The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has resigned, following pressure to stand down over his failure to report prolific child abuser John Smyth. What's the reaction from female leaders in the Church of England? Nuala McGovern speaks to Bishop of Gloucester Rachel Treweek, and Reverend Canon Lucy Davis, Chair of the National Association of Diocesan Advisers in Women’s Ministry. We hear the third part of our week-long series Forgotten Children, which looks at the impact on families when one...
Nov 13, 2024•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast Following our reporter Jo Morris' interview yesterday with Kerry as part of our Forgotten Children series, Nuala McGovern investigates the impact on families when one or both parents are sent to prison. She is joined by Sarah Burrows, founder of Children Heard and Seen, a charity supporting children and families with parents or partners serving prison sentences, and Lucy Baldwin who is a research fellow at Durham University and a criminal justice consultant. Laura Bates is best known for her wor...
Nov 12, 2024•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast A new Woman's Hour series, Forgotten Children, explores the impact on families when one or both parents are sent to prison. Reporter Jo Morris hears from Kerry Wright, who was just 17 and living in Spain with her parents when British police arrived at their door and arrested both of them. Kerry’s parents were sentenced to prison in the UK, forcing her to leave her studies at an international school in Spain and return to England, uncertain of how to support herself. COP29, the UN's annual climat...
Nov 11, 2024•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast In one of his first moves since his victory in the US election, President-elect Donald Trump has named his 2024 campaign manager, Susie Wiles, as his chief of staff in the White House. She will make history as the first woman to hold the title. But what do we know about the woman Trump referred to as the "ice maiden"? Kylie Pentelow was joined by Anne McElvoy, Executive Editor at Politico and host of the Power Play podcast to discuss. The Women's 100 metre Olympic champion Julien Alfred joined C...
Nov 09, 2024•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast Former England and Manchester City captain Steph Houghton was one of the first big names in women's football. In her new book, Leading From The Back, she details her experience of fighting to take the women's game from niche to mainstream. She also talks to Kylie Pentelow about her husband, former footballer Stephen Darby, who was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease in 2018. In one of his first moves since his victory in the US election, President-elect Donald Trump has named his 2024 campaign ...
Nov 08, 2024•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast As Donald Trump has been declared the winner of the 2024 US Presidential Election and the election coverage dominates front pages around the world, we discuss what a second Trump presidency may mean for women. Krupa Padhy speaks to Woman's Hour presenter Nuala McGovern, who is in Washington DC, about what’s happened overnight, the latest news from the Harris campaign and any further information that has been revealed about women voters. Krupa is also joined by US Deputy Editor for the Telegraph,...
Nov 07, 2024•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast As results come in from the 2024 US Presidential Election, Krupa Padhy speaks to Woman’s Hour presenter Nuala McGovern from Washington DC about what we know so far, and the big ticket issues for women in this election. Krupa gets reaction from Sarah Elliott, spokesperson for Republicans Overseas UK and Sharon Manitta, spokesperson for Democrats Abroad UK. And, as further results come in from the battleground states, she speaks to Emma Long, Associate Professor in American History and Politics at...
Nov 06, 2024•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week sees the culmination of the women's tennis season as the WTA finals are held, somewhat controversially, in Saudi Arabia. So far, top seed Aryna Sabalenka is through to the first semi-final, the second semi-final will be decided tomorrow. However, the decision to hold the tournament in a country which has been criticised for it's treatment of women has been in the spotlight and under scrutiny. To discuss this more, Clare McDonnell is joined by sports reporter Catherine Whitaker and Feli...
Nov 05, 2024•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast Kemi Badenoch is the first woman of colour to lead a major political party in the UK, after being elected as leader of the Conservative Party at the weekend. What do we know about her as a woman, and as a politician? What does this mean for women in the Tory party? Clare McDonnell speaks to Katy Balls, political editor of the Spectator, Ella Robertson McKay, former head of Conservative Young Women, and Tory peer Baroness Kate Fall. The Women's 100 metre Olympic champion Julien Alfred joins Clare...
Nov 04, 2024•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast British-Egyptian activist and Maths professor Laila Soueif has been on hunger strike for the past month to protest her son Alaa’s incarceration in Egypt. He is the country’s most high profile political prisoner. Laila and her daughter Sanaa – who has faced arrest and imprisonment herself – joined Anita Rani to talk about why they won’t stop fighting for Alaa’s release. The BAFTA-winning actress Anna Maxwell Martin stars as Delia in the new ITV series Until I Kill You. It tells the true story of ...
Nov 02, 2024•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast Saoirse Ronan’s comments on the Graham Norton Show last week when she interjected in a conversation about self-defence and highlighted the issue of women’s safety are continuing to make headlines. She was applauded by the audience, but how much courage does it take to call something out like this? Joining Anita Rani to discuss are the journalist Ash Sarkar and counselling psychologist Dr Elaine Kasket. British-Egyptian activist and maths professor Laila Soueif has been on hunger strike for the p...
Nov 01, 2024•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast Following the announcement of Labour’s first budget in fourteen years – and the first Budget announced by a woman Chancellor – we hear how women across the country will be affected. Anita Rani speaks to Mehreen Khan, the economics editor of The Times, Sara Reis, deputy director and head of research at Women’s Budget Group and Jo, a participant in the Changing Realities project, a collaboration of parents and carers on a low income and researchers from the University of York and Child Poverty Act...
Oct 31, 2024•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast The business owner Martha Keith found her products being sold fraudulently online. She tells Nuala how she set about trying to take control of the situation. Last month Lloyds Bank warned of a huge rise in rogue retailers using fake websites to trick people into buying items that are never dispatched. To discuss Nuala is also joined by Katherine Hart, Lead Officer for Scams for the Chartered Trading Standards Institute and Emma Jones, founder of Enterprise Nation. With less than a week to go unt...
Oct 30, 2024•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sacked from her job by voicemail the day after she informed her employer she was pregnant Joeli Brearley set up Pregnant Then Screwed to end pregnancy and maternity discrimination. The charity has helped to influence new flexible working and redundancy protection laws, providing advice to hundreds of thousands of women when they face discrimination and challenging employers and government in high profile cases. After ten years Joeli is stepping down as CEO. She joins Nuala McGovern in the Woman'...
Oct 29, 2024•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Women’s Equality Party is urging members to vote to close down the party next month, just under 10 years after it began. The founders say financial challenges and a changed political landscape mean their campaigning model no longer works. Nuala McGovern is joined by the Guardian’s Emma Graham-Harrison and Jemima Olchawski from the Fawcett Society to discuss. The BAFTA-winning actress Anna Maxwell Martin stars as Delia in the new ITV series Until I Kill You. It tells the true story of Delia B...
Oct 28, 2024•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast Vanessa Feltz has been a fixture on TV and radio for three decades. Now she has written a memoir, Vanessa Bares All, which charts the many ups and downs of her personal and professional life. She joins Anita Rani. Listeners share with Nuala McGovern what they think works when it comes to Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) provision in educational settings. In the late 1970s, in the toilets at Euston Station, Dr Sheila Reith, while trying to administer insulin to her daughter, thou...
Oct 26, 2024•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast Vanessa Feltz has been a fixture on our TV screens and radio stations – not to mention tabloid headlines – for three decades. Now she has written a memoir, Vanessa Bares All, which charts the many ups and downs of her personal and professional life, from the Big Breakfast Bed to the Big Brother house, via Madonna and Miss Piggy. If farming can seem to be a man’s world, then ploughing is especially male. So who are the women taking part in ploughing competitions like the one in The Archers this w...
Oct 25, 2024•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast Two-time Oscar-nominated actor Emily Watson is a face that has graced the screen and stage – her work of course in Breaking the Waves in 1996 earned her one of those nominations. She joins Anita Rani to talk about her new role in the upcoming film, Small Things Like These. Based on the bestselling book by Claire Keegan, the story focuses on a convent – which is in fact running a Magdalene laundry and Emily plays the role of Sister Mary, the Mother Superior of the convent. Gisèle Pelicot has beco...
Oct 24, 2024•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast In a phone-in programme focusing on Special Educational Needs and Disabilities, Nuala McGovern talks to listeners about SEND provision in educational settings with a focus on what is working. Mums of children with SEND share examples of what they personally think of as good practice in their schools and nurseries and SEND educational professionals and workers suggest potential solutions and innovative concepts that could potentially be passed on, scaled up and rolled out in versions across the U...
Oct 23, 2024•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Prime Minister's chief of staff Sue Gray has left her post and has been replaced by Morgan McSweeney. It's led some papers to claim "the lads have won this round". To discuss, Nuala McGovern is joined by Caroline Slocock, former civil servant and author of Margaret Thatcher and Me, which reflects on women and power. Actor Cush Jumbo has reprised the role of Lady Macbeth alongside David Tennant in Macbeth which has just transferred to the Harold Pinter theatre in London. She joins Nuala to di...
Oct 22, 2024•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast Former nurse Lucy Letby became one of the UK’s most notorious child killers after she was convicted in 2023 of harming and murdering babies in her care. The nurse was found guilty by two juries after lengthy trials, but now there's been speculation over whether some evidence in the Letby trial was reliable. BBC Special Correspondent Judith Moritz is the co-author of the book Unmasking Lucy Letby: The untold story of the killer nurse. She joins Nuala McGovern to discuss what she has discovered si...
Oct 22, 2024•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast It’s nearly thirty years since Kelly Macdonald made her acting debut as the sharp-witted 15 year old schoolgirl Diane in the classic film Trainspotting. Since then, the award winning actress has starred in critically acclaimed films like No Country for Old Men, Gosford Park, as well as Harry Potter franchise, and voiced the fearless Princess Merida in Pixar’s Brave. Now, she’s taking on a new role in the vampire comedy thriller, The Radleys. Scientists at the University of Oxford are creating Ov...
Oct 21, 2024•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast Why has a drug that can extend life for advanced breast cancer patients not been made available on the NHS? NICE have made the decision that Enhertu, a drug that can give around an extra six months to live on average, is too expensive. BBC Health Correspondent Cath Burns joined Anita Rani alongside Kate Wills, who has stage 4 cancer and has been campaigning for the drug to be made available. The actor Lesley Manville is currently starring alongside Mark Strong in Robert Icke’s adaptation of Oedi...
Oct 19, 2024•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast Why has a drug that can extend life for advanced breast cancer patients not been made available on the NHS? NICE have made the decision that Enhertu, a drug that can give around an extra six months to live on average, is too expensive. BBC Health Correspondent Cath Burns joins Anita Rani alongside Kate Wills, who has stage 4 cancer and has been campaigning for the drug to be made available. Do you have an 'emotional vampire' in your life? It’s that person who can make you feel drained with their...
Oct 18, 2024•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast What are the economic implications of getting married in your midlife? Anita Rani is joined by the Financial Times’ Claer Barrett, writer and couples counsellor Lucy Cavendish and journalist and author Flic Everett to share their thoughts and experiences. The murder trial of Sara Sharif, a 10-year-old girl found dead in Woking in August 2023, is at the Old Bailey in London. Sara's father Urfan Sharif, stepmother Beinash Batool, and uncle, Faisal Malik, have denied murder. BBC correspondent Helen...
Oct 17, 2024•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast French actress Isabelle Huppert is renowned for her portrayal of dark, complex characters. She's also been hailed by many as one of the greatest actors of modern cinema. Since the 1970, she's starred in more than 120 films, including The Lacemaker, The Piano Teacher, and Elle for which she was Oscar nominated. She joins Nuala to discuss her latest role in a new comedic film The Crime is Mine, directed by François Ozon. From today NHS staff in England will be able to whisteblow on colleagues for ...
Oct 16, 2024•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast Dr Hilary Cass, now Baroness Cass, led a four year review into children’s gender identity services in England. Her final report concluded that children had been let down by a lack of research and "remarkably weak" evidence on medical interventions, and called for gender services for young people to match the standards of other NHS care. In an exclusive interview Nuala McGovern gets Dr Hilary Cass’s reflections six months on from releasing her landmark report. A Tupperware of Ashes is a play whic...
Oct 16, 2024•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast The actress Lesley Manville is currently starring alongside Mark Strong in Robert Icke’s adaptation of Oedipus. She plays Jocasta, Oedipus’ wife. Lesley joins Nuala McGovern to tell us more about the play, what it’s like being back on stage for the first time since 2020, and why she thinks women's stories are being featured more. Every year thousands of babies need care for a brain injury sustained during birth. Now, highly focused training is being piloted in nine hospitals across England, aimi...
Oct 15, 2024•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast For generations of women and girls, glossy magazines have been a guide to clothes, lifestyles, relationships and, of course, sex. Titles like Cosmopolitan, Woman’s Own and Sugar were pored over by thousands of us and now there is a podcast that celebrates those beloved back issues. Every week the hosts of Mag Hags, Lucy Douglas and Franki Cookney, read a different issue of a magazine from the 70s, 80s or 90s. As well as revelling in the 20th Century fashions, features and lifestyle advice, Lucy ...
Oct 14, 2024•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sharon D Clarke is a triple Olivier award-winning actress currently starring in two separate TV series: My Loverman on BBC One and Ellis on Channel 5. In November she’s playing the role of Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest at the Lyttelton Theatre in London. Sharon joins Krupa Padhy to talk about her new roles and what black representation on stage and screen means to her. Mums say that the UK’s system for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) is broken....
Oct 11, 2024•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
