Nearly one in five teachers working in England has been hit by a pupil, according to a new BBC commissioned survey of 9,000 teachers. The survey, gathered between February and March this year, also found that 15% of secondary school teachers say they have experienced sexual harassment from a pupil when working at a school. The teacher workforce is predominantly female, 76% of teachers are women. Nuala McGovern is joined by Dr Patrick Roach, General Secretary of teacher’s union NASUWT. It’s 60 ye...
Mar 28, 2024•57 min
The leader of the Taliban has declared on state television that women who commit adultery will be stoned to death. Nuala McGovern speaks to the former deputy speaker of the Afghan Parliament, Fawzia Koofi. We look at the legacy of children's TV executive Kay Benbow, hailed as “Queen of the Beebies”, who has died with historian Dr Emily Baughan and producer Anne Wood. Our reporter Jo Morris talks to the mum of a young man who got into serious trouble with drugs in the third in our series Breaking...
Mar 27, 2024•54 min
Killed Women is a group formed of relatives of women who were murdered in domestic abuse situations. They are campaigning to get the minimum sentence for domestic homicide raised, so it’s the same as if the victim was killed on the street. Julie Devey, a member of Killed Women whose daughter Poppy was stabbed to death in bed, joins Nuala McGovern alongside Clare Ward KC, who led last year’s independent review into Domestic Homicide Sentencing. When and if a woman chooses to have children is beco...
Mar 26, 2024•57 min
Described as a grim portrayal of human nature, Mothers’ Instinct is a film about the darker side of maternal love. Academy Award-winning actresses Jessica Chastain and Anne Hathaway play best friends raising sons of the same age in the same neighbourhood. The psychological thriller follows their apparently picture-perfect life in Sixties suburbia. The two friends in real life join Nuala McGovern to discuss. A new BBC study of elite British sportswomen shows that many are training and chasing med...
Mar 25, 2024•57 min
Dame Laura Kenny, Britain's most decorated female Olympian, talks to Emma Barnett about her sporting career, motherhood and her decision to quit cycling. Friday’s Woman’s Hour came live from Doncaster which came bottom of one league table for opportunities for women entrepreneurs in the UK last year, according to the website money.co.uk which analysed data from the Office for National Statistics. So we wanted to find out why. Anita was joined by BBC Radio Sheffield’s Paulette Edwards to speak to...
Mar 23, 2024•55 min
Woman’s Hour is joined by BBC Radio Sheffield in Doncaster for a special live panel show to find out how to be a successful female entrepreneur. Woman’s Hour presenter Anita Rani and BBC Sheffield presenter Paulette Edwards talk to local business women and experts about how to start and sustain a thriving business. They investigate how the stubborn barriers of funding, childcare and confidence are still holding women back and explore the interventions needed to bring about lasting change, so mor...
Mar 22, 2024•54 min
A long-awaited report on how women born in the 1950s were affected by increases to their retirement age - the so-called WASPI women, which stands for women against state pension inequality - has been published today. It recommends compensation and says the Department for Work and Pensions failed to adequately inform the women affected. Emma Barnett hears from Steve Webb, former pensions minister from 2010 to 2015, when changes to pension ages were accelerated, and to Frances Neil, a WASPI coordi...
Mar 21, 2024•57 min
On 27 February, Emma Barnett spoke to Zoe Clark-Coates, who runs the baby loss and bereavement charity The Mariposa Trust, about her campaign for baby loss certificates. They were introduced in England in February for parents who’ve lost a baby before 24 weeks of pregnancy. Emma shares her own story and also speaks to a woman who’s decided it’s not for her, and another who applied straight away and has now received four baby loss certificates. Have you ever had a nagging feeling that something w...
Mar 20, 2024•57 min
The Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves is today delivering a speech in which she’ll promise to ‘reform the Treasury’. If Labour were to win the next General Election, she would be the first female Chancellor the UK has seen. But what would her economic plans mean for women? And how do they compare to the current government’s? Economic Adviser Vicky Pryce and Journalist Lucy Fisher join Emma Barnett to discuss. Bestselling novelist Lesley Pearse has written 31 books and sold over 10 million copies w...
Mar 19, 2024•58 min
Dame Laura Kenny, Britain's most decorated female Olympian, talks to Emma Barnett about her sporting career, motherhood and her decision to quit cycling. Are we staying in more since the pandemic? We talk to Kate Nicholls OBE, CEO of UK Hospitality, and Ellen Scott, Acting Digital Content Director at Stylist Magazine. Our pornography series continues with 'Elaine', a woman in her late 60s who's worried about her husband's porn use. Followed by a discussion about the effect habitual porn use has ...
Mar 18, 2024•57 min
Cara Dillon won the All Ireland singing trophy aged only 14 and has gone on to receive countless awards and accolades including Album Of The Year at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. She has worked for Disney – singing the title song to the animated movie Tinkerbell and the Great Fairy Rescue, and topped the charts with dance remixes. She joins Emma to discuss her book and a new album – Coming Home – in which she brings storytelling, poetry, and song, offering personal memories and stories inspired b...
Mar 16, 2024•53 min
As part of our ongoing series on pornography and how it’s shaping our relationships, we’ve heard from many of our female listeners whose attitudes and feelings towards porn vary greatly. Men are still the major consumers and producers of porn, so today we hear from some of them. Clare McDonnell is joined by the Times journalist Sean Russell, a man in his 30s, and two listeners: Jake, who is in his 40s, and also Gabriel, who is in his 60s. The three share how porn has shaped their sex and relatio...
Mar 15, 2024•57 min
Folk singer Cara Dillon joins Emma Barnett to discuss her book and a new album – Coming Home – which explores themes of family, identity and home. Host of the UK’s first ever maths summit, mathmetician Anne-Marie Imafidon talks about hosting the UK's first ever maths summit and the importance of the subject for business. Seven out of 10 candidates who've been selected to stand for the Conservative Party at the next election are men, according to new data gleaned by the journalist Michael Crick. ...
Mar 14, 2024•53 min
A new law will be introduced in the House of Commons at lunchtime today to clear the names of the hundreds of sub-postmasters wrongly convicted for theft and false accounting. To discuss what this means Emma Barnett is joined by Jo Hamilton, a former post sub-master who was wrongly charged with stealing £36,000 from the Hampshire village post office she ran and BBC Economics Correspondent Andy Verity. A fertility clinic in London has recently had its license suspended over what are being called ...
Mar 13, 2024•57 min
A group of mums called Mothers' Manifesto are on day three of a five-day hunger strike in front of Parliament. They’re trying to draw attention to food insecurity and the plight of mums who have to go without food to ensure their children can eat. Today they’re meeting MPs to campaign for universal free school meals. Organiser Emma Hopkins tells Emma Barnett what they’ll be asking for. A former dancer has brought a legal case against her performing arts school alleging verbal and emotional abuse...
Mar 12, 2024•58 min
For the first time, four mums are speaking out about what it was like to be at the centre of a conspiracy that went viral, even reaching the USA. Accused: The Hampstead Paedophile Hoax is a new documentary that looks at what happened to them. Director Emily Turner and mum ‘Anna’ (not her real name) join Emma Barnett to talk about why they wanted to speak out and share this story. The photograph gracing the front pages this morning of the Princess of Wales with her children, reportedly taken by P...
Mar 11, 2024•55 min
The South London singer-songwriter Raye joins Emma Barnett following her record-breaking six wins at the Brit awards last weekend. Raye tells us about her grandma Agatha who joined her on stage after winning Best Album for My 21st Century Blues. She also talks about being a woman in the music industry and the strength she has found from fellow female musician Charli XCX. A new documentary, Copa 71, follows the trailblazing women who headed to Mexico for an unofficial Women's World Cup in 1971. W...
Mar 09, 2024•56 min
A new documentary, Copa 71, follows the trailblazing women who headed to Mexico for an unofficial Women's World Cup in 1971. Woman's football had been banned in many countries including the UK for 50 years. Unperturbed 6 teams gathered and played in front of crowds of 100,000 fans. One of those players, Chris Lockwood joins Anita Rani alongside co-director of the film Rachel Ramsay. On International Woman's Day Maidenhead MP and former Prime Minister Theresa May has announced she is standing dow...
Mar 08, 2024•57 min
Nikki Haley has officially dropped out of the race to become Republican candidate for US President. So what does this mean for the upcoming elections, for women voters and also for women in politics? Emma Barnett speaks to political strategist at the Harvard Belfer Center, Shannon Felton Spence and director of the US and Americas at Chatham House, Leslie Vinjamuri. The author Liz Jensen’s son Raphael was a wildlife biologist, an environmental activist, and a prominent member of Extinction Rebell...
Mar 07, 2024•57 min
The South London singer-songwriter Raye joins Emma Barnett following her record-breaking six wins at the Brit awards last weekend. Raye tells us about her grandma Agatha who joined her on stage after winning Best Album for My 21st Century Blues. She also talks about being a woman in the music industry and the strength she has found from fellow female musician Charli XCX. The English channel has always held an allure for endurance swimmers the world over, but the first British woman to complete i...
Mar 06, 2024•56 min
Two years after the US Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion, lawmakers in France yesterday made history by enshrining this right in their country's constitution - it was a global first. We talk to Stephanie Hennette-Vauchez about the change. Singer-songwriter Sarah Jane Morris performs live. We look at what's behind the cuts to Birmingham City Council's budget - equal pay or a new IT system? With Heather Jameson, editor of the Municipal Journal and Dr James Brackley, lec...
Mar 05, 2024•54 min
On the 3rd March 2021, Sarah Everard was murdered by Wayne Couzens, an off-duty police officer. The incident sparked national outrage and a surge in fighting violence against women and girls. Three years on, how much has changed? Emma Barnett speaks to the Detective Inspector who interviewed Wayne Couzens, Nick Harvey, and former Detective Superintendent Shabnam Chaudri. If you’ve browsed through political podcasts recently, you’d be forgiven for thinking the guys have got that particular market...
Mar 04, 2024•53 min
The twice Oscar-nominated actor Samantha Morton has just received the Bafta Fellowship: a lifetime achievement award which recognises an outstanding contribution to film and television. She grew up in the social care system and began working in film and television at the age of 13. In a moving speech at the Baftas last week, Samantha dedicated the award to every child in care today. Both Republicans and Democrats in the US state of Alabama are trying to find a legal solution that would protect a...
Mar 02, 2024•44 min
A parliamentary committee has issued a new and scathing report about Primodos - a pregnancy test drug issued by doctors between the1950s and 1970s. The All Party Parliamentary Group on Hormone Pregnancy Tests says claims there is no proven link between Primodos and babies being born with malformations is “factually and morally wrong". The report claims evidence was “covered up” that it's possible to “piece together a case that could reveal one of the biggest medical frauds of the 20th century”. ...
Mar 01, 2024•58 min
Both Republicans and Democrats in the US state of Alabama are trying to find a legal solution that would protect access to IVF treatment, after a court ruling cast doubt on its future. Alabama's Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that frozen embryos have the same rights as children. Jenny Kleeman speaks to lawyer Eric Wrubel, who specialises in fertility law and Kristia Rumbley who has three frozen embryos at a fertility clinic in Alabama. How is porn shaping our sex lives? In a new Woman’s ...
Feb 29, 2024•58 min
Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is calling for 'Raneem’s Law' in memory of a 22-year-old woman who was stabbed to death by her ex-husband. Raneem Oudeh spoke to police five times in less than two hours before her ex-husband killed her and her mother Khaola Saleem in 2018. One of Labour’s proposals is for domestic abuse specialists in 999 control rooms so that victims speak to an expert from their first call. Emma speaks to Yvette Cooper in her first broadcast interview on the issue and also ...
Feb 28, 2024•58 min
Through her songs, the Mercury prize nominated singer/songwriter Nadine Shah has explored mental health, the refugee crisis and feminism. The subject matter of her last album, Kitchen Sink, included themes of fertility, tradition and identity told through the stories of women at different stages of their lives. Now Nadine’s latest work - Filthy Underneath – is a raw collection of songs which chronicle a period of unprecedented turbulence in her life from grief to addiction and PTSD. The new podc...
Feb 27, 2024•53 min
The twice Oscar-nominated actor Samantha Morton has just received the Bafta Fellowship: a lifetime achievement award which recognises an outstanding contribution to film and television. She grew up in the social care system and began working in film and television at the age of 13. In a moving speech at the Baftas last week, Samantha dedicated the award to every child in care today. 2024 is a leap year and 29 February is the day when traditionally women are "allowed" to propose to their male par...
Feb 26, 2024•57 min
It has been almost two years since the death of The Wanted star Tom Parker after he was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour in 2020 aged 33. His wife, Kelsey Parker, announced last month that, after a lot of reflection, it was time to take off her wedding rings. Kelsey tells Anita Rani about the decision and how she has dealt with her grief. The Ukrainian government says it has identified 20,000 children who have been abducted by Russian forces. This week saw 11 Ukrainian children reunited...
Feb 24, 2024•56 min
It has been almost two years since the death of The Wanted star Tom Parker after he was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour in 2020 aged 33. His wife, Kelsey Parker, announced last month that, after a lot of reflection, it was time to take off her wedding rings. Kelsey joins Anita Rani in the Woman’s Hour studio to discuss this decision and how she has dealt with her grief. What is the impact of 'sharenting' on the first generation of kids who grew up with it? Dorothy Koomson's new thrille...
Feb 23, 2024•57 min
