The multi award-winning singer songwriter Annie Lennox has been part of the musical landscape for almost 50 years, from her days in The Tourists, to the Eurythmics and then going solo. Now at the age of 70, Annie has brought out a book of photographs called Annie Lennox: Retrospective, and talks to Nuala McGovern about her life and career. President Trump has said that pregnant women should avoid paracetamol because of the risks of autism and that US doctors will soon be advised not to prescribe...
Sep 23, 2025•56 min
Journalist Mary McCarthy has been avoiding motorways for years, even planning her life around how to dodge them. She tells Kylie Pentelow how she discovered it’s a far more common problem than you might think, especially among women in mid-life. England are through to the Rugby World Cup final. They face Canada next Saturday but who will we see lift the trophy? Former player Kat Merchant gives her view. Who is Erika Kirk? Kylie speaks to Anne McElvoy, executive editor at Politico and host of the...
Sep 22, 2025•57 min
How well does the law serve women? That’s a question Nuala puts to Brenda Marjorie Hale, The Rt. Hon. The Baroness Hale of Richmond, DBE a former judge who served as the first female President of the Supreme Court. She was the first woman and the youngest person to be appointed to the Law Commission, where she led the work on what became the 1989 Children Act. In 2019 she announced the Supreme Court’s judgement that the prorogation of Parliament was ‘unlawful, void and of no effect’. She discuss...
Sep 20, 2025•57 min
If your doctor or surgeon was convicted of rape you might expect them to be struck off. But that isn't always the case according to new research out today. The study by the Royal College of Surgeons looked at decisions by the medical practioners tribunal service, which rules on misconduct cases and decides on the sanctions. In a quarter of cases, they were more lenient than recommendations from the General Medical Council. They looked at 46 cases. In 11, the doctor was suspended instead of being...
Sep 19, 2025•58 min
A group of cross-party MPs has called for root and branch transformation of the way mainstream education caters for children and young people with special educational needs and disablities, including new statutory minimum standards. One of the recommendations of the Education Select Committee is that individual care plans for children with special educational needs EHCPs should NOT be scrapped in England. The Government is expected to publish its plans on how to reform SEND provision in England ...
Sep 18, 2025•58 min
To so many women the symptoms of pregnancy are instant, intense and unmistakeable; however some make it the full nine months without having any idea they’re even pregnant. This phenomenon is known as cryptic pregnancy, and the British Medical Journal suggests it’s more common than triplets. Nuala McGovern is joined by two women who have experienced this first-hand, plus Professor of Midwifery, Helen Cheyne to discuss. Actor Karen Pittman earned an Emmy nomination for her performance as The Morni...
Sep 17, 2025•56 min
As Donald Trump arrives in the UK for his second state visit, we examine how women feel about the US President now and how the Epstein scandal might feature in discussions as Keir Starmer faces more pressure about how he handled Lord Mandelson’s resignation. Nuala McGovern speaks to Katy Balls from The Times, women’s campaigner Alix Valentine and Mischa Smith, the news and features editor for Marie Claire UK. How well does the law serve women? That’s a question Nuala puts to Brenda Marjorie Hale...
Sep 16, 2025•57 min
Patricia Lockwood is a poet, memoirist and novelist whose work straddles the literary world and the wilds of the internet. Patricia first went viral with her traumatic poem Rape Joke, while her memoir Priestdaddy, about being the daughter of a Catholic priest, has been called a modern classic. Patricia talks to Nuala McGovern about her new book, Will There Ever Be Another You, which explores the surreal disorientation of illness, memory and recovery in the wake of Covid. The list of hospital tru...
Sep 15, 2025•58 min
Davina McCall, one of TV’s most popular presenters has a new book out, Birthing, co-written with the midwife, Marley Henry. Davina joined Anita Rani to talk about her stellar career so far, including hosting Big Brother for 10 years, campaigning for better menopause care and building a fitness empire. What makes her tick? And what drives her forward to clear hurdles such as an usual childhood, drug addiction and most recently, brain surgery for a benign tumour that she nicknamed Jeffrey? As the ...
Sep 13, 2025•55 min
Davina McCall, one of TV’s most popular presenters has a new book out, Birthing, co-written with the midwife, Marley Henry. Davina joins Anita Rani to talk about her stellar career so far, including hosting Big Brother for 10 years, campaigning for better menopause care and building a fitness empire. What makes her tick? And what drives her forward to clear hurdles such as an usual childhood, drug addiction and most recently, brain surgery for a benign tumour that she nicknamed Jeffrey. Funding ...
Sep 12, 2025•57 min
For decades thousands of pregnant women across the UK were prescribed the drug Diethlystilbestrol or DES, a synthetic hormone that was meant to help prevent miscarriage. But the drug left a legacy of life-altering health problems for some of their children, including infertility and rare cancers. Anita Rani speaks to ITV Social Affairs Correspondent Sarah Corker who has investigated what they are calling a medical scandal that continues to devastate lives, talking to the women who say more must ...
Sep 11, 2025•56 min
On 22 August, the High court rejected Noel Clarke’s claim that accusations against him by more than 20 women were false and part of a conspiracy. The writer, actor and producer of the Kidulthood trilogy sued the Guardian News & Media over seven articles and a podcast published between April 2021 and March 2022 in which women accused him of sexual misconduct. He was seeking £70 million in damages. In a high court judgment with a 220-page document, Mrs Justice Steyn rejected Clarke’s claims, a...
Sep 10, 2025•57 min
Jung Chang’s Wild Swans, the epic family memoir that followed the lives of Jung, her mother and grandmother through China's 20th century, was banned in mainland China, but was a smash hit worldwide upon publication in 1991. Now Jung’s sequel, Fly, Wild Swans, brings her family’s story up to date. She joins Nuala McGovern. The Labour deputy leadership race could be an all-woman affair, with all current declarations coming from female MPs. Nuala gets the lowdown from Kitty Donaldson, chief politic...
Sep 09, 2025•58 min
The fallout from Angela Rayner's departure continues to dominate the headlines today as Labour's National Executive Committee is expected to meet to agree the timetable for the race to replace Rayner as the party's deputy leader. Since the reshuffle, women fill three of the four great offices of state for the first time, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Home Secretary, and the Foreign Secretary. To discuss the role of women in Labour’s reshuffled cabinet and the party's future leadership - a...
Sep 08, 2025•57 min
Actor Robin Wright joined Nuala McGovern to discuss directing and starring in new series The Girlfriend, based on the book by Michelle Frances. Best known for her award-winning role in House of Cards and much-loved movies such as Forest Gump and The Princess Bride, Robin plays Laura in the psychological thriller, a protective mother who is deeply suspicious of her son’s new girlfriend Cherry, played by Olivia Cooke. Woman's Hour spoke to women who have had the experience of someone close to them...
Sep 06, 2025•57 min
In the last of our series on life after suicide, our reporter Jo Morris meets Stef whose mother took her own life when Stef was 19. On experiencing severe depression as she approached the menopause herself, Stef found herself considering ending her own life. This has led her to thinking her mother’s death was also menopause related. So is there a link between menopause and women who choose to end their own life? Research in this area is all relatively new, but our guest Professor Pooja Saini, pr...
Sep 05, 2025•57 min
It has been four days since the huge 6.0 magnitude earthquake struck the mountainous eastern region of Afghanistan, near the city of Jalalabad. Over 1,400 people are reported to have been killed by the initial quake and its aftershocks, with over 3,000 injured. While already living their lives under the restrictions imposed by the Taliban, how are women and girls affected by this disaster? Nuala McGovern talks to Mahjooba Nowrouzi, senior journalist for the BBC’s Afghan Service. After the fall o...
Sep 04, 2025•58 min
There's a new woman deciding what's hot and what's not in the world of fashion. Chloe Malle has been appointed as the head of US Vogue - the biggest job in the industry - replacing the formidable Dame Anna Wintour. Financial Times fashion editor Elizabeth Paton tells Nuala McGovern more. Scotland Correspondent for BBC News, Lorna Gordon brings us an update on a landmark tribunal case this week involving nurse Sandie Peggie who objected to a trans woman doctor using the women’s changing room at a...
Sep 03, 2025•57 min
New figures from the latest Femicide Census out are out today. It records the killings of women. It shows that 122 women, that’s more than 2 women a week, were killed by men and boys in 2022. Most women were killed by a current or former partner, but it also reveals that 10% were killed by their sons. To discuss the findings Nuala McGovern was joined by the co-founder of the Femicide Census, Dr Karen Ingala Smith. New research from Oxford University has revealed that teenagers who suffer moderat...
Sep 02, 2025•58 min
The former Prime Minister Gordon Brown has added his voice to calls for an apology for what he has called the state's role in the "terrible tragedy" of historic forced adoptions. Between 1949 and 1976, thousands of pregnant women and girls in the UK were sent away to "prison-like" homes run by the church and state and had their babies put up for adoption. In 2021, an inquiry concluded that the State bore ultimate responsibility for the suffering inflicted on vulnerable women and their children, ...
Sep 01, 2025•57 min
As of today, eligible working parents in England can access 30 funded hours of childcare – in term time only - for children aged nine months to four years. The government is doubling the amount of funded hours it offers, but there are concerns about availability and staffing. New research from Growth Spurt and Women in Data shows that more than half of parents can’t access the funding without restrictions, paying fees or meeting extra conditions. Nuala McGovern talks to Early Years Minister Step...
Sep 01, 2025•57 min
The former Prime Minister Gordon Brown has added his voice to calls for an apology for what he has called the state's role in the "terrible tragedy" of historic forced adoptions. Between 1949 and 1976, thousands of pregnant women and girls in the UK were sent away to "prison-like" homes run by the church and state and had their babies put up for adoption. In 2021, an inquiry concluded that the State bore ultimate responsibility for the suffering inflicted on vulnerable women and their children, ...
Sep 01, 2025•55 min
New ONS stats show that fertility rates are the lowest in England and Wales since 1938 when they were first recorded. Dr Bernice Kuona is researcher in fertility and family relationships at the University of Southampton and explains the research to Anita Rani. Ann Ming’s 22-year-old daughter Julie went missing in Billingham, County Durham, in 1989. The police launched an investigation but following a search of Julie’s house they failed to find her. Three months after Julie’s disappearance, Ann w...
Aug 28, 2025•57 min
Ten child protection organisations have written an urgent letter to the home secretary expressing concern over the omission of child sexual abuse from the upcoming government strategy on violence against women and girls. A draft version of the strategy, due to be published in September, was leaked to Sky News's Mollie Malone, who first broke the story. She joins Nuala McGovern, along with Anna Edmundson from the NSPCC, one of the organisations that signed the letter. Miriam Robinson’s debut nove...
Aug 27, 2025•57 min
A new report, published yesterday, says Britain’s gender pay gap has been understated for two decades, casting doubt on the accuracy of official figures. It's news that might have big implications for women in the workplace and policymakers, from the Bank of England to ministers, who rely on these figures to make big economic decisions. Alex Bryson is Professor of Quantitative Social Science at University College London and worked on this research and Amy Borrett is a data journalist at the Fina...
Aug 26, 2025•57 min
Sussex-born cellist Laura van der Heijden won the BBC Young Musician of the Year at the age of 15 in 2012. She's now been named as the Royal Philharmonic Society's Instrumentalist of the Year and will be the Artist in Residence at this year's Lammermuir Festival in Scotland. Laura tells Kylie Pentelow about her repertoire, her love of the outdoors, and plays live in the studio. Women who've been stalked, or had to take out a restraining order, have a much higher chance of suffering a heart attac...
Aug 25, 2025•54 min
Join Anita Rani as she broadcasts live from Blaydon Rugby Club in Gateshead ahead of the first game of the Women's Rugby World Cup. Tonight England kick off the tournament on home soil by facing the USA in Sunderland at the Stadium of Light. To preview tonight's game and the tournament to come, we are joined by former England player and World Cup winner Kat Merchant. We also hear from the Managing Director at World Rugby, Sarah Massey on how she hopes to ensure this World Cup is a success. Blayd...
Aug 22, 2025•57 min
Jess Folley has been a popstar for almost a decade and she's still only 22. At 14 she won The Voice Kids and later triumphed on X Factor: The Band, with pop group RLY. Since then she's been carving out a career as a songwriter and releasing music under her own name. Jess tells Datshiane Navanayagam about stepping into the corset and heels made famous by Christina Aguilera to play the lead role of Ali Rose in Burlesque the Musical in the West End. Women whose data was leaked after they signed up ...
Aug 21, 2025•53 min
Sister Bliss started out DJing on London’s gay club scene, before co-founding Faithless in 1995 and became one of the few women of her generation to help shape UK dance culture. Faithless have sold more than 20 million albums and amassed close to a billion streams. 30 years on from the hit dance anthem Insomnia, she joins Nuala McGovern to discuss their latest album - Champion Sound. Too many recommendations, not enough implementation - these are the findings of the latest report into maternity ...
Aug 20, 2025•56 min
If you knew the world was about to end, what would you do? That’s the dilemma Karen Gillan’s character faces in new film, The Life of Chuck, in which she stars opposite Chiwetel Ejiofor. Karen tells Nuala McGovern about her latest role, her evolving relationship with the Marvel films and her hope to return to directing. 'This report must act as a line in the sand…it should be read as a snapshot of what rock bottom looks like.’ That’s the warning from the Children’s Commissioner, two years on fro...
Aug 19, 2025•58 min
