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Weekend Woman's Hour: Beverley Knight, Melanie Sykes, Cinderella Nov 27, 2021

Show notes

‘The Drifters Girl’ is a musical which tells the story of Faye Treadwell, one of the first Black women to manage a vocal group in the US. Singer and actor Beverley Knight plays Faye.

We discuss the ongoing appeal of the Cinderella story with Faye Campbell who is playing Cinderella at York Theatre Royal and Dr Nicola Darwood who recently co-edited a new book with Alexis Weedon called Re-telling Cinderella: Cultural and Creative Transformations.

On Tuesday Sikh Women’s Aid launched a report into domestic abuse and child sexual abuse within the Sikh community. Conducted via anonymous surveys sent out over the summer, the survey of nearly 700 respondents showed that 70% had experienced domestic violence and 35% had experienced child sexual abuse or exploitation. To tell us more about this report and what can be done to help the issue, we're joined by the co-founder of Sikh Women's Aid and co-author of the report, Sahdaish Pall.

We used to have YOLO, then FOMO, now we have HOGO. Post lockdown, the fear of missing out no longer plagues us. We have become too comfortable sitting on our sofas watching TV. The effort of putting good clothes on and leaving the house is too much. This hassle of going out (HOGO) has been blamed by the hospitality industry for an increase in the number of no-shows at restaurants and paid-for live events. We talk to psychotherapist and author of Happy Relationships: At Home, Work and Play, Lucy Beresford and actor Sadie Clark whose play, Algorithms, is on at Soho Theatre in December.

TV and radio presenter Melanie Sykes has just announced that she’s been diagnosed with autism at the age of 51. She says it's 'truly life changing, or rather life affirming… and so many things make sense’. She tells us more.

Presenter Zara McDermott’s new BBC documentary explores sexual harassment, teenagers, and what impact school is having. We speak to Zara and two contributors who feature in the documentary - activist Zan Moon and 14 year old Trinity.

Arwa Mahdawi, Cinderella & Sexual Harassment in Schools Nov 26, 2021

Show notes

Do women make better leaders? If so, what can they teach us? Strong Female Lead - Lessons From Women in Power, a new book by the journalist Arwa Mahdawi, argues that a rigid and masculine model of leadership is not up to tackling the complex problems we are facing in the world today. Arwa says ‘If we want to save the world, it’s time we stopped telling women to act like men and started telling everyone to lead like women.’ She draws on the pandemic and beyond, to showcase the leadership skills women are displaying that she believes everyone can learn from.

This week MPs have backed a ban on virginity testing in England, after the government called it "indefensible". Anyone helping girls or women get the tests, which includes an intrusive vaginal examination, could face up to five years in prison. But campaigners have also said they want a ban on hymenoplasty, a practice involving cosmetic surgery to reconstruct the hymen. Natasha Rattu, CEO of Karma Nirvana, an organisation that supports victims of honour-based abuse and forced marriage, tells us why this further step needs to be taken.

This week the Home Affairs Select Committee released a report revealing that only one in five of an estimated 15,000 eligible claimants had applied to the Windrush Compensation Scheme, and only 5% of victims have been compensated. They’ve called for the scheme to be transferred from the Home Office to an independent organisation. We’re joined by lawyer Jacqueline McKenzie to discuss the findings.

Fabric a hidden history of material. Sweden's first female PM. Domestic violence and femicide in Turkey. Nov 25, 2021

Show notes

Do you ever pause to think about where the cotton t-shirt, woollen jumper or silk blouse you're wearing have come from? Victoria Finlay's new book Fabric weaves history, anthropology and myth to tell us the stories of different kinds of cloth, how they are made, why we wear them and the industries that have sprung up around them.

As the Court of Appeal clears the names of seven former Post Office clerks who were convicted of false accounting, Pauline Stonehouse tells us about how she's finally been able to put the false allegations behind her and the impact they've had on her life.

Within hours of Magdalena Andersson, a former finance minister becoming Sweden's first female Prime Minister, she's resigned and the government has fallen. What's behind her decision to stepdown? Why's it taken Sweden so long to catch up with their Nordic neighbours and have a woman at the top? We hear from the BBC’s reporter in Sweden, Maddy Savage and Drude Dahlerup - professor emerita of politics at Stockholm University.

Plus as we mark White Ribbon day – a day when many people across the world come together to say no to violence against women, we look at the situation in Turkey where more than one in three women have experienced domestic violence and the number of femicides is rising. A new film Dying to Divorce, filmed over five years, tells the story of two survivors who works for the platform We Will Stop Femicide to get justice for others, and is the UK’s official entry for Best International Feature film at the Oscars. Emma talk to its director Chloe Fairweather and the Turkish lawyer Ipek Bozkurt.

Presenter Emma Barnett Producer Beverley Purcell

Photographer Katia Marsh

Sheila Rowbotham; Sikh Women's Aid; Stella Creasy; HOGO; Motherhood & elite sport Nov 24, 2021

Show notes

Yesterday Sikh Women’s Aid launched a report into domestic abuse and child sexual abuse within the Sikh community. Conducted via anonymous surveys sent out over the summer, the survey of nearly 700 respondents showed that 70% had experienced domestic violence and 35% had experienced child sexual abuse or exploitation. To tell us more about this report and what can be done to help the issue, we're joined by the co-founder of Sikh Women's Aid and co-author of the report, Sahdaish Pall.

Writer and historian Sheila Rowbotham helped start the Women's Liberation Movement in Britain. She organised and spoke at its first conference at Ruskin College, Oxford, she went on to encourage night cleaners to unionize and she wrote many ground breaking boojavascript:void(0)ks, including Women, Resistance and Revolution, Woman's Consciousness, Man's World and Hidden from History. This all happened in the 1970s and Sheila writes about it in her second and latest memoir, 'Daring to Hope: My life in the 1970s'. She joins Emma to discuss the many momentous feminist events of that decade.

Motherhood and elite sport has felt like a taboo topic for many athletes in the past. Now official pregnancy guidance for Olympic and Paralympic athletes and sport governing bodies has been introduced for the first time by UK Sport. To discuss why this has been introduced now and how it will impact elite sportswomen, Emma is joined by five-time Olympic archer Naomi Folkard who contributed to UK Sport’s consultation for the guidance and The Telegraph’s Women’s Sport reporter Molly McElwee.

The judgment on the SEISS discrimination verdict appeal is expected today at 10.30am. It follows a claim by the campaign group Pregnant Then Screwed of indirect discrimination due to the way the Self Employed Income Support Scheme was calculated. Introduced in spring 2020 to give financial help to self-employed workers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the group argued SEISS was unlawful because it disproportionately affected women who had not worked because of their pregnancy and childbirth.

Presenter: Emma Barnett Producer: Kirsty Starkey

Interviewed Guest: Sahdaish Pall Interviewed Guest: Sheila Rowbotham Interviewed Guest: Stella Creasy Interviewed Guest: Lucy Beresford Interviewed Guest: Sadie Clark Interviewed Guest: Naomi Folkard Interviewed Guest: Molly McElwee Interviewed Guest: Jolie Brearley Photographer: Sally Fraser

MP Caroline Nokes, Beverley Knight, Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai Nov 23, 2021

Show notes

Last week, Caroline Nokes, former minister, Conservative MP and the chair of the Women and Equalities Committee - accused the Prime Minister's father of groping her 18 years ago at a Conservative Party Conference. Stanley Johnson has so far declined to comment on the allegation, saying he has no recollection of it. Caroline talks to Emma.

‘The Drifters Girl’ is a musical which tells the story of Faye Treadwell, one of the first Black women to manage a vocal group in the US. Singer and actor Beverley Knight plays Faye and joins Emma to discuss this remarkable woman.

Peng Shuai is one of China's top tennis players, but there are global concerns over her safety after she accused the former Chinese vice-premier, Zhang Gaoli, of raping her in 2018. We talk to Cindy Yu Broadcast Editor at The Spectator.

Have you ever been affected by persistent, unexplained pain in your vulva? Vulvodynia is a chronic condition that is thought to affect up to 16% of women. Emma is joined by Claudia Chisari, a PHD researcher in Vulvodynia at King’s College London and Sheren Gaulbert, who suffered from Vulvodynia for 10 years.

Joan Rhodes could bend steel bars , lift two men at a time, and rip phone books apart. Often described in the press as the strongest woman in the world, she became friends with Marlene Dietrich and even performed for the Royal Household at their Annual Christmas bash. Triona Holden got to know her before she died, and has written her biography ‘An Iron Girl in a Velvet Glove: The Life of Joan Rhodes.

Presenter: Emma Barnett Producer: Lucinda Montefiore Photo credit of Beverley Knight: @Johan Persson

Melanie Sykes, Menopause, Marching Midwives Nov 22, 2021

Show notes

Colin Pitchfork, the man who murdered and raped Lynda Mann and Dawn Ashworth but was released from prison recently, has been sent back to jail for breaking his licence conditions. We speak to the former Justice Secretary, Robert Buckland, who always maintained that Pitchfork should remain behind bars. We also hear from Dawn's uncle, Philip Musson.

David Salmon comes onto the programme to talk about his wife, who took her life last year after suffering extreme menopausal symptoms. He wants other men to pick up on signs that the women in their lives may be struggling.

We have the fourth episode of our series on toxic relationships.

And we hear why thousands of midwives took to the streets at the weekend to voice their concerns about safety. Kay King from March With Midwives Alliance and White Ribbon Alliance UK speaks to us.

Weekend Woman's Hour: Stonewall, Pride & Prejudice (Sort Of), Parcopresis Nov 20, 2021

Show notes

Nancy Kelley is CEO of Stonewall, the largest LGBT rights charity in Europe. She speaks about her organisation’s work and gives her reaction to recent high-profile withdrawals from Stonewall’s Diversity Champions workplace inclusion scheme, including the BBC.

This week the cricketer Azeem Rafiq candidly described the racism he's suffered. We talk to the MP Naz Shah and Halima Khan who works in grassroots cricket about the impact of his testimony.

For millions of families, the past 18 months have been defined by grief. A growing online community, mainly fronted by young women, is helping others to find support through loss. We're joined by Amber Jeffrey, founder of The Grief Gang podcast, and Helen Smith who has an Instagram page called Lockdown Grief.

Parcopresis is the inability to defecate or go for a poo without a certain level of privacy. The condition is also known as shy bowel and it can stop people from feeling comfortable about going at work, while out and about or even while sharing a toilet with a new partner. What causes this anxiety and why do more women suffer than men? We ask Eleanor Morgan, author of Hormonal: A Conversation About Women’s Bodies, Mental Health and Why We Need to be Heard and Professor Siwan Thomas-Gibson, a consultant gastroenterologist.

Presenter: Anita Rani Producer: Lucy Wai Editor: Lucinda Montefiore

The UK’s only female arm-wrestling referee Kath Whitaker Nov 19, 2021

Show notes

What comes to your mind when you think of ‘arm wrestling’? Burly men taking each other on to see who’s the strongest in a testosterone charged atmosphere? Well now there is a woman at the heart of this sport in the UK. Kath Whitaker is the UK's only female arm-wrestling referee and is preparing to make her debut at the national championships in Birmingham this weekend.

This week the cricketer Azeem Rafiq candidly described the racism he's suffered. No one could fail to be moved by his testimony on Tuesday, and the other interviews he's given since - sometimes very emotional. His comments will have triggered something in people who've experienced what he's talking about, and know it’s true. We talk to the MP Naz Shah and Halima Khan who works in grassroots cricket.

A new report by the Prison Reform Trust has just launched a new report on how long sentenced women are “invisible” in prison policy and practice. We hear from “Jane”, a former long-sentence prisoner who talks about her experience of jail and by Julia Killick a trustee from the Prison Reform Trust

In the third of our series on toxic relationships we hear from a woman we are calling Katy who feels that her earliest experiences shaped what she looked for and needed from her partners.

And we’ve music from Yazz Ahmed a British-Bahraini trumpet player and composer who is a pioneering figure in jazz in the UK.

Presenter: Anita Rani Producer: Lisa Jenkinson Studio Engineer: Tim Heffer

Cast of Pride & Prejudice (sort of); Nancy Kelley, CEO of Stonewall; Frida Kahlo Nov 18, 2021

Show notes

Nancy Kelley is CEO of Stonewall, the largest LGBT rights charity in Europe. She speaks to Emma about her organisation’s work and gives her reaction to recent high-profile withdrawals from Stonewall’s Diversity Champions workplace inclusion scheme, including the BBC.

Pride and Prejudice (sort of) is a sweary, anarchic reboot of the classic Jane Austen novel by Scottish writer Isobel McArthur, in which an all-female cast of five play all of the characters. Originally written for a summer season in Glasgow’s Tron theatre, after a 6 month regional tour the all-singing and dancing reinterpretation has landed in London’s West End to much applause. Isobel and her co-performer, Tori Burgess, are live in the studio.

Frida Kahlo: the famous Mexican artist whose images go far beyond galleries, is being described as having the last laugh this week. Reproductions of her work are everywhere and her face and style adorn merchandise wherever you go. But this week in New York she broke a record. A self-portrait featuring her husband, Diego Rivera, who it's widely acknowledged treated her badly but also whom she adored, sold for a whopping 34.9 million dollars. It's the highest price ever paid, at auction, for a Latin American artwork. And - here's the twist - it's more than Diego ever got for his work. Ruth Millington, an art historian and critic discusses.

Presenter: Emma Barnett Producer: Kirsty Starkey

Interviewed Guest: Nancy Kelley Interviewed Guest: Isobel McArthur Interviewed Guest: Tori Burgess Interviewed Guest: Ruth Millington

Deputy Chief Constable Maggie Blyth; Britney Spears; Losing a parent young; Jane Austen's early work and Food and Memory Nov 17, 2021

Show notes

Two months ago the then head of the policing inspectorate Zoe Billings warned of an “epidemic of violence” against women and girls. She urged police chiefs to “get a grip” of the situation and called for it to be given the same priority as terrorism threats. On her recommendation the Home Office and National Police Chiefs Council which represents the 43 police forces In England and Wales have now funded a new post to coordinate action on the issue and have appointed Detective Chief Constable Maggie Blyth to do the job. She joins Emma Barnett ahead of a policing summit being held in the capital at the end of the week to talk about her new role and future plans.

Britney Spears has addressed fans and supporters for the first time since her 13 year conservatorship was lifted by a judge in Los Angeles last Friday. The conservatorship was set in up 2008 after the US pop star faced a mental health crisis. Her father, Jamie Spears, was in charge of the conservatorship but stepped down in 2019 citing health reasons. Britney has previously called the conservatorship “abusive” amid claims that her father was spying on her and illegally recording her conversations. But what does Britney's social media post reveal about her? Emma is joined by Jennifer Otter-Bickerdike professor of Popular Music at the BIMM Institute whose latest book is called Being Britney: Pieces of a Modern Icon.

Jane Austen is known and loved for six novels - four published towards the end of her short life and 2 published after her death. In a new book 'Jane Austen Early and Late' Freya Johnston of St Ann's College Oxford argues that the teenage writing contained in three notebooks deserves to be better known and that it sheds new light on her later work.

For millions of families, the past 18 months have been defined by grief. And an online growing community, mainly fronted by young women, is helping others to find support through loss. New research by Marie Curie reveals that around half of people in the UK think we don’t talk enough about death and dying as a society. Emma speaks to two young women about their own experiences. Amber Jeffrey is the founder of The Grief Gang podcast. Helen Smith has an Instagram page called Lockdown Grief.

Eating Well with Dementia is a new community written recipe book from West Yorkshire. Inspired by the work of their local dementia cafe and cooking group, the book was developed by Young Dementia Leeds, a community service supporting people living with early onset dementia and their families. Emma Barnett speaks to Liz Menacer, Service Manager at Young Dementia Leeds and Diana Harris-Smith whose late husband was diagnosed with early onset dementia in 2016. They explore the role of food, memory and dementia.

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