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 Cobbold is No. 10 on the Woman's Hour Power List 2020: Our Planet. She's worked tirelessly to quite litera...
Dec 21, 2020•49 min
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 new study by the Fawcett Society into gender stereotypes and the damaging effect it has on society. L...
Dec 19, 2020•56 min
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 stereotypes suggests that they’re still widespread in 2020 and causing life-long harm. The Fawcett Socie...
Dec 18, 2020•51 min
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 Office looking at violence against women and girls has just been launched focusing on "the crimes that ...
Dec 17, 2020•45 min
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 teaches jazz, ballet, modern & African dance. We find out why dancing makes you feel good plus Curtis ...
Dec 16, 2020•42 min
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 platforms will have a duty of care to protect children using their services from being exposed to harmful co...
Dec 15, 2020•51 min
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 sing and fell in love with the violin, before finding her life’s passion of standing on the podium in f...
Dec 14, 2020•48 min
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 journalist Sarah Ditum gives us her view. Are men beginning to turn to cosmetics to improve their appe...
Dec 11, 2020•57 min
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 London. We have part 2 of our series which talks to parents about puberty blockers. Today we hear from...
Dec 11, 2020•51 min
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 already on the drugs will have their cases reviewed, and a court order will be required to start or...
Dec 10, 2020•48 min
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 Leyen. They wrote a book together about women in German society. What’s the best way to approach sh...
Dec 09, 2020•45 min
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 protest to bring about systemic change in the name of the planet. Are men beginning to turn to cosmet...
Dec 08, 2020•51 min
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, she’s a successful IT entrepreneur who revolutionised the workplace for women and is now a major ph...
Dec 07, 2020•47 min
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 Speight, CEO of the RSPB which is the UK’s largest conservation charity and Miranda Lowe, Curator at t...
Dec 05, 2020•56 min
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 and Dr Ayesha Rahim, who's a perinatal psychiatrist at Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Tr...
Dec 04, 2020•51 min
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 from Dr Katrina Pollock from Imperial College, London and Professor Trudie Lang from University of Oxfo...
Dec 03, 2020•44 min
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 children under 16 with gender dysphoria are ‘unlikely’ to be able to give informed consent to undergo treat...
Dec 02, 2020•45 min
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 to open again tomorrow, we discuss the situation facing shop workers - many of whom are women - work...
Dec 01, 2020•51 min
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 excess of £100 million. We speak to Steve Webb and to financial expert Jasmine Birtles about pensio...
Nov 30, 2020•53 min
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 social entrepreneur from the UK. She founded the Asian Woman Festival and Asian Disability Network....
Nov 29, 2020•50 min
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 ago. The lastest series of the drama The Crown has introduced a new generation to Princess Diana as w...
Nov 28, 2020•44 min
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 suffered from bulimia and who says the issues faced by Diana three decades ago have resonated strongly wi...
Nov 27, 2020•52 min
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 the cornerstones of Caribbean cuisine. After a difficult first term of online tuition, lockdowns and s...
Nov 26, 2020•44 min
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 huge historic significance. partly because of its links to the suffragettes, especially the Pankhurst...
Nov 25, 2020•45 min
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 Jane to explain why she has been sitting outside a court in Koblenz with over 60 framed photographs...
Nov 24, 2020•50 min
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 uncertainties facing the UK. Paul Johnson from the Institute for Fiscal Studies and Mary-Ann Stephenson...
Nov 23, 2020•49 min
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 for a female led reset at Number 10. We hear from Katie Perrior, former advisor at number 10 and An...
Nov 21, 2020•43 min
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 word ‘environment’. Justine Greening was for Secretary of State for International Development for near...
Nov 20, 2020•50 min
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 joined by another woman on the Power List, Future Generations Commissioner for Wales, Sophie Howe. S...
Nov 19, 2020•44 min
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 her work and her hopes for making a difference. Boris Johnson’s government has been criticised for i...
Nov 18, 2020•46 min
