca Myers from the The Sunday Times about Earps' bumpy road to success. Kelly Simmons has recently left the...

Kirsty Wark joins Emma Barnett to talk about stepping down from Newsnight after 30 years; what she’s planning to fill the extra time with and she also shares some Christmas cooking tips. A new book, A Heart Afire, paints a picture of paediatrician Helen Taussig who dedicated her life to looking after children with heart defects. We hear from author Patricia Meisol. We look at the issues of "workpl...

23-year-old Gracie Spinks was killed by a man who she had reported to the police for stalking her. The inquest into her death reported several failures by Derbyshire Police in how her case was handled. Now, her parents, Richard Spinks and Alison Ward, are campaigning for Gracie’s Law, which would ensure better training for police officers around stalking, and the appointment of independent stalkin...

Imelda Staunton has played Queen Elizabeth II for the last two series of television drama The Crown. As the final episodes are released this week, she joins us to discuss playing the monarch, and what it’s been like to take on this role since Her Majesty died. How could people step in safely if they see a woman being harassed in public? Former police officer Graham Goulden and criminologist Molly...

The government is today unveiling the first ever national Kinship Care strategy, aiming to bring more awareness and more money to family members looking after children that aren’t theirs. Kinship care is when a child lives full time, or most of the time, with a relative, be it grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, or someone in the wider family network, because their own parents can’t care for th...

The National Crime Agency has warned parents that Facebook and Instagram are now a danger to children. That’s after Meta, the parent company of the social media sites, made the decision to introduce encrypted messaging. The BBC’s Technology Editor Zoe Kleinman and online safety expert John Carr join Emma Barnett to discuss. Bafta award-winning actor Sheridan Smith has said that she regrets the tat...

How could people step in safely if they see a woman being harassed in public? Former police officer Graham Goulden and criminologist Molly Ackhurst tell Emma Barnett how bystanders can protect themselves while helping others. Imelda Staunton has played Queen Elizabeth II for the last two series of television drama The Crown. She joined us before she started the role, in 2021, to talk about how she...

Leading scientists are calling for a change in the law to help IVF patients donate unused embryos to biomedical research after a collapse in donations over the past 15 years. Emma Barnett talks to Professor of Reproductive Physiology at Cambridge University Kathy Niakan and Clare Ettinghausen from the UK's fertility regulator, the HFEA. The new play Glacier is a dark and poignant festive comedy. I...

Israel has accused the United Nations of moving too slowly to respond to accounts that Hamas carried out widespread sexual violence against women in the October 7th brutal attack on Israel. Christina Lamb, Chief Foreign Correspondent for the Sunday Times, has brought the details of this part of the attacks to light joins Emma Barnett. Mandy Abramson runs a bridal shop in Skipton in North Yorkshire...

An Ofsted inspection "contributed" to the death of head teacher Ruth Perry. That’s the conclusion of senior coroner Heidi Connor. This is the first time Ofsted has been listed as a contributing factor in the death of a head teacher. Ruth Perry had been head of Caversham Primary School in Berkshire for 13 years when she took her own life in January, ahead of an inspection report being made public w...

An Ofsted inspection "contributed" to the death of headteacher Ruth Perry. That’s the conclusion of senior coroner Heidi Connor. This is the first time Ofsted has been listed as a contributing factor in the death of a head teacher. Ofsted are yet to comment on the verdict. Ruth Perry had been head of Caversham Primary School in Berkshire for 13 years when she took her own life in January, ahead of...

Marin Alsop is one of the most famous conductors in the world. Ten years ago, she became the first woman to conduct the Last Night of the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall. Now she is giving the European premiere of Too Hot To Handel: The Gospel Messiah!, a reimagining of Handel’s Messiah Marin tells Hayley Hassell why she wanted to rework the piece, and looks back over her illustrious career as a co...

Academy Award-winning actor Julianne Moore plays Gracie Atherton-Yoo in Todd Haynes’ newest film, May December. The film tells the story of a married couple who were at the centre of a notorious tabloid relationship, and the actress doing research on them for a film about their past. Julianne joins Krupa to talk about the controversies within the film, and how it’s already been tipped for the Osca...

There are big changes afoot for women’s football. Former England Lioness Karen Carney published a review into the women’s domestic game over the summer and the Government has just announced that it will back all the findings from her report. That includes making the top two tiers professional and giving the sport a dedicated broadcast slot. Baroness Sue Campbell, director of women's football at th...

A man has been convicted in court of harassing the Labour MP Stella Creasy. This harassment included reporting her to social services as an 'unfit mother'. A safeguarding review quickly cleared Stella Creasy – but the complaint cannot be removed from her records. Today, she is tabling an amendment to the Victims and Prisoners Bill, to allow councils to delete baseless complaints. Stella Creasy spe...

Research by the charity Stamma shows that 8% of children will start stuttering at some point. Our listener Geri, a mother who’s son has a stammer, got in touch with Woman’s Hour and asked us to discuss the topic. Kirsten Howells from Stamma, Tiktok influencer Jessie Yendle and Geri join Claire McDonnell to share their own experiences and advice. Actor Emily Blunt found fame as the scene-stealing a...

In Adura Onashile’s debut film, Girl, mother Grace and daughter Ama have recently arrived in Glasgow and have created a beautiful cocoon for themselves in a council block apartment. But Grace carries deep trauma from her past, and she finds it exceptionally difficult to watch her daughter go out into the world alone. Director Adura Onashile tells Anita why she emphasised the beauty of urban povert...

Actor Emily Blunt found fame as the scene-stealing assistant in The Devil Wears Prada, and has since starred in many films including Mary Poppins Returns and A Quiet Place with her real-life husband John Krasinski. She is also in one of this year’s biggest cinematic hits, Oppenheimer. As Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster about the father of the atomic bomb is released on ultra-HD DVD and Blu-ray, Em...

Last year's landmark Whyte Review into gymnastics detailed 'systemic issues' of physical and emotional abuse between 2008 and 2020. Today, British Gymnastics has for the first time introduced safeguarding policies relating to weighing, hydration and academic education, which they say are designed to better protect the welfare of gymnasts, but do they go far enough? Clare speaks to David Hart, perf...

Research by the charity Stamma shows that 8% of children will start stuttering at some point. Our listener Geri, a mother who’s son has a stammer, got in touch with Woman’s Hour and asked us to discuss the topic. Kirsten Howells from Stamma, Tiktokker Jessie Yendle and Geri join Claire McDonnell to share their own experiences and advice. In 2013 Benita Alexander was working as a producer at NBC in...

Award-winning actor Dame Harriet Walter is back on stage at the National Theatre in Federico Lorca’s newly-adapted The House of Bernada Alba. After a break of seven years playing assorted television roles including ‘difficult’ mothers in Succession and Ted Lasso, she’s back treading the boards and once again playing a formidable matriarch. She joins Clare McDonnell in the studio to talk about her...

For more than two decades, Sharon Osbourne has been a regular feature on our screens. She came to prominence while appearing with her husband Ozzy on The Osbournes - a reality television show on MTV, which followed the family's daily life. She later became a talent show judge on television programmes such as the X Factor and America's Got Talent. She joins Anita Rani to discuss her forthcoming the...

For more than two decades, Sharon Osbourne has been a regular feature on our screens. She came to prominence while appearing with her husband Ozzy on The Osbournes - a reality television show on MTV, which followed the family's daily life. She later became a talent show judge on television programmes such as the X Factor and America's Got Talent. She joins Anita Rani to discuss her forthcoming the...

Actor Jodie Whittaker joins Woman’s Hour to talk about her role in a new Australian six part drama called One Night. Shot in New South Wales the story unfolds around three women from a coastal community whose reunion after many years apart is intensified by the publishing of a novel based on their lives. The central theme being the rape of Jodie’s character Tess twenty years previously and the imp...

Another Body is an award-winning documentary which follows US engineering student, Taylor, in her search for answers and justice after she discovers deepfake pornography of herself circulating online. Ahead of its release in the UK, one of the documentary's directors, Sophie Compton joins Emma to discuss why she decided to make this documentary, what she found and why she used deepfake technology...