Woman's Hour

Non-essential shops reopened in England this week after the second Lockdown - thousands of jobs now hang in the balance. We hear from Joanne Cairns, deputy head of research at USDAW and Catherine Shuttleworth, retail analyst.The Woman’s Hour Power List recognises the work of 30 inspiring women who are making a positive contribution to the environment and the sustainability of our planet. Beccy Speight, CEO of the RSPB which is the UK’s largest conservation charity and Miranda Lowe, Curator at the Natural History Museum in London talk about their work to spark our interest in the environment and nature.Two of this year’s TechWomen100 Award winners June Angelides MBE and Rav Bumbra on how to encourage more women and girls to work in the tech industries.Many women have been underpaid state pension. Steve Webb, partner at Lane, Clark and Peacock and Jasmine Birtles financial expert and director of MoneyMagpie explain.What makes an evil woman. We hear from Professor of History at Birkbeck and Rhetoric Professor at Gresham College talks about her interest in evil women.Festive Drinks. Sandra Lawrence from The Cocktail Lovers magazine talks about classic cocktails.Presenter: Jane Garvey Producer: Paula McFarlane Editor: Dianne McGregor

Sandrae Lawrence from the Cocktail Lovers Magazine stirs up some Christmas spirit in the Woman's Hour studio with a selection of festive drinks ideas. She'll be preparing traditional Snowballs and telling us about wassails to warm your guests with whilst entertaining outdoors. As Hollyoaks tackles the issue of post partum psychosis we hear from Hannah Bissett from Action on Post-partum Psychosis and Dr Ayesha Rahim, who's a perinatal psychiatrist at Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust and we hear Titania's story about Outliving her mum. Presented by Jane Garvey Produced by Lisa Jenkinson

Is the continued use of Joint Enterprise, where an individual can be jointly convicted of the crime of another, unjust?Next week, 800,000 doses of the first coronavirus vaccine will be available. It seems female scientists scientists have been front and centre of the work. According to The Royal College of Pathologists nearly half of their members who specialise in virology are women. We hear from Dr Katrina Pollock from Imperial College, London and Professor Trudie Lang from University of Oxford Both institutions are leaders in virology and work closely together. They tell us about working in the field and what it's like as a career for a woman. Plus we hear from trainee Lydia Gale.Why did Becky Cooper spend a decade investigating the death, 50 years ago, of Harvard student Jane Britton? Plus we continue in our series of my life in shoes: Ciara Jones emailed to tell us about the shoes that have given her hope. From her mum’s high heels when she was stuck in flat black leather shoes after hip treatment, to the bubblegum pink stilettoes she’s looking forward to wearing after covid, Ciara shares her stories with us today.Presenter Krupa Padhy Producer Beverley PurcellGuest; Becky Clarke Guest; Clare Warren Guest; Emma Torr Guest; Becky Cooper Guest; Professor Trudie Lang Guest; Dr Katrina Pollock Guest; Ciara Jones Guest; Lydia Gale

The Woman’s Hour Power List 2020: Our Planet is celebrating the women making a significant contribution to the environment. Today, we’re speaking to two women who strive to spark a lifelong love of nature in others. Beccy Speight is the CEO of the RSPB, the UK’s largest conservation charity and Miranda Lowe is a curator at the Natural History Museum in London.The High Court has ruled that children under 16 with gender dysphoria are ‘unlikely’ to be able to give informed consent to undergo treatment with puberty-blocking drugs. The case had been brought against Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust. Health Correspondent for BBC Newsnight Deborah Cohen joins Krupa to explain the judgment and its potential implications for clinical practice.In the recent US election an estimated 90% of black women voters supported President-elect Joe Biden. And while college-educated white women further cemented their shift to Democrat support, white women overall continued to vote for President Donald Trump. We speak to Professor of Political Science, Wendy Smooth from Ohio State University about what created this divide, the significance of the women’s vote and the overall pattern of women’s political choice.What makes an ‘evil woman’? From Eve and her original evil, to the true horrors of Myra Hindley, Professor Joanna Bourke’s new series of Gresham College lectures explore some of the women described as such – and how the bar for evil has changed over time.

Two of this year’s TechWomen100 Award winners join Jane to discuss getting more women and girls into the tech industries, including via a new app. June Angelides, an investor, speaker and mentor who founded Mums in Tech has won the Editor’s Choice award. Rav Bumbra gets the Champion award for her work recruiting women to work in tech fields and mentoring schoolgirls.With non-essential retail due to open again tomorrow, we discuss the situation facing shop workers - many of whom are women - working in the UK's high street stores. Hastings shopkeeper Pratibha Paleja talks about the difficulties of dealing with frustrated customers and reports of shop workers being assaulted. Retail analyst Catherine Shuttleworth and Joanne Cairns, deputy head of research at the Union of Shop Distributive & Allied Workers discuss the wider issues facing women working in the sector, including the risk to jobs from the predicted collapse of the Arcadia group, and the reality of asking people to restrain their shopping in the run-up to Christmas.Listener Valerie tells the story of her adventurous life through a pair of shoes and two pairs of boots. She wore the boots while becoming the first British woman to summit Mount Manaslu, the trek shoes she bought for an Everest marathon and the fur-lined boots she wears when the temperature gets really low.How does it feel to reach the age your Mum was when she died? Jo Morris talks to four women who feel a clock ticking. Their stories are all different but they have one thing in common – none of them have felt able to talk about this before. They didn’t want to worry their loved ones or vocalise these dark thoughts. Titania is 44, her Mum died at 54 and her Gran at 64 and she feels she sees a pattern. Presenter - Jane Garvey Producer - Anna Lacey

It was found that thousands of married women could have been receiving underpaid state pensions. The Department of Work and Pensions has since been investigating its records and making payments. The former pensions Minister Steve Webb, who first highlighted the issue, believes that many more women, such as divorced and widowed women could be effected, and that the DWP could be looking at a bill in excess of £100 million. We speak to Steve Webb and to financial expert Jasmine Birtles about pension planning, and the impact coronavirus could have on future pensions. The Sage Christmas document says that 'women carry the burden of creating and maintaining family traditions and activities at Christmas'. “Messaging should be supportive of women adapting traditions and encouraging those around them to share the burden and to be supportive of any alterations to adapt for Covid-19 restrictions.” We speak to the behavioural scientist Dr Pragya Agarwal.We catch up with Pip Hare who is currently competing in the Vendee Globe solo round the world sailing race. It is considered to be one of the toughest sporting competitions: 24,000 miles as the crow flies, no help, no stops and no turning back. Are women footballers more at risk of dementia than men? Dr Michael Grey is a neuroscientist who is running a project at the UEA to monitor ex-footballers for early signs of dementia. He’s looking for more women to take part. He joins Jane along with footballer and former Crystal Palace player Freya Holdaway. The Duchess of Cambridge’s new report on children’s early years has revealed the struggle many parents face – from feeling lonely and struggling to find time for themselves, to feeling judged by other parents. How have those problems persisted through the pandemic? Ipsos Mori’s Kelly Beaver and Dr Guddi Singh join us to discuss the report and give some practical advice.Presenter: Jane Garvey Producer: Dianne McGregor

Celebrating the BBC 100 Women list 2020 Kim Chakanetsa and a panel of inspirational and influential women discuss whether some changes made because of Covid-19 restrictions could be seen as positive. They answer questions about bringing communities together, supporting lonely people and increasing flexibility for more inclusive employment. Shani Dhanda is an award-winning disability specialist and social entrepreneur from the UK. She founded the Asian Woman Festival and Asian Disability Network. The pandemic has proved that flexible and home working is viable, and she wants to make sure our new online solutions are here to stay so that the world remains accessible to us all.Karen Dolva has been seeking technological solutions to involuntary loneliness since 2015. A co-founder of No Isolation based in Norway, she’s helped develop a telepresence robot for children with long-term illness, and KOMP, a one-button screen for seniors. With reports from around the world of people feeling increasingly isolated because of Covid restrictions – should tech like this be used more widely?Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, became Mayor of Freetown, Sierra Leone in 2018 with an inclusive vision of the city's renewal and a three-year plan to "Transform Freetown" and tackle environmental degradation and facilitating the creation of jobs in the tourism sector. #FreetownTheTreeTown was launched this January and already over 450,000 seedlings have been to address flooding, soil erosion and water shortages faced by the city. She says we can turn frustration and dissatisfaction into positive change. What can we learn from such an approach post-Covid?Aditi Mittal is India’s best known female stand-up comedian, who is finding new ways to perform safely and online. She also hosts the Women in Labour podcast, and hopes that the increased time at home for many male workers in India has shone a light on the amount of time required to run a household, something that has always been a big barrier to the female workforce.Produced by Jane Thurlow and Caitlin SneddonImage from left: Aditi Mittal (credit Nanak Bhatia), Shani Dhanda (courtesy Shani Dhanda), Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr (credit TJ Bade) Karen Dolva (credit No Isolation)

Ozlem Cekic, one of the first Muslim women with an immigrant background to enter Danish parliament, tells us why she decided to meet up with the people who sent her racist emails. We discuss whether a new women's centre at the site of the former Holloway Women's Prison will get the go ahead. We hear from Lucy who's with Reclaim Holloway and also from the last woman to leave the prison four years ago.The lastest series of the drama The Crown has introduced a new generation to Princess Diana as well as her depression and her bulimia. We hear from the former BBC Royal Correspondent, Jennie Bond, and from Ali Pantony of Glamour Magazine.The chef and writer, Marie Mitchell, tells us about her love of Caribbean food and culture and how to cook the perfect Roti.And we discuss bickering with Penny Mansfield from the relationships charity One Plus One. She tells us why she thinks the pandemic has bought out the bickerer in many of us. One of our listeners, Deborah, tells us what starts off a bickering argument with her partner.Presenter: Jane Garvey Producer: Rabeka Nurmahomed Editor: Siobhan Tighe

The fourth series of The Crown currently airing on Netflix lays bare the ups and downs of the royal marriage of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer . The drama has introduced a new generation to the Princess, her depression and struggles with the eating disorder bulimia. Jane Garvey talks to the veteran royal watcher Jennie Bond and also to Ali Pantony from Glamour magazine who has herself suffered from bulimia and who says the issues faced by Diana three decades ago have resonated strongly with young people today. Next week the government begins a scheme to get more than a million university students back home safely to their families in time for Christmas. This includes on-campus mass testing using self test kits which give results in 30 minutes, cutting out the need to use a laboratory . Jane Garvey talks to the Universities Minister Michelle Donelan about this and other issues-from the rise in students experiencing mental health problems to the challenges of online tuition.How does it feel to reach the age your Mum was when she died? In a new series we talk to four women who feel a clock ticking. Their stories are all different but they have one thing in common – none of them have felt able to talk about this before. They didn’t want to worry their loved ones or vocalise these dark thoughts. They describe their fears as well as the joy of ordinary life and the freedom that comes from realising that you are not your mother. First, we’ll be hearing from Rachel whose Mum died shortly after turning 40.‘The Extraordinary Hope of Dawn Brightside’ is the debut novel of Jessica Ryn. Published yesterday, Jessica, having only recently finished her MA in Creative Writing, joins Jane to talk about the inspiration for her setting her first book in a hostel for the homeless in Dover.Presenter: Jane Garvey Producer: Kirsty StarkeyInterviewed Guest: Jennie Bond Interviewed Guest: Ali Pantony Interviewed Guest: Michelle Donelan Interviewed Guest: Jessica Ryn

The Island Social Club was created to fill the void of what was once London’s thriving Caribbean social scene. Chef, writer and co-founder Marie Mitchell explores Caribbean food and culture while creating a space for second and third generation British people of Caribbean descent to connect with their heritage. Marie talks abut food and identity and shows us how to Cook the Perfect Roti, one of the cornerstones of Caribbean cuisine.After a difficult first term of online tuition, lockdowns and social distancing it’s been a University experience like no other for young people.. The Government has issued guidelines about how they plan to get students home in time for Christmas which include a mass testing programme on campuses to reduce risk of infection. NUS President Larissa Kennedy joins Nicola to discuss university life in the time of Covid and the testing strategy.Audrey Hepburn was a legendary star of Hollywood’s Golden Age – infamous for her acting, as well as her style. But what do we know about the real woman behind the image? We hear from Helena Coan the director of a new film Audrey which features never before seen footage of her life, and Audrey’s granddaughter Emma Ferrer. The Woman’s Hour Power List: Our Planet has highlighted the breadth of work that goes into helping the environment, and today we feature two women in the finance sector. Caroline Mason is no. 16 on the List and is the CEO of the Esmée Fairbain Foundation, which finances lots of environmental and social projects. Catherine Howarth is no.21 and is the CEO of ShareAction, which persuades investors to think more sustainably.Presenter Nicola Beckford Producer Beverley Purcell