A new exhibition, Photographing Protest: Resistance through a feminist lens, features striking protest images by women and explores how images of resistance resonate across generations from 1968 to the present day. Maggie Murray, a prolific photographer of protest, whose images feature throughout the exhibition. As a founding member of Format photo agency, she documented ground-breaking protests of the 1980s and 1990s and tells Emma about her work. Currently based in Warsaw, Melinda Simmons has ...
Mar 21, 2022•57 min
As Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe comes home after six years in Iranian detention, Emma spoke to the Foreign Secretary Liz Truss MP about what it took to secure her release along with another British-Iranian hostage Anoosheh Ashoori. In true popstar fashion, singer Rihanna announced her pregnancy in January with a New York photoshoot alongside her boyfriend, the rapper ASAP Rocky, wearing a bright pink coat, with layers of gold jewellery and chains resting on her new baby bump. And since that announc...
Mar 18, 2022•44 min
Brittney Griner is 6 foot 9. She's an American basketball player, some say she's the greatest female basketball player of all time and she is currently being detained in Russia on drug charges that could carry a sentence of up to 10 years in prison. Overnight Russian courts have extended her detention for two more months. All this while tensions between Russia and the States remain tense and her family worry she may be used as a political pawn. Molly McElwee, the Telegraph's Women's Sports repor...
Mar 18, 2022•57 min
As Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe comes home after six years in Iranian detention, Emma speaks to the Foreign Secretary Liz Truss MP about what it took to secure her release along with another British-Iranian hostage Anoosheh Ashoori.
Mar 17, 2022•58 min
The recent resignation of DUP First Minister, Paul Givan, from Stormont last month, has left people in Northern Ireland without a properly functioning government. On top of that, an election is coming - one that could bring massive political change if recent polls are to be believed. Leading unionist and DUP MLA Diane Dodds joins Emma on the programme to discuss Brexit, the Northern Ireland protocol and cooperation in Stormont. A damning new report has revealed how a black schoolgirl was strip s...
Mar 16, 2022•57 min
Marina Ovsyannikova is an employee of Russia’s state Channel One television interrupting the channel’s main news programme on Monday night in an extraordinary act of protest against Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. She burst on to the set of the live broadcast of the nightly news on Monday evening, shouting: “Stop the war. No to war.” - holding a handwritten sign to the same effect. The protest was welcomed by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky who mentioned it in his televised address ...
Mar 15, 2022•56 min
On Saturday a ceremony took place at Bristol Cathedral to replace a plaque that marked the day women priests were first ordained by the Church of England, in 1994. The original plaque only listed the names of the men who attended the ceremony, and not the 32 women who had made history that day. Almost 30 years later, the plaque finally displays the women’s names. Emma speaks to Reverend Angela Berners-Wilson, the first woman to be ordained by the church, and the Bishop of Bristol, Right Reverend...
Mar 14, 2022•57 min
Why in 2022 is there no position in the Cabinet solely dedicated to the job of Women and Equalities? Why is it always tagged onto another cabinet role? We hear from Amber Rudd who juggled the job of being Home Secretary, while she was also Work and Pensions Secretary and from Shadow Women and Equalities Minister Anneliese Dodds, who's also Chair of the Labour Party. There have been elections in India this week and one journalist who’s been covering them is Rana Ayyub. She’s an Indian, Muslim jou...
Mar 12, 2022•57 min
She’s been credited with inspiring the likes of the Spice Girls and Madonna – singer and songwriter Betty Boo is back. The platinum success artist made a name for herself in the 1990’s for her unapologetic attitude, and combination of Pop and Hip Hop music. Betty Boo has now released her first solo single in almost three decades. She joins Anita Rani to reflect on her career and music There have been elections in India this week and one journalist who’s been covering them is Rana Ayyub who joins...
Mar 11, 2022•57 min
Northern Ireland politics are once again in flux and the government can't really function. At the beginning of February, Sinn Fein Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill lost her role in Stormont after First Minister Paul Givan, a member of the DUP, resigned. In her role as Deputy over the years, she worked closely with former DUP leader and First Minister Arlene Foster. Now she could be on track to become the first Nationalist First Minister of Northern Ireland. In her first interview with Woma...
Mar 10, 2022•57 min
With worldwide sales in excess of 15 million albums, the Grammy award-winning singer-songwriter Joss Stone is without question among the most iconic soul singers of the modern era. She rose to fame at the age of 13 by winning a BBC talent competition and more recently won The Masked Singer. Joss has now reunited with legend Dave Stewart for her new album Never Forget My Love. In an exclusive interview in the week that her employment tribunal case continues, Maya Forstater speaks to Emma about lo...
Mar 09, 2022•57 min
Why in 2022 is there no position in the Cabinet solely dedicated to the job of Women and Equalities? Why is it always tagged onto another cabinet role? Emma talks to Amber Rudd who juggled the job of being Home Secretary while she was Work and Pensions Secretary too. Plus, Shadow Women and Equalities Minister Anneliese Dodds, who's also Chair of the Labour Party. When the war in Ukraine was just unfolding we spoke to Iryna Terlecky who's Chair of the Association of Ukrainian Women in Great Brita...
Mar 08, 2022•57 min
Emma speaks to BBC Ukraine correspondent Zhanna Bezpiatchuk about the situation in Ukraine. Today the Commons discuss the long-awaited Economic Crimes Bill. A cross party alliance of MPs will be tabling amendments to strengthen the bill. Amongst them is Labour MP, Dame Margaret Hodge who has been calling for tougher anti-corruption laws for many years, and has said there are "worrying loopholes in the bill". She joins Emma Last year, just 5% of the classical music pieces performed worldwide were...
Mar 07, 2022•57 min
Swiss-Tamil singer Priya Ragu has been shortlisted in the BBC Sound of 2022 Poll – joining Adele, Jessie J and Celeste. She tells us how her music plays homage to her heritage and is a fusion of traditional Tamil music, RnB and Soul, which she uniquely calls ‘Ragu Wavy’. All week we've been covering Ukraine. We hear from Lesia Vasylenko, a Ukrainian MP who describes her new reality of being trained to use an assault rifle to defend her family and her country and Olena Symonenko who decided to fl...
Mar 05, 2022•56 min
We have music and chat from the Swiss-Tamil singer Priya Ragu who has been shortlisted in the BBC Sound of 2022 Poll – joining Adele, Jessie J and Celeste. She tells us how her music plays homage to her heritage and is a fusion of traditional Tamil music, RnB and Soul, which she uniquely calls ‘Ragu Wavy’. The number of refugees leaving Ukraine has reached a million. If you were listening last week you'll remember the heart-breaking interview we did with Olena Symonenko. She had decided to flee ...
Mar 04, 2022•57 min
'Enough'. That’s the name of a new communication campaign launched by the Home Office this week to tackle violence against women and girls. It comes in the week of the anniversary of the abduction and murder of Sarah Everard in London, by a serving police officer. So one year on, where are we in the fight to deal with violence against women and girls? We speak to Labour MP Dame Diana Johnson who is the chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee, and to Woman's Hour listeners Polly and Rebecca ab...
Mar 03, 2022•58 min
For over thirty years Dr Suzanne Simard has done ground-breaking research on plant communication and intelligence. She is Professor of Forest Ecology at the University of British Columbia and the author of a gripping scientific memoir, Finding the Mother Tree, in which she reveals the highly complex ways trees interact and communicate. Suzanne joins Jessica in the studio. As the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues, around 660,000 refugees, most of whom are women and children, have now fled Ukr...
Mar 02, 2022•57 min
You might be forgiven for thinking that the females of most animal species are passive, maternal and monogamous – because that’s been the long-standing scientific consensus. But now the zoologist and broadcaster Lucy Cooke wants to expose the stereotypes and bias that lie beneath our common understanding of how the sexes work in the wild. Her new book is called Bitch - A Revolutionary Guide to Sex, Evolution and the Female Animal. You may also have heard her presenting a current Radio 4 series c...
Mar 01, 2022•58 min
As the conflict continues in Ukraine, we've seen footage of predominately women and children fleeing the country. But that is just one aspect of this conflict. There are also many women who have stayed in Ukraine and signed up to fight. Back in December, Ukraine's Ministry of Defence expanded the number of women who are eligible for mandatory service in the armed forces. They will be joining the 57,000 or so women, aged 18 to 60, already serving. But is there an appetite for more women to sign u...
Feb 28, 2022•57 min
In an exclusive interview, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall and future Queen Consort talks to Emma about her work with domestic abuse survivors. They are joined by Diana Parkes whose daughter Joanna Simpson was battered to death by her estranged husband in 2010. Olena Symonenko tells us about her escape to a safer part of Ukraine only to find out that her apartment that she had lived in all her life had been hit by a bomb. The actress and writer Joanna Scanlan known for her many roles in TV shows su...
Feb 26, 2022•59 min
A pivotal moment in the history of trade unions and women’s rights is to be marked by English Heritage with the placement of a blue plaque commemorating the 1888 matchgirls’ strike in East London. Curatorial Director of English Heritage, Anna Eavis, tells us about the protest, its real role in the Labour movement and why it has been so misconstrued throughout history. Millions of people across Ukraine are this morning making choices they never dreamed they'd have to make. Olena Symonenko told us...
Feb 25, 2022•57 min
Camilla the Duchess of Cornwall is now at the heart of the royal family. In her ascension day message which begins a year of celebrations to mark seventy years on the throne, the Queen said that once Prince Charles becomes King, her sincere wish is that Camilla will be at his side as Queen Consort. It's recognition for her loyalty, and her work campaigning on a variety of causes and in particular that of domestic abuse. It was a meeting in 2016 with a woman called Diana Parkes that inspired the ...
Feb 24, 2022•57 min
Margaret Atwood's latest collection of essays, Burning Questions, gathers together her essays and other occasional non-fiction pieces from 2004 to 2021. She is the author of more than fifty books of fiction, poetry and critical essays. Her novels include Cat's Eye, The Robber Bride, Alias Grace, and The Blind Assassin which won the Booker prize in 2000. Her 1985 classic, The Handmaid's Tale, was followed in 2019 by a sequel, The Testaments, which was also a Booker Prize winner (with Bernadine Ev...
Feb 23, 2022•57 min
One in six people in England and Wales have a criminal record. A new campaign #Fairchecks spearheaded by charities Transform Justice and Unlock reveals the experiences of women whose lives have been ruined by minor offences as much as 30 years on. To coincide with the Police Crime Sentencing and Courts Bill, going through the final stages of parliament, they are asking for amendments to shorten the time people must disclose their conviction, helping to give some people’s a fairer chance at a fre...
Feb 22, 2022•57 min
Today Woman's Hour has an exclusive investigation into the women who have survived domestic violence but are being exploited a second time by ‘rent farming’. These women, trapped in what is known as 'exempt accommodation' after fleeing abuse, say they often come out more traumatised than when they moved in. We reveal the legal loopholes which allow landlords to receive higher - enhanced - housing benefit, which they're meant to spend on wrap around support to get tenants' lives back on track. Bu...
Feb 21, 2022•57 min
Mina Smallman, the mother of the murdered sisters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman is one of the key women who called for Dame Cressida Dick to resign from her position as Metropolitan Commissioner. As negotiations continue on when Dame Cressida will leave, we get Mina’s reaction. Do we need a family planning one as well? Lawyer Natalie Sutherland has become one of Britain’s first fertility officers and Becky Kearns is co-founder of ‘Fertility Matters at Work.’ They talk to us about why more comp...
Feb 19, 2022•58 min
The National Theatre is embarking on a seven week tour of secondary schools. Their radical reimagining of ‘Jekyll & Hyde’ with two female leads will be watched by more than 10,500 students from across the UK, bringing live theatre to underserved areas like Doncaster, Sunderland and Wigan. It aims to create conversations about issues like Police sexual abuse, violence against women and online misogyny. Emma discusses the play with its director, Kirsty Housley. 35-year-old Christina Yuna Lee w...
Feb 18, 2022•56 min
Schools in the Indian state of Karnataka reopened yesterday after protests broke out in response to the state government trying to ban women wearing the hijab in classrooms. The issue gained widespread attention after videos and images of girls wearing hijab getting heckled while being denied entry to school went viral. Protestors took to the streets to condemn the decision, and women have marched in solidarity in cities across India. Divya Arya, BBC woman’s affairs journalist and Sumayyah Khan,...
Feb 17, 2022•58 min
An out-of-court settlement has been reached between Prince Andrew and Virginia Giuffre. She'd accused him of sexually assaulting her when she was 17. He's always denied it and hasn't admitted any liability. We examine what the settlement means for Virginia Giuffre with the lawyer, Georgina Calvert-Lee and Jess Phillips MP, who's Labour's Shadow Minister for Domestic Violence and Safeguarding. There have been some desperately sad news reports recently about children who've been killed by those th...
Feb 16, 2022•57 min
Mina Smallman whose daughters were killed in a London park gives her reaction to the latest revelations from the Metropolitan police. Vladimir Putin could launch an invasion of Ukraine "almost immediately", the UK believes as diplomatic efforts continued to avert a war in eastern Europe. Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned on Monday an invasion could take place within 48 hours as he urged Russia's president to step back from the "edge of a precipice". We hear from two women on the ground in Ukra...
Feb 15, 2022•58 min
