We hear about the thousands of women suing the breast implant manufacturer Allergan over alleged links with a rare cancer. We have an exclusive interview with a woman who has received a payout from the company after falling sick. Susan Axelby tells our reporter Melanie Abbott that she ended up being diagnosed with cancer after having an operation which was supposed to prevent it. Plus, Nuala McGovern is joined by lawyer Sarah Moore to go over details of the case and reveal whether more women in ...
Sep 04, 2024•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast Head teacher Ruth Perry took her own life in January last year whilst waiting for the publication of an Ofsted report she knew would grade her school as "inadequate". Ruth’s sister, Professor Julia Waters, has been campaigning for change in the way Ofsted rates schools ever since. A review was published today into Ofsted's response to Ruth Perry’s death, and yesterday the Government announced changes to the way the school's inspector for England rates schools. Nuala McGovern is joined by Profess...
Sep 03, 2024•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast One or two-word Ofsted inspection grades for England's schools are being scrapped immediately. Early next year, school improvement teams will be set up in every area, and the Government says it will continue to intervene in struggling schools. By September 2025, parents will be able to view a new "report card" describing what inspectors have found at a school. BBC Correspondent Ellie Price joins Nuala McGovern to discuss the changes, as does Sir Michael Wilshaw, former Chief Inspector of Educati...
Sep 02, 2024•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast A new Netflix series, Kaos is a modern, darkly comic retelling of Greek mythology that will perhaps have you seeing the gender politics of ancient Greece in a new light. Stage and film actor Janet McTeer stars as the Queen of the gods, Hera. Janet joins Anita to talk about Hera’s sexual power as well as her previous roles and what has changed in the industry. If you were watching the Paris Olympics, you might have spotted identical twins Lina and Laviai Nielsen taking to the track. The Olympic d...
Aug 31, 2024•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast Nicki Chapman is well-known for presenting shows like Escape to the Country and Wanted Down Under and also a regular presenter on BBC Radio 2. She started out as a record plugger in the music industry – and now she’s written a memoir, So Tell Me What You Want, which lifts the lid on what it was like managing and touring with the likes of David Bowie, Take That, and S Club. She joins Anita Rani to talk about her career so far and her recent cancer diagnosis. Two sisters, Eileen Macleod and Mauree...
Aug 30, 2024•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast Protests have been happening across India after a 31-year-old junior doctor was raped and murdered in a hospital in Kolkata earlier this month. Her death prompted marches and strikes nationwide over safety issues for female doctors and this soon developed into a talking point for women’s safety in general. BBC Delhi Correspondent Kirti Dubey joins Anita Rani to report on the latest news, along with Dr Aishwarya Singh Raghuvanshi, a female doctor in India. A new Netflix series, Kaos is a modern, ...
Aug 29, 2024•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Real Thing is a play within a play currently on stage at the Old Vic in London. It encourages the audience to question why we fall in love, what is fact and what is fiction. And can we can ever really know if the love we are experiencing is the real thing? Actors Susan Wokoma and Bel Powley star in the production and join Nuala in the Woman’s Hour studio to discuss. Over the summer Woman’s Hour is taking a deep dive into the world of “genre” fiction and today we are entering the gripping and...
Aug 28, 2024•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Paris Paralympic Games begin tomorrow. Nuala is joined by Paralympian turned broadcaster Rachael Latham to talk us through the women we should be looking out for over the next 12 days. Composer and singer-songwriter Errollyn Wallen joins Nuala after being appointed the new Master of the King's Music. The position has existed since the 17th century and is awarded to musicians who have added to the musical life of the nation, but Wallen is only the second woman to hold the post. Her work is so...
Aug 27, 2024•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast Whether you have a sister or not, it’s a relationship that has long fascinated us. In this special edition of Woman’s Hour, Nuala McGovern explores what makes the female sibling dynamic so compelling. If you were watching the Paris Olympics, you might have spotted identical twins Lina and Laviai Nielsen taking to the track. The Olympic duo join Nuala to discuss competing together at an elite level in athletics, winning bronze side-by-side for Team GB, and navigating triumphs and challenges in th...
Aug 26, 2024•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast Listener Week is when all the topics, interviews and discussions are chosen by YOU! We hear from listener Siobhan Daniels. She wrote to us on Instagram: 'I would love you to talk about van life and an alternative way of living.' Siobhan is 65 years old and after selling her home and possessions has lived in her motorhome for five years. She joins Nuala McGovern on the programme. Listener Kitty Dowry wanted us to take a look at so called 'risky' sports, and to encourage us all to look at them in ...
Aug 24, 2024•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast Listener Week is when all the topics, interviews and discussions are chosen by YOU! Woman's Hour listener Elaine asked the programme to discuss the issue of having sex in later life. Elaine is in her seventies and her partner would like to resume a sexual relationship. They are both negotiating medical conditions and she feels reluctant. Elaine would like to know what is typical or normal in your seventies. Sex and relationship therapist Charlene Douglas and Dr Clare Gerada, former President of ...
Aug 23, 2024•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast Listener Week is when all the topics, interviews and discussions are chosen by YOU! What is it like to parent a neurodivergent child when you are neurodivergent yourself? Anita Rani speaks to listener Rachel, who discovered she had ADHD after her daughter was diagnosed, and Jo, whose children have dyslexia. How one moment or person can change your life’s trajectory. Listener Bettie tells Anita how a childhood invite to a friend's house introduced her to a new way of life—one she says saved her. ...
Aug 22, 2024•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast Listener Week is when all the topics, interviews and discussions are chosen by YOU! As part of Listener Week we have been asked by widows to discuss one side effect of bereavement – hyper-arousal, and the term ‘Widow’s Fire’. Nuala McGovern explores these ideas with listener Lizzie, Stacey Heale, who has written a book – Now is Not the Time for Flowers - about her experience of being widowed, and also by the psychotherapist Lucy Beresford, who can shed some light on what might be going on. DNA t...
Aug 21, 2024•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast Listener Week is when all the topics, interviews and discussions are chosen by YOU! Why do so many of us feel bad about our tummies and why are the rounded or wobbly ones never celebrated? That’s what listener Carole wants to know. Content creator Lottie Drynan created the IBS blog The Tummy Diaries and #mybloatedwardrobe and has learned to love her rounded stomach. She joins Nuala McGovern, along with Charlotte Boyce, Associate Professor in Victorian Literature and Culture at Portsmouth Univers...
Aug 20, 2024•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to Woman's Hour's Listener Week, when all the topics, interviews and discussions are chosen by YOU! On today's programme, we hear from listener Siobhan Daniels. She wrote to us on Instagram: 'I would love you to talk about van life and an alternative way of living.' Siobhan is 65 years old and after selling her home and possessions has lived in her motorhome for five years. She joins Nuala McGovern on the programme. A message from a listener raised his concerns about the amount of time i...
Aug 19, 2024•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast Fresh from the Paris Olympic Games, the Team GB weightlifter Emily Campbell joins Jessica Creighton on the programme. Best known for her no-nonsense attitude, fabulous hair and of course, lifting extremely heavy weights, she joins Jessica to discuss adding bronze to her silver medal from Tokyo. In 2020, Jade Blue McCrossen-Nethercott had the case against her alleged rapist dropped by the CPS. They said that the defence had suggested she suffered from ‘sexsomnia’, where a person performs sexual a...
Aug 17, 2024•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast A new study just published says that perimenopausal women are more likely to experience bipolar and major depressive disorder. Cardiff University academics worked with charity Bipolar UK and the UK Biobank, a large-scale biomedical database, to look at nearly 130,000 UK women and focused on the four years around the last menstrual period. Dr Clare Dolman, an ambassador for Bipolar UK and patient and public involvement lead on the project, joins Jessica Creighton. We Might Regret This is a brand ...
Aug 16, 2024•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast Fresh from the Paris Olympic Games, the Team GB weightlifter Emily Campbell joins Jessica Creighton on the programme. Best known for her no-nonsense attitude, fabulous hair and of course, lifting extremely heavy weights, she joins Jessica to discuss adding bronze to her silver medal from Tokyo. A Glasgow parents group is taking legal action against the city council over planned education cuts. It is calling on the council to halt implementation of reductions to teacher numbers and a mentoring sc...
Aug 15, 2024•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast Throughout the summer we’ve been taking a look into the world of 'genre fiction' – the women who read it and the women who write it. In the latest of this series, we’re going to discuss science fiction. Seen by some as 'a genre for men,' there are lots of women authors and readers who think otherwise. Bafta-nominated screenwriter and playwright, Moira Buffini, who's written The Dig and TV series Harlots, joins Nuala to discuss her debut science fiction novel, Songlight. Larissa Lai, science fict...
Aug 14, 2024•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Annie Ernaux’s Booker-nominated book, Les Années, traces her journey from childhood in post-war France to old age in the post-9/11 era. Now adapted for the stage, Gina Mckee, Deborah Findlay and Romola Garai, alongside Anjli Mohindra and Harmony Rose-Bremner, are the five actors portraying different stages in the life of an ‘unnamed’ French woman. Romola Garai joins Nuala McGovern in the Woman’s Hour studio. We talk to Regina Barzilay, a Professor of AI & Health in the Department of Computer...
Aug 13, 2024•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast For the first time in history, the Paris 2024 Olympics saw an equal number of men and women competing. But that's not always been the case - in fact, back in 1912, the father of the Olympic games Pierre de Coubertin said that having women compete in the games would be 'impractical, uninteresting, ungainly and, I do not hesitate to add, improper'. Luckily, the Olympics didn’t just have the father of the games – it also had the MOTHER of games, Alice Milliat. BBC Mundo’s Laura Garcia tells us all ...
Aug 12, 2024•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Lottie Tomlinson rose to fame as the younger sister of One Direction’s Louis Tomlinson. At 16, she went on tour with the band as a makeup artist and a decade on, has become an entrepreneur. Lottie’s mother and sister died within a few years of each other, when she was just 20-years-old. She joins Anita to talk about her experience of grief, which she’s written about her new memoir, Lucky Girl. Madwomen of the West is currently on stage at the Riverside Studios in London. Set in a suburban mansio...
Aug 10, 2024•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast This evening at the Olympics, Algerian boxer Imane Khelif will fight for a gold medal in the women’s welterweight event. Tomorrow, Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting will compete for gold in the final of the women’s featherweight boxing. Both boxers have faced serious controversy over their eligibility to compete. To take us through what’s going on, Anita Rani speaks to the BBC’s Sport Editor, Dan Roan. Lottie Tomlinson rose to fame as the younger sister of One Direction’s Louis Tomlinson. At 16, she went on ...
Aug 09, 2024•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast First to the news that thousands of anti-racism protesters gathered in cities and towns across England last night. They were rallying in response to a week of anti-immigration rioting and racist violence, sparked by misinformation over the deadly stabbings in Southport on 29 July. Thousands of extra police officers had been deployed last night but the protests were largely peaceful with few serious incidents. Some of the largest gatherings were in north London, Brighton and Bristol. To discuss, ...
Aug 08, 2024•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast Kerry-Ann Knight, who served in the army for over a decade, has spoken out about the years of racist and sexist abuse she received whilst serving saying that it made her life "a living hell". She joins Nuala to discuss her experience of taking the Ministry of Defence to an employment tribunal where she accepted a substantial settlement, along with an apology. Her experience has led to lawyer Emma Norton - who's an expert in this field - to call for an inquiry in to the experiences of black and m...
Aug 07, 2024•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast Keely Hodgkinson has won gold in the women's 800 metres at the Paris Olympics. It's only Team GB's 10th ever female gold medal in athletics. Nuala McGovern is joined by five-time Olympic athlete Jo Pavey to reflect on Keely's success and what it means for the career of the 22-year-old. The Paris 2024 Olympics was set to be the first where men could compete alongside women in the synchronised swimming, now known as artistic swimming. Bill May has been campaigning for this change for the last 30 y...
Aug 06, 2024•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast Unrest has continued in several towns and cities across the UK this weekend. Downing Street is expected to hold an emergency response meeting called COBRA today. Nuala McGovern explores how women have been involved and affected by what has happened, with BBC News Correspondent Jessica Lane, Iman Atta, Director of Tell Mama, and Dr Elizabeth Pearson, author of Extreme Britain: Gender, Masculinity and Radicalisation and Senior Lecturer at Royal Holloway, University of London. Madwomen of the West ...
Aug 05, 2024•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast Amanda Abbington joins Anita Rani to talk about her new role in Tawni O’Dell’s play When It Happens To You. Amanda plays Tara, a mother who is desperately trying to hold her family together after her daughter is brutally attacked. She discusses playing a mother whose own trauma is triggered by her daughter’s experiences and how a culture of shame can lead to women’s silence. The Labour government has confirmed that it will act on its manifesto commitment to change the way private school fees are...
Aug 03, 2024•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast Amanda Abbington joins Anita Rani to talk about her new role in Tawni O’Dell’s play When It Happens To You. Amanda plays Tara, a mother who is desperately trying to hold her family together after her daughter is brutally attacked. She discusses playing a mother whose own trauma is triggered by her daughter’s experiences and how a culture of shame can lead to women’s silence. In the latest in our series on ‘genre fiction’, we turn to the UK’s most popular genre: crime fiction. Jane Casey is the c...
Aug 02, 2024•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast The prime minister today will be meeting police leaders to discuss the riots in Southport following the horrific attacks which left three small girls dead - and eight other children and two adults injured, with some believed to be in critical condition. A 17-year-old youth is due to appear in court later today charged with the murders, and 10 counts of attempted murder.The violence of the riots there will have compounded the fear and worry of those in the area, and given the community little tim...
Aug 01, 2024•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
