Woman's Hour

Is the continued use of Joint Enterprise, where an individual can be jointly convicted of the crime of another, unjust? Next week, 800,000 doses of the first coronavirus vaccine will be available. It seems female scientists scientists have been front and centre of the work. According to The Royal College of Pathologists nearly half of their members who specialise in virology are women. We hear fro...

The Woman’s Hour Power List 2020: Our Planet is celebrating the women making a significant contribution to the environment. Today, we’re speaking to two women who strive to spark a lifelong love of nature in others. Beccy Speight is the CEO of the RSPB, the UK’s largest conservation charity and Miranda Lowe is a curator at the Natural History Museum in London. The High Court has ruled that childre...

Two of this year’s TechWomen100 Award winners join Jane to discuss getting more women and girls into the tech industries, including via a new app. June Angelides, an investor, speaker and mentor who founded Mums in Tech has won the Editor’s Choice award. Rav Bumbra gets the Champion award for her work recruiting women to work in tech fields and mentoring schoolgirls. With non-essential retail due...

It was found that thousands of married women could have been receiving underpaid state pensions. The Department of Work and Pensions has since been investigating its records and making payments. The former pensions Minister Steve Webb, who first highlighted the issue, believes that many more women, such as divorced and widowed women could be effected, and that the DWP could be looking at a bill in...

Celebrating the BBC 100 Women list 2020 Kim Chakanetsa and a panel of inspirational and influential women discuss whether some changes made because of Covid-19 restrictions could be seen as positive. They answer questions about bringing communities together, supporting lonely people and increasing flexibility for more inclusive employment. Shani Dhanda is an award-winning disability specialist and...

Ozlem Cekic, one of the first Muslim women with an immigrant background to enter Danish parliament, tells us why she decided to meet up with the people who sent her racist emails. We discuss whether a new women's centre at the site of the former Holloway Women's Prison will get the go ahead. We hear from Lucy who's with Reclaim Holloway and also from the last woman to leave the prison four years a...

The fourth series of The Crown currently airing on Netflix lays bare the ups and downs of the royal marriage of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer . The drama has introduced a new generation to the Princess, her depression and struggles with the eating disorder bulimia. Jane Garvey talks to the veteran royal watcher Jennie Bond and also to Ali Pantony from Glamour magazine who has herself suffe...

The Island Social Club was created to fill the void of what was once London’s thriving Caribbean social scene. Chef, writer and co-founder Marie Mitchell explores Caribbean food and culture while creating a space for second and third generation British people of Caribbean descent to connect with their heritage. Marie talks abut food and identity and shows us how to Cook the Perfect Roti, one of th...

Stella Gibbons' first novel was Cold Comfort Farm. First published in 1932, it became an instant bestseller and made fun of country life. Another one of her novels called My American will be serialized on BBC Radio 4 next week. The writer Lynne Truss discusses Stella's life and work. Four years ago the largest women's prison in Western Europe, HMP Holloway in London, was closed. The building has h...

Wafa Mustafa is a Syrian refugee currently living in Berlin. Her father was arrested in Syria on July 2nd 2013 and has not been heard from since. Wafa is just one of many Syrian women, who are part of Families for Freedom, a woman-led movement searching for family members who were detained or 'disappeared' by the Syrian regime, ISIS and other armed groups during Syria's brutal civil war. She joins...

Women have been worst hit in financial and economic terms by the pandemic so the spending review coming up this week is of particular interest this year. It’s when the chancellor sets out his big picture for the next three or four years in terms of what each government department will have to spend. This time round though Rishi Sunak will be laying out his plan for just one year because of the unc...

The Woman’s Hour Power List reveal celebrates women from across the UK who are making a significant contribution to the health and sustainability of our planet. Number 2 on the list is environmental lawyer Farhana Yamin. Boris Johnson’s government has been criticised for its lack of women at the top table. The dramatic departure of Dominic Cummings and Lee Cain from Downing Street has led to calls...

Number 23 on this year’s Woman’s Hour Power List is Kate Humble – whose TV career spans 30 years and includes all sorts of programmes covering nature, wildlife and farming. But how important is TV in helping people actually care about the planet? Jane talks to Kate about the best way to connect people with nature, the importance of inspiring the next generation, and the problem she has with the wo...

Young people are one of the key driving forces behind climate activism and fighting for the future of the planet. But what’s it like being on the front line? And how do young people want to change the way we think about environmental issues? Three of the women from this year’s Power List – Mya-Rose Craig, Holly Gillibrand and Mikaela Loach – talk about their thoughts and experiences. They’re also...

Rosamund Kissi-Debrah is number three on the Woman’s Hour Power List 2020: Our Planet. She is a tireless campaigner for cleaner air, following the tragic death of her daughter Ella from a series of severe asthma attacks. Since then she’s created powerful change from a grassroots level, influencing the Mayor of London and working with the World Health Organisation. She joins Jessica to speak about...

The idea of reaching net-zero emissions is mentioned so often, it’s easy to forget that someone came up with it. That someone is Farhana Yamin – a world-class environmental lawyer, expert in international climate negotiations and number 2 on this year’s Woman’s Hour Power List. Jane Garvey talks to Farhana about her fascinating career. She’s the first woman to run a leading British grocery retaile...

Today Jane Garvey reveals the 30 names on this year's Woman’s Hour Power List, which celebrates women from across the UK that are making a significant contribution to the health and sustainability of our planet. Jane talks to some of the women on this year's list and hears how the judges – Lucy Siegle, Zunaira Malik, Emma Howard Boyd, Flo Headlam and Prof Alice Larkin – managed to take over 1000 l...

The popstar Anne-Marie is famous for songs such as 2002, Ciao adios & Clean Bandit’s Rockabye. She talks to us about lockdown and her new documentary on You Tube ‘How to Be Anne Marie. We discuss the sculpture by Maggi Hambling celebrating the ‘mother of feminism’ Mary Wollstonecraft, which went on display on Newington Green, Islington in London on Tuesday. Reporter Melanie Abbott is in Newing...

The serial killer Peter Sutcliffe has died of Covid 19. He was convicted of the murders of 13 women, and the attempted murder of 7 others, in Yorkshire and the north-west of England between 1975 and 1980. Jane speaks to Joan Smith is a feminist writer and campaigner, and author of Misogynies – she was a reporter in the North of England at the time. Louise Watiss is a criminologist at Teeside Unive...

Otegha Uwagha is a writer & commentator. Today she discusses her new essay, Whites: On Race and Other Falsehoods. She discusses, what she sees as, the ‘colossal burden’ of co-existing with white people when you are not white. A Mary Wollstonecraft inspired sculpture, created by Maggi Hambling, is causing a stir. Mary Wollstonecraft wrote the famous "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman". But t...

Twenty five years ago Martin Bashir's Panorama interview with Diana Princess of Wales made headlines around the world with quotes like “ there were were three of us in this marriage so it was a bit crowded” Now questions are being asked about how the interview with her was secured , which the BBC are investigating. We hear from Rosa Monckton one of Diana’s best friends Under the current Abortion l...

Covid 19 has been difficult for everyone but one group that’s been at the front line of fighting the pandemic is critical care nurses. There are reports of record sickness levels partly due to stress and mental health issues at the same time as new plans for how people are nursed in intensive care are introduced. Anita Rani talks to Nicki Credland who chairs the British Association of Critical Car...

The US Presidential election results with Dr. Jeanne Morefield, Senior Lecturer in political theory at the University of Birmingham, and Fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, Washington, DC. A current storyline in Emmerdale is about a couple who decide to have a termination when their baby’s diagnosed with Down Syndrome. It’s a difficult decision for anyone, but some campaigne...

Liz Brookes looks after her husband Mike, who has had vascular dementia and Chris Black cares for his wife, Helen, who has Picks disease, or Frontotemporal dementia. How have they coped during the pandemic? We also hear from Emily Holzhausen, Director of Policy and Public Affairs from Carers UK. Has the Covid crisis helped to usher in a future of flexible working? A new report from the campaign Fl...

In April we spoke to Liz Brookes who looks after her husband Mike, who has had vascular dementia and to Chris Black who cares for his wife, Helen, who has Picks disease, or Frontal Temperal dementia. How they are getting on six months later? Emily Holzhausen, Director of Policy and Public Affairs from Carers UK joins them. For blind or partially sighted women it is impossible to read visual result...