Glenda Jackson tells us about her latest work playing the poet, writer and critic Edith Sitwell and what books she would recommend during a period of isolation. The Former Home Secretary Amber Rudd discusses why women need to be more involved in Covid 19 decision making with Caroline Criado Perez author of Invisible Women and Simone Schnall from Jesus College Cambridge. The curator, writer and lecturer Bolanle Tajudeen tells us how black feminism has influenced the work of black female fine arti...
Mar 21, 2020•56 min
Tantrums are an inevitable part of living with a toddler. But with the prospect of weeks or even months of families cooped up together ahead of us, how can parents keep meltdowns (by toddlers and themselves!) to a minimum? Emily Jones is a professor of infant neurodevelopment and autism at the Birkbeck Babylab and she tells Jane what’s happening when a child has a tantrum, when and how to intervene, and gives top tips for parents trying to cope. Earlier this week, the former cabinet minister Amb...
Mar 20, 2020•48 min
The Secretary of State for Education Gavin Williamson has confirmed that all schools will close in England and Wales and there’ll be no GCSE or A Level exams this summer. How are schools and pupils proposing to cope? Ruby is a 17-year old pupil in Somerset, due to take her A levels shortly. Charlie is 25 and is doing an access course to be a paramedic. It involves cramming 2 years of A-levels into 1 year. Carolyn Roberts is the Head Teacher at Thomas Tallis School in South London. A legal challe...
Mar 19, 2020•46 min
In the latest in our series of Family Secrets a listener called Helen got in touch to tell us about the discovery she made after the death of her mother and the suicide pact she kept quiet about for nearly forty years. Last week’s budget saw a series of big public spending and investment projects announced. These focused on physical infrastructure. But what of social infrastructure – the investment in people who staff social care and the support for women in and out of work as the country faces ...
Mar 18, 2020•41 min
We consider the latest advice for pregnant women when it comes to coronavirus. Jane speaks to Jess Brammer, editor in chief HuffPost UK, who is currently on maternity leave and Dr Mary Ross-Davie - Director for Scotland, Royal College of Midwives. And in other coronavirus news: many offices, shops, bars, restaurants, schools, are likely to close. Many workers and businesses will see their income collapse, almost overnight. So what if you are laid off? What if you are self-employed? What financia...
Mar 17, 2020•48 min
Jane Garvey takes your calls on Covid-19. Joined by Psychologist Laverne Antrobus and Sarah Stewart Brown Professor of Public Health at Warwick University . What measures are you putting in place? How will you manage with young as well as older children, do you face particular problems with those that have special needs. What about work ? If you are someone who can work at home do you have the tech to support that. Have you thought about setting up a local neighbourhood support network? What pro...
Mar 16, 2020•48 min
We hear from the singer turned interviewer Jessie Ware and her mum Lennie about their hit podcast Table Manners, where they cook dinner for a different celebrity every week. They’ve turned their favourite recipes into a cook book. Black Women and sexual violence. What are the cultural barriers making it difficult for black women to discuss and disclose sexual violence? And what is cultural betrayal theory? Chief Foreign correspondent Christina Lamb tells us about her new book ‘Our Bodies Their B...
Mar 14, 2020•44 min
Over the past few years we have seen a number of high profile men being publically accused of sexual abuse and assault. It’s become a pinnacle aspect of the #MeToo movement. So why is the act of speaking out still met with so much resentment? Why is it so difficult to criticise male celebrities who have large followings? And how much more complex does this issue become when it intersects with race? Jacqueline Springer is a contemporary black music and culture journalist and lecturer. Leanne Leve...
Mar 13, 2020•51 min
Jessie and Lennie Ware on their relationship since making their Table Manners podcast
Mar 12, 2020•13 min
BBC Young Reporter Competition is in its second year. More than 2000 young people suggested an original story idea that they wanted the BBC to report on and it was Kay from Bristol who won gold this year. She's 19 now but when she was 12 she was sectioned under the Mental Health Act. She's now volunteering at a hospital and it's been life-changing. Our reporter Ena Miller met Kay and her mum, Eileen, at home in Bristol. March is a big month for women. We have International Women’s Day and Women’...
Mar 12, 2020•44 min
We’re celebrating women in music with this special collaboration between Woman’s Hour and BBC 6 Music, recorded at the 6 Music Festival in Camden, North London. Presenter Georgie Rogers goes backstage at the historic Roundhouse venue to speak to some of the brilliant female artists on the line-up about the women that inspire them and their experiences of the music industry. Brittany Howard of Alabama Shakes tells Georgie how it feels to call the shots as a solo artist and shares the women that h...
Mar 11, 2020•35 min
If you are man and own a cat, you are a man with a cat. If you are a woman with one, you are a crazy cat lady. Recently the term crazy cat lady has been reclaimed in a positive way on social media but many say it is a pejorative term used against women who break from tradition. Alice Maddicott is the author of Cat Women and writer Kat Brown has two cats, Ambridge and Genevieve and has written about the support they gave her during fertility treatment. Next week 114 new QCs will receive their sil...
Mar 11, 2020•44 min
Friendship can be one of the most powerful and important aspects of any woman’s life. We explore what sisterhood means to different women at different points in their lives. Kelechi Okafor, Danielle Dash and Seyi Akiwowo all met online. They all have large social media followings and talk about the importance of digital sisterhood. Foreign correspondent Christina Lamb has reported on wars for over thirty years. She has now written a major book, Our Bodies Their Battlefield, exposing how in moder...
Mar 10, 2020•50 min
Popstar turned podcaster Jessie Ware and her mum Lennie Ware discuss working together in their hit podcast Table Manners where they cook dinner for a different celebrity every week. Should racing be doing more to celebrate the fact that it is one of the few sports where men and women compete in the same events? We speak to Jockey Lizzie Kelly - the first woman to win a Grade One race in Britain and now holder of two Grade Ones and two Cheltenham Festival winners. As Cheltenham starts again this ...
Mar 09, 2020•45 min
The power of crying - Keith Brymer-Jones, one of the judges on the Great Pottery Throw Down, the psychoanalyst and psychotherapist Susie Orbach, and voice coach Joanna Cross discuss. Kathryn Sullivan, the first American woman to walk in space, was an astronaut in the team that launched the Hubble Space Telescope in 1990. After mastectomies the aim is to make breasts look and feel as they did before but sensitivity tends to suffer. Sarafina Nance is leading a campaign to increase understanding of...
Mar 07, 2020•56 min
Jenni Murray presents Woman’s Hour live from the Southbank Centre in London where the Women of the World Festival will be celebrating their 10th anniversary this weekend. Founded by Jude Kelly a decade ago, Jenni will be speaking to her about what inspired her to create an organisation that has involved two million people in 30 locations on six continents. What have been her stand out moments and where does the conversation need to go now? Initially offered for free following an Instagram challe...
Mar 06, 2020•42 min
Reducing anxiety in children, and helping them protect themselves and others.
Mar 05, 2020•12 min
We hear about the impetus to chronicle the civil rights struggle in 1960s Mississippi from photographer Doris Derby Women will be disproportionally affected by climate change. But they’re also at the forefront of campaigning against it. One of the most famous, Greta Thunberg, was in Bristol last week addressing crowds of young people. But have things changed since her first school strike in 2018? According to a new book, ‘Our House is on Fire – Scenes of a Family and a Planet in Crisis’, they ar...
Mar 05, 2020•45 min
Abi Dare has written a novel about house girls in Nigeria. It's called The Girl with the Louding Voice. The main character is Adunni who's 14 and has been sold into domestic servitude. She becomes a victim of rape, abuse and poverty but more than anything, she wants an education. Coronavirus is dominating the news. There's a risk that the TV, radio, and social media coverage can be scary for children. So how do we reassure them, and how do we get the message across that what they do can protect ...
Mar 04, 2020•42 min
Kathryn Sullivan, the first American woman to walk in space, was an astronaut in the team that launched the Hubble Space Telescope on April 25th, 1990. She joins Jane to talk about her experience of being a female astronaut in the '90s, and maintaining and repairing the most productive observatory in history. The UK government is a world-leading investor in research on the prevention of violence against women and girls. Between 2013 and 2019 it has invested £25 million in pilots across 12 countr...
Mar 03, 2020•47 min
Hadley Freeman has written a memoir, House of Glass, the story of her Jewish relatives across the 20th century, her grandmother and great uncles who fled Poland for Paris after the anti-Jewish pogroms in 1918. We discuss the pros and cons of crying particularly if you're in public. What's it like trying to stay in touch with your children when you're in prison? And what happens when you're on the outside again? Jane talks to Kelly who is in a documentary about women in prison, and to the governo...
Mar 02, 2020•48 min
On Monday, Harvey Weinstein was found guilty of committing a criminal sexual act and third degree rape - and could go to jail for over 20 years. He was acquitted of two counts of predatory sexual assault. While some are celebrating the verdict as the start of a new era and a sign of changing public attitudes towards sexual assault, Weinstein's lead attorney Donna Rotunno promised to appeal, saying "the fight is not over". So what does the ruling mean for women? The man booker prize winning autho...
Feb 29, 2020•57 min
Helen Lewis discusses her new book ‘Difficult Women: a history of feminism in 11 fights’ and why she believes that today’s feminists could gain from being more generous to the feminists of previous generations. A new Care Quality Commission report says that in a three month period in 2018, 899 sexual incidents or incidents of alleged sexual abuse were reported that took place in adult social care services such as residential and nursing homes. Elderly women were the ones most at risk. Jenni is j...
Feb 28, 2020•46 min
Childhood cancer is thankfully rare and the past few decades have seen dramatic improvements in the outlook for children diagnosed with the disease; today more than three-quarters survive. We hear from three mothers – Sam, June and Jenny - whose children were diagnosed. How did they cope day to day watching their offspring struggle through endless treatment? How does it impact the rest of the family? And how has the experience affected their response to the world around them? Presenter: Jenni Mu...
Feb 27, 2020•47 min
Astrology concepts such as retrogrades and returns are no longer niche, they’re meme-worthy, and horoscopes have evolved from a bit of fun into revered life guidance. This isn’t the first time astrology has been part of the Zeitgeist, but it’s definitely enjoying a mainstream moment. So as Mercury the planet that rules technology, travel and communication is retrograde for the first time this year, we look at what that really means and the impact it could have on our life. An estimated 1.24 mill...
Feb 26, 2020•45 min
The Military Wives Choir captured the nation’s hearts when they got the number one spot in the Christmas chart in 2011. In her new film, Sharon Horgan plays one of the women who got the choir started. She joins us to discuss working on the feel-good project. Yesterday, Harvey Weinstein was found guilty of committing a criminal sexual act and third degree rape - and could go to jail for over 20 years. He was acquitted of two counts of predatory sexual assault. While some are celebrating the verdi...
Feb 25, 2020•47 min
We continue our series Family Secrets. Listener Melanie explains why she finally went to the police to reveal her family secret after 37 years. There's global attention on President Trump’s trip to India – a guest of Prime Minister Modi of the Hindu Nationalist BJP. This morning he'll be making a speech at a cricket stadium in Gujarrat. Meanwhile- hundreds of women are said to be on hunger strike in Uttar Pradesh in the north of the country, protesting about new Citizenship laws. Salman, Divya A...
Feb 24, 2020•48 min
Phoebe Waller-Bridge, famous for Fleabag and Killing Eve, is on the programme. We hear why the fear of being sick or hearing others be sick affects more women than men. It's called emetophobia and someone who suffers from it explains what it's like. Professor David Veale, a consultant psychiatrist at the Maudsley Hospital, joins us too. Islamic faith marriages aren’t valid under English law according to a recent Court of Appeal ruling. Now campaigners are worried that thousands of Muslim women h...
Feb 22, 2020•57 min
Phoebe Waller-Bridge, the award-winning writer and creator of Fleabag, tells Jenni Murray about all things Fleabag: from celibacy, religion and sexual fluidity to the relationship between feminism and breast size, and of course the ‘Hot Priest’. Plus insight into the characters from Killing Eve, behind the scenes working on the new Bond film and how friends can be the greatest love story of your life. After the first season of Fleabag aired on the BBC in 2016, Phoebe brought us more complex and ...
Feb 21, 2020•43 min
The trouser suit: powerful in its own right or just a copy-cat of a man's? The fashion historian, Lydia Edwards, has a new book out called How to Read a Suit. She discusses when they became fashionable for women and if we'll still be wearing them in the future. We talk to Cherry Vann, the new Bishop of Monmouth. She's the first openly gay woman bishop in the UK, as well as the first bishop - male or female - to be in a civil partnership. She officially became bishop this month but just beforehan...
Feb 20, 2020•46 min
