Woman's Hour

On Monday, the TV journalist Daisy Goodwin accused the Tory mayoral candidate Daniel Korski of groping her breast during a meeting at No 10 in 2013. He has denied the allegation "in the strongest possible terms". She has now contacted the Cabinet Office asking to make a formal complaint. Nuala speaks to the assistant editor of The Spectator, Isabel Hardman for her take on the situation. Ensuring f...

The actress Archie Panjabi made her film debut in East is East and then went on to play Pinky in Bend it Like Beckham. She won the Primetime Emmy Award in 2010 for Outstanding Supporting Actress in “The Good Wife”. She joins Nuala to discuss her latest role in Hijack, a thriller that follows the journey of a hijacked plane in real time across seven hours and seven episodes. The English Cricket Boa...

The all-female motor racing championship, the W Series, has goneinto administration. The series was founded in 2019 in response to the lack of female representation at the highest levels of the sport - Formula 1 has not had a female driver compete in a race since 1976. The W Series saw three seasons of racing, where it showcased the talents of racers such as three time champion Jamie Chadwick, Ali...

On Thursday, the UK celebrated the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the Empire Windrush which made the 5,000 mile journey from the Caribbean to England in 1948. The passengers were mainly made up of ex-servicemen along with over 200 bold, pioneering women. Veteran nurse and founder of the Windrush Cymru Elders, Roma Taylor, former nurse Allyson Williams and journalist Amina Taylor join Nuala to...

For Woman's Hour's first ever live broadcast from Worthy Farm Anita is joined by BBC 6 Music's Jamz Supernova. Jamz gives Anita her top tips and talks us through the women she's most excited to see perform this year. Emily Eavis has been co-organising Glastonbury since 1999, working alongside her father and founder of the festival, Michael Eavis. Over the years, she's booked some of the biggest na...

As visitors walk through the doors of the newly reopened National Portrait Gallery in London, they will see 45 hand-drawn portraits of women by British artist Tracey Emin, that have been cast in bronze. They are said to represent every woman. Tracey speaks to Krupa Padhy about her creative process and what she hopes people will take away from the images. Society sets us up to fail, according to th...

Nuala speaks to a woman who discovered by chance that her fiancé was secretly filming her naked in the home they shared. Victoria, not her real name, reported him to the police and he later pleaded guilty and was convicted on voyeurism charges. Last month she also won £97,000 in compensation, some of which she is aiming to put towards trying to remove the images he made of her without her consent...

Nuala McGovern talks to Rosa Abraham & Rituparna Chakraborty about the fact that nearly half of the population in India is female, but the number of working women has fallen to record lows. We hear how new research shows napping is good for us and helps our brain with Dr Ivana Rosenzweig and Dr Maja Schaedel. The Windrush scandal began to surface in 2017 after it emerged that hundreds of Commo...

Comedian Bridget Christie’s stand-up has been credited with putting the funny in feminism. You might know her from Taskmaster or Ghosts. Now she’s created and stars in a comedy drama called The Change, which starts this week on Channel 4. She plays Linda, a woman who turns 50, discovers she’s menopausal and abandons her family to go off and find herself in the Forest of Dean. Bridget joins Nuala i...

Thousands of people gathered together on Thursday night to attend a vigil for those killed in the Nottingham attacks. The mothers of the murdered teenagers Grace O’Malley Kumar and Barnaby Webber both paid tribute to their children. Clare speaks to another mother who lost her child to murder, Lisa Squire. Dr Laura Flexer, GP, emailed Woman’s Hour to ask the programme to talk about bone health, esp...

The actor Cate Blanchett celebrates the work and life of Glenda Jackson, who died this week. The mothers of Grace O'Malley Kumar and Barnaby Webber spoke about their loved ones at a public vigil in Nottingham. Lisa Squire's daughter Libby was murdered as she walked home from a night out. Did choosing to go public and share her emotions and pain with a wider audience help her deal with her grief? F...

Scientists have created synthetic human embryos using stem cells that sidestep the need for eggs or sperm. The news was presented yesterday at the International Society for Stem Cell Research’s annual meeting and the full details will be published at a later date. This could have a real impact on understanding IVF and early miscarriages. Krupa speaks to the Guardian journalist who broke the story,...

NHS England is going to open 10 new clinics this year to deal with childhood obesity. The clinics will provide "intensive" support to thousands of children with severe obesity and their families aged between two and 18. We know that mothers are on the frontline with managing doctors' appointment and family's health issues. So are these clinics the answer? Nuala speaks to Tam Fry, the Chair of the...

Is current abortion legislation fit for purpose? It's a question debated this morning following the conviction and sentencing of Carla Foster for inducing an abortion outside the legal time limit using pills at home. Nuala is joined by barrister, Harriet Johnson and Ruth Rawlings from CBR UK, Centre for Bioethical Reform which seeks to challenge views on abortion. Dr Laura Flexer, a GP, emailed Wo...

The Scout Association is not doing enough to protect and safeguard children from child abuse, that’s according to two young women who have set up a website which launches tomorrow (Tuesday) asking for people to share their own testimonies of abuse. They are also calling on the Government as well as the Scout Association to do more. On Tuesday BBC Radio 4’s File on Four investigates the Scouts hand...

Facebook has removed an advert for a sanitary towel product because it referenced the words Vagina, Vulva and Clitoris. It's the latest in a long line of period ads that have caused a stir. So what is and isn't appropriate when it comes to period adverts? Chella Quint, the founder of Period Positive, a menstruation education advisor and author and Alice Enders, Director of Research at Enders Analy...

This Wimbledon will be the first in 30 years without the familiar presence of Sue Barker. Last year she stepped down from hosting the tennis tournament that she herself played in. In Sue's memoir, Calling the Shots, she recounts first reaching number three in the world tennis rankings, then becoming one of the most familiar faces of BBC sports broadcasting. She joins Krupa to talk about the highs...

The rescue efforts are continuing in Ukraine after Tuesday's breach of the Kakhovka dam. 30 communities along the Dnipro river have been flooded according to officials. Now the Red Cross has raised concerns that land-mines have been dislodged in the flooding. Kate Zhuzha is from Nova Kakhovka where the dam has collapsed and is the Founder of NGO Union of Help to Kherson in touch with people in the...

As a self confessed “silver spooner” who enjoyed a privileged upbringing Polly Toynbee talks to Nuala McGovern about her committed left wing "rabble rouser" ancestors and her own life long battle with the injustices of the British class system. In our series about narcissistic mothers we've heard a lot from daughters. Yesterday, a listener we are calling Bethany told her story. Her relationship wi...

Four-time Grammy award nominated singer Candi Staton has moved between several musical genres during of the course of her celebrated career – from soul, R&B, gospel and disco. However, dance music has always been her main groove with iconic tracks such as the multi-platinum 'You Got the Love' and her classic anthem 'Young Hearts Run Free'. It has recently been remixed by UK producer Benji La V...

The Sunday Times' Christina Lamb on the women involved in the war effort in Ukraine. We look at the trend of brides having their long hair cut into bobs before re-emerging with new hair at their wedding. Kyrelle Burton of Devon Wedding Hair, did her first mid-wedding chop for a bride last year. Molly Duane is the senior lawyer for the US-based Center for Reproductive Rights who are challenging Tex...

A woman who was stalked by her husband and then placed into witness protection with a new identity to escape him, says she feels like she's the one being punished. She's complained to the police about the way her case was handled after being told she failed an assessment and was no longer being supported by them in her new life. She spoke to our reporter Melanie Abbott, and says she felt completel...

Two female journalists in Iran are on trial for covering the death of 22 year old Mahsa Amini, the Kurdish-Iranian woman who died in custody last year sparking protests across the country and months of unrest and shocked the world. Mahsa was arrested and charged with not covering her hair properly and then reportedly so severely beaten she fell into a coma. Niloofar Homedi and Elaheh Mohammadi wer...

A woman who was stalked by her husband and then placed into witness protection with a new identity to escape him, says she feels like she's the one being punished. She's complained to the police about the way her case was handled after being told she failed an assessment and was no longer being supported by them in her new life. She spoke to our reporter Melanie Abbott, and says she felt completel...

When Rebecca Perry was growing up, she competed nationally and internationally as a trampolinist.  She went on to become a published poet and has now ventured into non-fiction with a beautifully written  memoir, On Trampolining.  She joins Nuala in the studio. A new report by the Trade Union Congress (TUC) has highlighted a gender pension gap between what men and women are living on in retirement....