Woman's Hour

Launching the theme of our 80th birthday year: "Use Your Voice", we celebrate live from the Glasgow Women's Library in Scotland, the sole accredited museum of women’s history in the UK.

Nuala McGovern is joined by guests: Women's Health Champion for Scotland Dr Anna Glasier, social media influencer and campaigner Fats Timbo, professor of private law Jane Mair and poet and writer and former Makar, Jackie Kay.

We hear from some of the Woman's Hour archive including suffragette Mary Richardson from 1957, a woman on breast cancer from 1969, a woman called Candida talking about coming ou...

Hundreds of schools in France have closed after clashes between police and student protestors. Chloe Quesnel is a high school teacher in Nice in France. She's been watching her students take to the streets to protest over classroom conditions, lack of resources and the number of teaching staff. Chloe and Paris-based journalist Lisa Louis tell Kylie about the student protest of the last week, and what can be expected from today.

The Party is a five-part ITV series based on the acclaimed novel by Elizabeth Day and adapted by award-winning writer and actor Sarah Solemani. At the...

Monica Dolan is starring in a new film, called The Lost Children of Tuam, co-produced by Liam Neeson. In it, she plays the extraordinary amateur historian, Catherine Corless, whose relentless pursuit of the truth helped to bring the story of hundreds of babies from a mother and baby home being disposed of in a disused sewage tank to the world in 2014. She joins Irish journalist Alison O’Reilly to discuss this powerful tale of community activism and how it led to an ongoing mass exhumation.

Broadcaster Ashley James has gone public about the lasting effects of birth co...

A group of school children have set up a petition calling on the government to ban the use of school uniforms in porn. They say they want to abolish the sexualisation of children through the inappropriate use of school uniform. Kylie Pentelow is joined by two of the campaigners Aylin and Mae, both 15. Kylie also hears from Professor Clare McGlynn, Professor of Law at Durham University and author of Exposed: The problem of Extreme Porn.

Helen Rebanks believes the unsung heroes of rural life are often the wives whose behind-the-scenes efforts keep both the family and the...

Multiple protests have been taking place in Delhi over the past week. Hundreds of women have come together in India's capital to protest against a series of sexual assaults - most recently the alleged gang-rape of a 17-year-old near Delhi university's campus. Anita speaks to the BBC's South Asia correspondent Azadeh Moshiri.

The manufacturers of a new weight loss drug are warning women to beware of dangerous fakes being offered. The new medication is called Retatrutide. Although you can find it for sale on websites, it's not approved and is still in clinical trials. Dr Emily Pegg...

New York state prosecutors say they will reopen a criminal inquiry into the alleged rape of a woman at Cornell University in 2024. The woman, referred to in court documents as Jane Doe, alleges in her lawsuit that seven men from Cornell's Chi Phi fraternity chapter assaulted her in an incident involving alcohol and the drug ketamine. The case was investigated by university police but will now go before a grand jury. The case has been discussed widely online, with many including actress Florence Pugh reacting with fury over the reported disciplinary actions taken by the university. Nada Tawfik, BBC...

The Prime Minister Andy Burnham has announced an end to the triple lock for the state pension from 2030, and it’s thought that women could be most affected by the proposed changes. Kylie Pentalow is joined by consumer finance expert Sarah Pennells to explain what the news could mean for women’s pensions.

The Women’s Art Collection at Murray Edwards College in Cambridge is marking 40 years since its inception in 1986, with a new exhibition inspired by its very first artwork and two new acquisitions. Joining Kylie Pentelow to discuss putting women in the frame are Harriet Loffle...

Many parents will have just experienced the departure of their children from the family home as they head for university, turning once-bustling households into so-called 'empty nests'. It can leave those left behind feeling unsettled and cut adrift. Denise Turner, Professor of Social Work at the University of Hertfordshire, is researching the impact this life transition has on parents. She joins Kylie Pentelow along with parenting author and journalist Lorraine Candy to discuss her findings.

Almost half of electronic tags used to track offenders' movements are not fitted on time, with significant delays putting victims in England...

Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.

Hollywood star Catherine Zeta-Jones joined Nuala McGovern to talk about her new action thriller series, Kill Jackie and taking on one of her most formidable roles yet, not least because she's finally on screen speaking in a Welsh accent.

For months Lucy Godley documented the abuse she suffered at the hands of her former partner. Secretly, she photographed injuries, gathered evidence and sent it to the one person she trusted to keep it safe: her mum, Sharon. The evidence would ultimately help secure his conviction and a 23-year prison sentence. For the first time, Lucy Godley and...

What is the impact of the Durham breast cancer scandal on the women affected? It's been announced that 4,500 patients will have their medical records reviewed. There has been a range of issues including some women who had unnecessary mastectomies. Health correspondent Sharon Barbour and Denise Howarth from the Pink Justice Campaign join Anita Rani to discuss.

‘Donate to charity shops as if you’re giving to a friend’ - that was the advice from author Tansy Hoskins when she joined us on the programme earlier this month. But what can you do with those items in your home t...

Naomi Alderman is an award-winning novelist, broadcaster, TV producer and videogames creator. Her latest novel The Strangers blends memoir and speculative fiction to explore grief, identity and our search for meaning when our lives are uprooted by events out of our control. Naomi joins Anita to discuss why stories can sometimes help us navigate loss more powerfully than facts, and whether the mysteries we cannot explain reveal something essential about what it means to be human.

A Scottish nurse has told an employment tribunal she did not believe her union representative took her objections to sharing female...

Hollywood star Catherine Zeta-Jones joins Nuala McGovern to talk about her new action thriller series, Kill Jackie and taking on one of her most formidable roles yet, not least because she's finally on screen speaking in a Welsh accent. She joins Nuala live in the studio.

Nearly 30 years after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, 'Swan Song: Diana, My Sister' Earl Spencer recounts his life with his sister and the traumatic days following her death. Does his account help us better understand Diana, the woman who was also a global icon? Nuala discusses with Anne McElvoy...

Author Liane Moriarty’s bestselling novel Big Little Lies followed the lives of a group of women in the affluent Sydney suburbs, exploring some dark themes beneath the suburban façade. It was made into a popular TV drama starring Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman and Zoë Kravitz. Now Liane has written a sequel, Big Little Truths, which rejoins the women 10 years later. She talks to presenter Nuala McGovern about reimagining her characters in midlife and grappling with the challenges of parenting teens. For years, organised gangs of abusers, mostly of Pakistani heritage, preyed on young girls in Oxford while it's...

For months Lucy Godley documented the abuse she suffered at the hands of her former partner. Secretly, she photographed injuries, gathered evidence and sent it to the one person she trusted to keep it safe: her mum, Sharon. The evidence would ultimately help secure his conviction and a 23-year prison sentence. For the first time, Lucy Godley and her mother Sharon join Nuala McGovern to tell their story together.

The Prime Minister Andy Burnham is facing calls to set a national waiting-time target for dementia care in England. A proposal for an 18‑week referral‑to‑treatment target has be...

Dame Meera Syal is a multi-award winning writer and actor, and a name and face very familiar to many of us having graced our screens for decades now. She's just published her first memoir and is also currently on stage in The Children at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre in London. With her trademark warmth and humour she joined Anita Rani in the studio.

More than 1,000 children have died in a measles outbreak in Bangladesh. Government figures show there have been at least 194,000 cases since March, and around 1,000 new cases are being reported everyday. The World Health Organisation...

Georgia Hunter Bell rediscovered her teenage love of running during lockdown, and two years later won Team GB a Bronze medal in the 1,500m at the Paris Olympics, at the age of 30. This year she's won gold medals at the World Indoor Championships, the Commonwealth Games and the European Championships - and tonight she's competing in Athlos, a brand new all-female track and field event taking place in London for the first time. Designed by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanion, it's aiming to reshape women’s athletics by giving them a financial stake in their own sport. Georgia tells presenter An...

Dame Meera Syal is a multi-award winning writer and actor, and a name and face very familiar to many of us having graced our screens for decades now. She's just published her first memoir and is also currently on stage in The Children at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre in London. With her trademark warmth and humour she joins Anita Rani in the studio.

A breakthrough breast cancer drug, Enhertu, has been approved for NHS use in England. Charities and patients have campaigned for it to be more widely available since 2024, when the National Institute for Health and...

A new film adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility will be released in cinemas on Friday 25 September. Austen's first published novel tells the story of the Dashwood sisters, who are forced to leave their family estate after their father's death and move to a cottage in rural Devonshire. More than 200 years after its original publication, the story is returning to the big screen. The production stars Daisy Edgar-Jones as Elinor and Esmé Creed-Miles as Marianne. Screenwriter Diana Reid and director Georgia Oakley join Nuala McGovern to discuss the film.

A new report from Amnesty International names 87 I...

British singer-songwriter Sarah Jane Morris rose to international fame with The Communards iconic song Don’t Leave Me This Way in 1986. Over the last four decades she has built an eclectic solo career all over Europe and earlier this year released an album Sisterhood 2. It is the second in a series of albums in which songs are written in the style of other famous female singers to pay tribute to their influence on Morris. Tracy Chapman and Dolly Parton are just two of the artists who appear on the album. Morris and her band join Nuala McGovern in the st...

Is artificial intelligence more likely to disadvantage women at work? Women make up more than 60% of the UK’s administrative workforce – jobs considered among those most exposed to AI. As unions debate how the technology could affect women’s employment, Nuala McGovern hears from AI consultant Ella Wicks and Bethan, who was replaced in a previous administrative role by an AI tool, about what AI could mean for women at work.

Have you ever said you were ‘triggered’, or casually described a repetitive behaviour as a bit ‘OCD’? Psychiatrist Dr Suzanne Garfinkle-Crowell joins Nuala to discuss her new book Girlh...

The government has announced plans to require smartphones and tablets to block people from taking, sharing or viewing nude images by default, with adults able to switch the protection off after verifying their age. BBC Senior Technology Reporter Chris Vallance explains how it could work, while Soma Sara, founder of sexual violence campaign group, Everyone’s Invited, tells us if it could protect young people from pressure, coercion and abuse.

Callie Khouri won an Oscar for her first screenplay for the film Thelma & Louise. Now she has rewritten the script for a new musical version that has ju...

More than 50 children's charities and parent organisations have written to the Prime Minister, warning that disabled children are being overlooked in the Government's planned reforms to social care. Kylie Pentelow is joined by Anna Bird, Chair of the Disabled Children's Partnership and Chief Executive of the charity Contact to tell us more.

The latest artwork for London's iconic Fourth Plinth has been revealed. Lady in Blue, by New York artist Tschabalala Self, is a striking ten-foot-tall tribute to a young metropolitan woman inspired by today's London. The figure is the latest in a series of high-profile commissions...

Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.

The government has announced plans to require smartphones and tablets to block people from taking, sharing or viewing nude images by default, with adults able to switch the protection off after verifying their age. BBC Senior Technology Reporter Chris Vallance explains how it could work, while Soma Sara, founder of sexual violence campaign group, Everyone’s Invited, tells us if it could protect young people from pressure, coercion and abuse.

England Rugby’s Red Roses will be taking part in a major international tournament throughout September and October. But one of the biggest conversations ahead of the WXV...

High-profile Reform UK member and former cabinet minister Nadine Dorris was alerted by the police that a deepfake pornographic image had been made of her. She joins Nuala to discuss the impact this has had on her and her work on the Online Safety Act when she was in Government, as well as her thoughts on the recent row over funding for Reform.

It’s Radio 2 in the Park this weekend, and Nuala speaks to award-winning singer-songwriter Emeli Sandé who will be gracing the main stage at City Park in Stirling. She is a prolific writer and col...

The Irish boxer Katie Taylor sold out Croke Park in Dublin on Saturday night. More than eighty thousand people turned out to see Katie perform one last spectacular time before she retires. Katie is considered by many as Ireland's greatest athlete and one of the greatest female boxers of all time. Nuala McGovern discusses Katie's career with Ireland's first female world boxing champion Deidre Gogarty - now a coach - and an inspiration to Katie as a child, and the sports writer, broadcaster, and boxing pundit Steve Bunce.

Baroness Margaret Hodge's memoir is called Battleaxe - reclaiming...

Highlights from the Woman's Hour week

Tomorrow the Sussex Maternity Review will launch in Brighton to examine more than 1,000 cases spanning over a decade. The independent review's chair, the former midwife Donna Ockenden, will meet with families who have been affected by poor maternity care in the University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust. Bereaved mothers, Hannah Robotham and Katie Fowler join presenter Clare McDonnell to share their stories, along with BBC Social Affairs Correspondent Michael Buchanan.

Journalist Tansy Hoskins has spent more than a decade investigating the fashion industry, from garment factories to global supply chains. In her new book Charity Shop World...

Whilst the vast majority of nurseries provide safe and caring environments, there have been a number of highly distressing cases in recent years where children have been abused or come to harm. From 1st September this year, strengthened welfare and safeguarding requirements have come into effect for early years providers in England, with the changes designed to help keep babies and young children safe. Joining Clare McDonnell to discuss are BBC investigative reporter Hayley Hassall, Jonathan Broadbery from the National Day Nurseries Association and Zoe Raven, Chief Executive of the Acorn Early Years Foundation.

On Radio 4's...

The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, the body that represents NHS paediatricians, has warned of a sharp rise in the number of children aged 6 to 17 turning up at A&E units in England in a state of mental health crisis. The RCPCH's Officer for Health Services, Dr Ronny Cheung, a consultant paediatrician based in London, joins Nuala McGovern to discuss the issue. He is joined by Kate Silverton, child therapist and parenting author.

Siobhan Daniels joined Woman's Hour a couple of years ago as part of Listener Week to talk about her alternative lifestyle, getting...

The award-winning singer-songwriter and actress Natalie Imbruglia first hit our screens in the early 1990s, playing the role of Beth Brennan in the Australian soap Neighbours. Her 1997 debut single Torn quickly became a worldwide hit, and she’s sold more than 10 million albums. Her latest album, Algorithm, is out later this week. Natalie joins Nuala McGovern to discuss some of its themes – relationship breakups, perfectionism and perimenopause, and what it feels like to be championed by the new generation of pop stars.

A new definition of heart attacks could help transform the way women are diagnosed and trea...

After a summer when hot weather has drawn many of us towards the water, we explore its pull as a place of freedom, adventure and friendship, as well as the risks it can pose.

Writer and wild swimmer Brigid Lowe tells us how swimming in Scotland’s lochs gave her a sense of freedom, a journey she charts in her new memoir, Shiver: The Lessons of the Lochs. Musician Tricia Duffy explains how rivers and the sea flow through her songwriting, including her recent EP, River Stories.

Seren Jones, co-founder of the Black Swimming Association, jo...

Women who have missed a cervical screening appointment in England are to be offered HPV self-testing kits by the NHS. Over the next year, nearly four million women will receive invites on the NHS App or via text message, email or letter to order a free kit to use at home. The aim is to encourage more women to complete their potentially lifesaving screening to detect HPV, which can increase the risk of cervical cancer. Dr Sue Mann, National Clinical Director for Women's Health in England and a consultant in Sexual and Reproductive Health, joined Nuala McGovern.

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Hormone replacement therapy may reduce the risk of dementia, a new study has found. Researchers tracked more than 180,000 postmenopausal women and their analysis suggests that those who had used HRT appeared to be less likely to develop dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, and the greatest reduction was seen in women who had undergone surgical menopause. Anita Rani talks to Anne-Marie Minihane, Professor of Nutrigenetics at Norwich medical school at the University of East Anglia and lead author of the study, asking her whether any conclusions can be drawn from these findings.

Five time Tony Award-winning musical Kimberly Ak...

People who were sexually abused as children and later seek help for mental health problems are being failed by the NHS, according to The Royal College of Psychiatrists. The RCOP has issued a public apology, saying decades of mismanagement and misdiagnosis have left many survivors without the support they need. Anita Rani is joined by Caroline Thompson, a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, and Dr Jo Stubley, a consultant psychiatrist and clinical lead of the Tavistock Trauma Service, who are co-authors of the RCOP's position statement.

Today in towns and cities across the country, parents are being...

Singer-songwriter, actress and philanthropist Dolly Parton has died aged 80. She was a feminist icon, although she denied the former. Known as The Queen of Country, she paved the way for many women in music. To remember her, Nuala is joined by Country singer-songwriter Kezia Gill and music journalist Jude Rogers.

The Ministry of Justice has announced the introduction of “restriction zones” for serious sexual and violent offenders that would confine them to areas just a few miles wide after leaving prison. Government ministers say the scheme is designed to give victims greater freedom but some campaigners want more...

Women who have missed a cervical screening appointment in England are to be offered HPV self-testing kits by the NHS. Over the next year, nearly four million women will receive invites on the NHS App or via text message, email or letter to order a free kit to use at home. The aim is to encourage more women to complete their potentially lifesaving screening to detect HPV, which can increase the risk of cervical cancer. Figures show that around a third of women who are eligible for cervical cancer screening have not taken up the offer recently. Dr Sue...

After the death of both her parents best-selling novelist Louise Doughty made a startling discovery whilst clearing out the family home. Inside a black suitcase, she stumbled upon a treasure trove of letters that revealed the origins of her parents' love affair. She joins Nuala McGovern to discuss her first memoir On This Spot Fell One Tear of Love described as a portrait of grief and loss and family – and a love story.

Scotland’s overcrowded prison system is facing a deepening crisis, but a different approach to custody for women is showing early signs of cutting reof...

Are GCSE's working for all children? Figures show resits in Maths and English are dragging down the overall results in those subjects. Whilst post 16 education has evolved with A levels, BTECs and T levels, GCSE's have remained largely unchanged since they were introduced in 1988. Chloe Tilly talks to Vanessa Clarke, BBC education correspondent.

The CEO of Travelodge Jo Boydell has resigned following a string of security lapses in which unauthorised room access has been granted without the guest's permission. Chloe speaks to Sharon Thompson who made contact with the BBC, reporting that a man accessed her hotel...