Woman's Hour

The book Honey, Baby, Mine is a joint project of mother/daughter actors Diane Ladd, and Laura Dern. Working together is not unusual for these two as over decades they have taken their connection onto our screens but as fictional parent and child. Now 87 and 56, they have both had, and continue to have, critically-acclaimed careers with many character roles, gaining them numerous awards and nominat...

What happens when a woman famous for talking to people, and for her razor sharp wit, is left stranded on a desert island with just herself and a hermit crab for company? Author, comedian, broadcaster and mental health campaigner Ruby Wax decided to spend 10 days completely cut off from the modern world and other humans, and you can see the results on Channel 5 in Ruby Wax : Cast Away. She joins An...

What happens when a woman famous for her razor sharp wit is left stranded on a desert island with just her own company and a hermit crab called Spartacus? Author, broadcaster and mental health campaigner Ruby Wax joins Anita to explain why she decided to spend 10 days completely cut off from the modern world and other humans. The Prime Minister’s mother-in-law, Sudha Murty, has claimed that her da...

In 2018 the people of Ireland voted to repeal the 8th amendment and grant women access to safe and free abortions up to 12 weeks into pregnancy. Ireland was promised ‘excellent’ abortion services but what is the reality 5 years on? Yesterday an independent review of abortion services was released that proposed 10 major changes to legislation. Dr Deirdre Duffy, a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Lan...

As a ceasefire continues in Sudan we look at how the conflict in the country has impacted women. Nuala is joined by CNN Chief International Investigative Correspondent Nima Elbagir. Jo Hansford MBE has been described as the “best tinter on the planet”. She started off cutting hair in her parents’ front room and is now one of the most famous female names in the business with two salons, her own ran...

Stella Assange is the wife of Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, a whistle-blowing platform that publishes classified material provided by anonymous sources. He is currently being held in Belmarsh Prison pending extradition to the US, where he is wanted for 18 criminal charges related to obtaining and publishing classified information. Stella is leading a campaign to fight his extradition,...

It's been reported that a draft law that would recognise feminism as an extremist ideology is under consideration by Russia’s state duma - that's the lower chamber of parliament. Nuala asks the prominent women’s rights activist and opposition politician Alena Popova if this is a worrying time for feminists in the country. Yesterday BBC Radio 1's Adele Roberts ran the London Marathon and broke the...

A second woman has come forward alleging that she was raped by two male colleagues when she worked at the Confederation of British Industry. Anita Rani speaks to the Guardian journalist who uncovered the story, Anna Isaac. Is 'therapy speak' making us selfish? The language of the therapist’s couch has slowly seeped into everyday life, particularly online where words like ‘boundaries’, ‘self-care’...

Academy award-winner Rachel Weisz joins Anita Rani to talk about her new series Dead Ringers, a psycho-sexual thriller about identical twins who are gynaecologists and obstetricians. It is a new adaptation of the 1988 film starring Jeremy Irons, in which Rachel plays twins Elliot and Beverly Mantle. She explains why it was important to her to adapt the story with female leads, and the technical pr...

Published in 2001, ‘The Secret Life of Bees’ was a New York Times bestseller for more than 125 weeks and was made into an award-winning film starring Dakota Fanning, Queen Latifah, Jennifer Hudson and Alicia Keys in 2008. Now the book has been adapted by Lynn Nottage, a playwright and screenwriter, for the stage. It is on at the Almeida Theatre in London and Anita Rani talks to Lynn Nottage, the o...

Kristine Kujath Thorp is the star of new ‘unromantic comedy’ Sick of Myself. The film follows the unhealthy and competitive relationship between bored waitress Signe and her boyfriend Thomas; both self-proclaimed narcissists obsessed with attention. When Thomas suddenly breaks through as a contemporary artist, Signe decides to do something drastic to attract sympathy and go viral. Kristine joins N...

A new report from the women’s and equalities committee is calling on the government to eliminate what it calls ‘appalling disparities in maternal deaths between black and white women’. Black women are 3.7 times more likely to die in pregnancy, childbirth or six weeks afterwards than white women. Nuala discusses the issues with MP Caroline Nokes, who chairs the committee, and Sandra Igwe, who found...

Ian Paterson, who became known as the butchering breast surgeon, is currently serving a 20-year jail term after being convicted of 17 counts of wounding with intent and 3 counts of unlawful wounding. Now the Sunday Times has revealed that 27 inquests have been opened as a result of investigating the deaths of 650 of his patients. Nuala speaks to campaigner Debbie Douglas, who was one of Mr Paterso...

The writer Hadley Freeman stopped eating when she was 14, and spent the next three years in and out of hospital, battling with anorexia. Now in her mid-forties, she says she didn’t completely close the door on the disease until relatively recently. In Good Girls – A Story and Study of Anorexia, she gives an unflinching account of what happened to her and looks at what happens to girls who become a...

The fashion designer Dame Mary Quant, best known for popularising the mini skirt which helped define the swinging sixties has died at the age of 93. The Telegraph's fashion writer Melissa Twigg who knew Mary and the fashion Amber Butchart discussed her impact and legacy. Sumayya Vally has been described as one of the most exciting, innovative and fresh voices in architecture, she's featured on the...

The conservative peer Baroness Sayeeda Warsi has criticised the home secretary Suella Braverman for using  "racist rhetoric".  She says her recent comments on small boats and grooming gangs have "emboldened racists".  Baroness Warsi held a number of ministerial roles in the coalition government before resigning in 2014. Anita asks her why she's decided to speak out now. If you’ve had breast cancer...

Brian Friel’s classic play Dancing at Lughnasa has opened at the National Theatre in London. Telling the story of the five Mundy sisters, two of the actors, more recently on our screens in Derry Girls – newly-Bafta nominated Siobhan McSweeney (AKA Sister Michael) and Louisa Harland (AKA Orla McCool) - join Nuala McGovern in the Woman’s Hour studio. UN experts have warned the UK government that its...

The writer Hadley Freeman stopped eating when she was 14, and spent the next three years in and out of hospital, battling with anorexia. Now in her mid-forties, she says she didn’t completely close the door on the disease until relatively recently. In Good Girls – A Story and Study of Anorexia, she gives an unflinching account of what happened to her and looks at what happens to girls who become a...

How is the rapid progress in AI technology going to impact women? The Financial Times’ Artificial Intelligence Editor Madhumita Murgia joins Nuala McGovern to talk us through the issues of gender bias, legal grey areas and possible dangers for women as AI becomes more and more central to our lives. Have you ever heard an interview with a robot on the radio? Nuala speaks to the world’s first ultra-...

The climate justice activist Mikaela Loach, who took the UK government to court for giving tax breaks to fossil fuels companies, discusses her new book It's Not That Radical: Climate Activism To Transform Our World. Who is 'Stevenage Woman'? The Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer is being urged to focus on this female swing voter group in a new report by left-leaning think tank Labour Together....

Unbeaten for 30 games, last night the Lionesses won Finalissima. Jess Creighton discusses with Tom Garry, who talks about the game last night, the Lionesses road to the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, and Wales beating Northern Ireland in Cardiff last night. Today marks 25 years since the Good Friday Agreement was signed - bringing peace to Northern Ireland after 30 years of conflict. To m...

Kavita Varu is a lawyer from Sheffield and a single mother of two who hit rock bottom just as we went into lockdown three years ago. She decided to learn how to DJ, bought some decks and taught herself. She started doing live sessions on social media, has since played in Ibiza and Amsterdam and recently won the Inspiring Indian Women She Inspires Rising Star award. Scientists believe that they hav...

She is best known for her role as the Poplar-based midwife Trixie Franklin, in Call the Midwife. Helen George has also been a star of Strictly Come Dancing, sung with Elton John and at Buckingham Palace to mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day. She now brings all her theatrical skills together by stepping into Deborah Kerr's shoes to play the part of Anna in a UK tour of the Rodgers and Hammerstein...

On the Woman’s Hour Power List this year, sports reporter Fiona Tomas joins Nuala to discuss the change in kits for the England Women’s football team and her work as a journalist. Climate justice activist Mikaela Loach took the UK government to court for giving tax breaks to fossil fuel companies. Her urgent new book ‘It’s Not That Radical: Climate Action to Transform Our World’ makes the case for...

Nuala McGovern talks to Costanza Hermanin from the European University Institute in Florence and Sarah De Lange from the University of Amsterdam about the success of this new breed of female leader. In Afghanistan, the new school year has started. But for the second year running, a Taliban ban is keeping teenage girls out of school. The BBC World Service has launched a brand-new education series f...