Woman's Hour

Woman's Hour celebrates the 70th anniversary of The Archers, looking at the female characters and storylines that have shaped the programme, presented by Felicity Finch (Ruth Archer). How have the roles of women in farming changed over the last 70 years in the real world and in The Archers? From Jill Archer who is often portrayed more as a traditional farmer's wife to Ruth who is very much in part...

We look back at the end of a momentous year. Jane revisits listeners we spoke to during 2020, Sarah whose father died from Covid in April, Lizzie who gave birth alone to baby Bibi in May, Gillian who’s been battling with Long Covid, and Deborah whose (good-natured) bickering with her partner escalated during lockdown. And author, journalist and How to Fail podcaster Elizabeth Day interviews Jane a...

What do our first names really say about us? More than you might think, according to Dr Jane Pilcher, Associate Professor at the University of Leicester. She claims that our names often reveal important clues about our age, social class and ethnicity that might affect the way that we are treated by other people. She joins Jane, along with name expert and the founder of the British Baby Names websi...

More and more of us are living longer but we don’t talk enough about what it means to be old, according to Consultant Geriatrician Dr Lucy Pollock. The author of ‘The Book about Getting Older’ tells us about what she’s learnt about looking after the old and their families over many years, and the practical things that people can do to make things happier in old age. We also hear from Anna Dixon, C...

Holly Ridings is the first woman to be NASA's chief flight director. She was appointed in 2018 and is responsible for missions to the International Space Station, the Orion spacecraft and commercial spacecraft. She is also in charge of the Artemis programme - named after Apollo's twin sister - which will land the first woman and next man on the Moon by 2024, using innovative technologies to explor...

Labour MP Stella Creasy joins us to discuss buy now pay later services, and whether they should be regulated. Oti Mabuse and partner Bill Bailey have been crowned Strictly Come Dancing champions as they took the 2020 glitter ball trophy home on Saturday. Oti Mabuse is the first professional to win the competition two years in a row. Next year, she is going on tour with her new show ‘I AM HERE', wh...

Christmas Day programme about Joy. Jane Garvey is joined by the Rev. Kate Bottley, who brings the Christian perspective of joy at Christmas, and talks about her personal passion for ice water swimming. Natalie Maddix is the founder and Creative Director of the House Gospel Choir. She describes the joy of communal singing and shares some of the choir's uplifting music. The breast surgeon and breast...

‘Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner’ was a famous 1967 film about an inter-racial marriage in the US. Filmed against the backdrop of race riots that took place the same year, it starred Sidney Poitier, Spencer Tracey, Katherine Hepburn and Katherine Houghton. Actor, Tracy-Ann Oberman has written a play called ‘That Dinner of 67’ looking at what happened during the making of the film. She talks to Andrea...

Oti Mabuse and partner Bill Bailey have been crowned Strictly Come Dancing champions as they took the 2020 glitter ball trophy home on Saturday. Oti Mabuse is the first professional to win the competition two years in a row. Next year, she is going on tour with her new show ‘I AM HERE', which explores her journey from growing up in South Africa, to becoming a multi-award winning dancer. The increa...

We heard earlier in the pandemic that in-person meetings for vulnerable children had become mostly impossible. But now child protection professionals feel that face-to-face conferences are unlikely to ever resume. So what does that mean for the children in question? And what is missed as a result? Journalist Marianne Eloise was recently diagnosed with Autistic Spectrum Disorder, aged 27. She says...

New BBC three-part drama Black Narcissus tells the story of a group of Anglo-Catholic nuns who travel to the Himalayas to set up a school in an abandoned clifftop palace, which was once known as the 'House of Women'. Adapted from Rumer Godden's 1939 novel, the writer Amanda Coe joins Jane to discuss. Coping strategies over the Christmas period with the psychologist Laverne Antrobus. Carolyn Cobbol...

Sharon D Clarke talks about her role as The Narrator in an audio adaptation of “Peter Pan”. Three women from this year's Power List - physicist and climate researcher Prof Joanna Haigh; one of the leads from the Climate Assembly Prof Rebecca Willis; and Guardian Environment Correspondent Fiona Harvey discuss how we understand and talk about climate change. Sharon Hague from Pearson talks about a n...

An audio adaptation of Peter Pan with music will be launched on Christmas Eve in support of Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital, that will feature a host of actors - Olivia Colman, Bertie Carvel, Kenneth Branagh, Jane Horrocks, Clive Rowe, and Sharon D Clarke. She joins Jane to talk about her role as The Narrator, who in this version is Wendy’s great granddaughter. A new study into gender ster...

Environmental filmmaker and Woman's Hour power lister Franny Armstrong thinks it's time for a bit of climate comedy. Having spent the best part of two decades making serious documentaries such as The Age of Stupid, Rivercide and McLibel, Franny talks about reaching new audiences with her film Pie Net Zero, featuring fake news reporter Jonathan Pie. A 10 week consultation period run by the Home Off...

As we approach this year's final another chance to hear Jane Garvey celebrating all things Strictly. A dance special with chief Strictly judge Shirley Ballas, Love Island participant and professional ballroom dancer Curtis Pritchard, Professor of Dance History Theresa Buckland from Roehampton University, Sujata Banerjee, a Kathak artist and educator and Ingrid Mackinnon, a choreographer who teache...

The government’s long delayed full response to the online harms white paper will be published today. New rules will be introduced for tech firms which allow users to post their own content. Firms who fail to protect people face fines of up to ten percent of turnover or the blocking of their sites. Popular platforms will be held responsible for tackling both legal and illegal harms and all platform...

The Panamanian-American conductor Kalena Bovell, is quickly becoming “one of the brightest stars in the world of classical music.” Currently Assistant Conductor of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra , she is making her international conducting debut at the Southbank with Chineke! Europe's first majority Black, Asian and ethnically-diverse orchestra. She describes how she first discovered she could sin...

Dame Stephanie Shirley – always known as Steve – tells us about her work revolutionising the workplace and as a major philanthropist. On Tuesday, Leicester University are launching their 'Student Sex Worker Policy and Toolkit'. We hear from Professor Teela Sanders, a Professor of Criminology at Leicester University who explains why she is leading this initiative and the feminist commentator and jo...

This week the first part of The Ockenden Review into Maternity Services at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS (SaTH) Trust was published. It urges improvements in the way mothers and babies are looked after, not just in Shrewsbury but across England. We talk to the local MP there, Lucy Allan, as well as Gill Walton from The Royal College of Midwives and Jayne Terry who's an obstetrician in Lo...

Last week the High Court ruled that it was ‘unlikely that children under 16 could give informed consent to puberty blocking drugs. The Tavistock - which runs the only clinics in the UK that have been offering this treatment on the NHS – is seeking to appeal the judgement. Meanwhile NHS England have suspended all new referrals for puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for the under 16’s. Children...

Boris Johnson is in Brussels today to have a face to face meeting with European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen. They’re trying to find a post-Brexit trade deal. So how will the dynamics work between the two? Sonia Purnell used to work with Boris Johnson in Brussels when they wrote for the Telegraph together. She’s written a biography about him. And Maria von Welser knows Ursula von der...

Extinction Rebellion has used civil disobedience to put the climate crisis firmly at the top of the news agenda. It’s also attracted women and whole families to take to the streets to protest for the first time in their lives. Gail Bradbrook, the co-founder of XR and one of the women on this year’s Woman’s Hour Power List, joins Jane to talk about the support for – and criticisms of – the use of p...

What goes on in the ladies? Office gossip, getting locked-in, the most embarrassing moments, confessing to a stranger, a place for bonding, bullying, and bunking-off? We hear your stories about women’s toilets, with Comedian Shazia Mirza and Historian Claudia Elphick. Dame Stephanie Shirley – always known as Steve – joins Jane to talk about her career-spanning book of speeches So to Speak. Now 87,...

Non-essential shops reopened in England this week after the second Lockdown - thousands of jobs now hang in the balance. We hear from Joanne Cairns, deputy head of research at USDAW and Catherine Shuttleworth, retail analyst. The Woman’s Hour Power List recognises the work of 30 inspiring women who are making a positive contribution to the environment and the sustainability of our planet. Beccy Sp...

Sandrae Lawrence from the Cocktail Lovers Magazine stirs up some Christmas spirit in the Woman's Hour studio with a selection of festive drinks ideas. She'll be preparing traditional Snowballs and telling us about wassails to warm your guests with whilst entertaining outdoors. As Hollyoaks tackles the issue of post partum psychosis we hear from Hannah Bissett from Action on Post-partum Psychosis a...