Woman's Hour

Sunday sees the Women's World Cup final between England and Spain and to mark it we are joined by England's top female goal scorer, Ellen White. By the time of Ellen's retirement after last year’s Euros, she'd scored 52 goals in 113 international appearances. She joins Anita from Sydney to discuss the magic of Sarina Wiegman and her advice for the Lionesses ahead of Sunday's match. Has anyone aske...

England are through to the final of the FIFA Women’s World Cup for the first time in history. But while the Lionesses are excelling in Australia and New Zealand, what’s it like for girls playing football back in the UK? Are they feeling the impact of England’s success? Samerah, Charlotte, and Isabelle, teenagers involved in the Football Beyond Borders programme, share their experiences, and Anita...

Martine McCutcheon describes her rising anxiety levels to do with the perimenopause. Who is Fani Willis? On Monday 14 August a grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia voted to charge Mr Trump and 18 others with attempting to overturn the 2020 election result in the state. The woman taking on his case is District Attorney Fani Willis. Kimberley Peeler Allen the co-founder of HHFA, a national organizat...

Today marks two years since the re-taking of Afghanistan by the Taliban. We speak to Afghanistan's youngest female mayor, Zarifa Ghafari, who was elected mayor of the conservative central city of Maidan Shahr in 2018, aged 23, and survived three assassination attempts while still living in the country. During one of these attempts, her father was killed. Following the Taliban’s return to power in...

The Lionesses are through to the Women's World Cup semi-final on Wednesday against co-hosts Australia. Reaching semi-finals of major tournaments is what England "are known for", says defender Lucy Bronze. Lucy's mum, Diane Bronze and former Lioness and football comemntator Anita Asante discuss. Many baby boomers are experiencing the death of their parents much later than previous generations. The...

The rapper Tory Lanez has been sentenced to 10 years for the shooting of fellow musician Megan Thee Stallion. She required surgery to remove bullet fragments from her foot after he shot her following a party in 2020. BBC entertainment correspondent Chi-Chi Izundu joins Clare McDonnell to discuss. New research by The Sutton Trust reveals that more than a third of A-level students in England are con...

Mother and daughter duo, Andi and Miquita Oliver, have started a new podcast, Stirring it Up, where they ask guests to join them at their kitchen table. They join Hayley Hassall to talk on how this format harks back to their roots, their passion for sharing food and stories, the challenges they’ve faced as women at different life stages in broadcast, and growing up together in London’s Ladbroke Gr...

New research by the Sutton Trust reveals that more than a third of A-level students in England are considering living at home if they get into their preferred university. And in some cases, chooing lower-ranking universities because they are closer to home. Rebecca Montacute, head of research for the Sutton Trust, explains the findings. Hayley also hears from future student, Lori Cobon, and her mo...

The rapper Tory Lanez has been sentenced to 10 years for the shooting of fellow musician Megan Thee Stallion. She required surgery to remove bullet fragments from her foot after he shot her following a party in 2020. BBC entertainment correspondent Chi-Chi Izundu joins Clare McDonnell to discuss. Do you have fertility anxiety? Today we are discussing why some women fear they can’t easily have chil...

A judge in Texas has ruled that women who experience pregnancy complications are temporarily exempt from the state's abortion bans. The ruling comes after a group of thirteen women and two doctors sued the state of Texas in March of this year, calling for a clarification of the law. However, the injunction is only temporary until the lawsuit is decided - and the state of Texas has appealed the rul...

A few months ago, Sarah de Lagarde came on Woman's Hour to share her incredible story of survival. She had fallen on to the Tube tracks at a north London station and was run over by two Tube trains. She lost her right arm and leg as a result. Today, Sarah returns with a newly fitted bionic arm, made possible with the support of a crowdfunding campaign. She speaks to Hayley about her recovery journ...

All this week on Woman’s Hour we’ve been discussing the topic of loneliness as women and young people are statistically more likely to experience it. We hear from the psychiatrist Dr Farhana Mann from UCL about the impact of loneliness on our health. Jodie Ounsley is the world’s first ever deaf female rugby sevens international player, and she was part of the Woman’s Hour Power List of women in sp...

Actor and writer Georgie Grier has shared a post on social media after her opening show at the Edinburgh Fringe had just one person in the audience. She’s had replies of support and encouragement from thousands of people, including comedian Jason Manford. She joins Anita to talk about what it was like to perform to one person, and how she feels about the reaction she’s getting. The Women’s Netball...

All this week on the programme we are looking at the topic of loneliness. Women are statistically more likely to be lonely and so in today's programme we will look at ways to cope with those feelings and if it's possible to reframe them. Anita is joined by Radio 4's All in the Mind presenter Claudia Hammond and author of Alonement, Francesca Specter. The comedian Nicole Travolta is taking her one-...

The singer Lizzo, and her production company, are being sued by three former dancers. They have been accused of sexual and racial harassment, disability discrimination, false imprisonment and creating a hostile work environment. Tom Murray, Senior Culture Reporter for the Independent, tells Nuala exactly what’s in the lawsuit. Rock Follies was a 1970s TV series about an all-female rock band, The L...

Frances Haugen is the former Facebook employee turned whistleblower who extracted more than 22,000 pages of documents from the company revealing its inner workings. She believes they show the company prioritising profit over the safety of its users. Frances has since campaigned for greater transparency and accountability for social media firms, giving evidence to the US Senate as well as MPs here...

In 2018, two new mothers died weeks apart after giving birth in two Kent hospitals from a herpes infection. Kimberley Sampson and Samantha Mulcahy both had c-sections and contracted herpes before or around the delivery of their babies. That’s according to an inquest into their deaths that has just concluded - that their mothers, Nicola Foster and Yvette Sampson, say doesn’t give enough answers as...

What role should men play in stopping sexist behaviour? Several campaigns have aimed to tackle this, the most recent being the Mayor of London’s Maaate initiative. To discuss we're joined by Karen Whybro, a woman’s safety consultant and Graham Goulden, the former Chief Inspector at Police Scotland who now offers training to organisations to improve team culture. This year marks the sixth anniversa...

In their second game of the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup, England’s Lionesses face Denmark. Woman’s Hour will be following the game live, bringing you updates and analysis from our special guests. Baller FC was started by a group of friends who were tired of trying to find a pub to watch women’s football matches, only to find that the game wasn’t playing, or the atmosphere was unwelcoming. Their wo...

The Irish musician and activist Sinéad O Connor has died, aged 56. She was best known for her single Nothing Compares 2 U, released in 1990, which reached number one and brought her worldwide fame. She was outspoken in her social and political views, and released 10 studio albums during her career. We hear a special performance that Sinéad gave to Woman’s Hour in 2013, and Krupa speaks to the jour...

What role should men play in stopping sexist behaviour? Several campaigns have aimed to tackle this, the most recent being the Mayor of London’s Maaate initiative. To discuss Nuala is joined by Karen Whybro who is a Woman’s Safety Consultant and Graham Goulden, the former Chief Inspector at Police Scotland, and who now offers training to organisations to improve team culture. The play, Beneatha's...

Over the last few months we have been hearing the stories of women who believe that they were raised by mothers who have Narcissistic Personality Disorder. And, a woman who has been labelled a narcissist by her daughter. Today, two psychotherapists who have worked extensively in this field, Dr Jan McGregor Hepburn and Helen Villiers, who has an MA in working therapeutically with adult children of...

There has been a significant increase in the number of non-surgical aesthetic procedures over the past decade. And now the largest academic survey to date in the UK has just been published, relating the lived experience of over 500 people who have experienced an adverse event following administration of Botulinum Toxin. The study finds that a lack of awareness of reporting structures and the lack...

The law on flexible working changed this week. New rules should make it easier for employees to argue for a flexible working arrangement. It’s the culmination of years of hard work and campaigning for more family friendly workplaces. Anita speaks to the Minister for Small Business, Kevin Hollinrake, and Amy Butterworth from the flexible working consultancy Timewise. Dr Gladys McGarey, cofounder of...

As the film Barbie opens in cinemas today, Set Decorator Katie Spencer and Production Designer Sarah Greenwood discuss how they created Barbieland in a real life space, the invasion of everything pink, and how they approached the film having never played with Barbies themselves. This Sunday, Spain is holding a general election, after the current Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, dissolved parliament...