Woman's Hour

Natalie Fleet is the Labour MP for Bolsover whose path into politics has been far from typical. From a very young age, teachers told her she was destined for university – something almost unheard of in her Nottingham mining town. But her future took a different turn, when at fifteen, she became pregnant by an older man. At the time she had thought they were in a relationship - but as she grew older, Natalie says she realised she had been a victim of grooming and statutory rape. She's now speaking out to give a voice to those she feels have been made to feel they should be silent, and joins Anita Rani in the studio. Only 3.1% of PREP users in England are women. That's Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis, a drug that reduces the risk of being infected with HIV. Many women don’t know that PREP exists, or don’t consider themselves at risk. Yet women accounted for 30% of new HIV diagnoses in England in 2023. This week, the Elton John AIDS Foundation has launched pilot programmes to increase women's access to PREP. Anita was joined by Dr Jenny Whetham, Consultant and Joint Clinical Lead, Sexual Health and HIV Medicine, Brighton and Anne Aslett, CEO of the Elton John AIDS Foundation to discuss.Trisha Goddard rose to fame as a TV journalist. She was the first black TV presenter in Australia and is best known in the UK for her eponymous TV show which aired on ITV and Channel 5 in the late 90s and 2000s, earning her a reputation as the British Oprah. She joined Anita to talk about her career, appearing on Celebrity Big Brother and why she chose recently to go public with her diagnosis for stage 4 metastatic breast cancer.BBC journalist Sanchia Berg and fertility lawyer Beverley Addison joined Nuala McGovern to discuss the recent cases of older couples becoming parents via surrogacy.Comedian, actor and writer Rosie Jones joined Nuala to discuss her first sitcom, Pushers, which she stars in and co-wrote. She plays Emily in the Channel 4 show, who has very little left to lose after having her disability benefits cut when she loses her job - she finds herself building an illegal drugs empire. Emily isn’t your average street-dealer though - she’s sharp, funny, highly educated and has cerebral palsy. What better disguise could there be for criminal activity than to be entirely written off by society?Presenter: Anita Rani Producer: Annette Wells Editor: Rebecca Myatt

Natalie Fleet is the Labour MP for Bolsover whose path into politics has been far from typical. From a very young age, teachers told her she was destined for university – something almost unheard of in her Nottingham mining town. But her future took a different turn, when at fifteen, she became pregnant by an older man. At the time she had thought they were in a relationship - but as she grew older, Natalie says she realised she had been a victim of grooming and statutory rape. She's now speaking out to give a voice to those she feels have been made to feel they should be silent, and joins Anita Rani in the studio. Lauretta Ngcobo was an author, political exile and an activist during South Africa’s apartheid. Her political activism led to her fleeing the country and raising her children in the UK, along with her husband, AB Ngcobo, an anti-apartheid political leader and a founder of the PAC - Pan Africanist Congress of Azania, a South African political party. Kethiwe Ngcobo – one of Lauretta’s daughters – has now produced a documentary, And She Didn’t Die. The film, named based on one of Lauretta’s most well-known novels, And They Never Died, tells the story of Lauretta’s life – and Kethiwe’s own life too. Kethiwe joins Anita live in the studio to discuss it.In recent weeks a number of botulism poisoning cases have emerged in the North East. This is a dangerous and potentially fatal reaction to the botulinum neurotoxin used in anti wrinkle injections. North East based BBC reporter Philippa Goymer has been investigating and joins Anita.After years of being controlled and humiliated by him, in 2011 Sally Challen was jailed for 22 years for the murder of her husband, Richard. The sentence was reduced to 18 years but in June 2019 she walked out of the Old Bailey a free woman - the introduction of coercive control as a crime meaning her sentence was reduced to manslaughter. Her son David who campaigned relentlessly for her release has just published a new memoir documenting his experience as a child survivor of domestic abuse and how the family came to terms with their histories and new lives over the years that followed.Presenter: Anita Rani Producer: Corinna Jones

Trisha Goddard rose to fame as a TV journalist. She was the first black TV presenter in Australia and is best known in the UK for her eponymous TV show which aired on ITV and Channel 5 in the late 90s and 2000s, earning her a reputation as the British Oprah. She joins Anita to talk about her career, appearing on Celebrity Big Brother and why she chose recently to go public with her diagnosis for stage 4 metastatic breast cancer.Air pollution kills more than 500 people a week in the UK and costs more than 500 million pounds a week in ill health, according to a new report, "A breath of fresh air," by the Royal College of Physicians. The report highlights growing evidence about health issues linked to toxic air and calls it “a public health crisis”. Today, a group of doctors, nurses and campaigners are walking from Great Ormond Street Hospital to Downing Street with a letter calling on government ministers to commit to more ambitious air quality targets. Anita talks to two of them, Rosamund Kissi Debrah, whose daughter Ella became the first person in the UK to have air pollution cited on their death certificate and Professor Sir Stephen Holgate, co author of today's report.Only 3.1% of PREP users in England are women. That's Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis, a drug that reduces the risk of being infected with HIV. Many women don’t know that PREP exists, or don’t consider themselves at risk. Yet women accounted for 30% of new HIV diagnoses in England in 2023. Today, the Elton John AIDS Foundation is launching pilot programmes to increase women's access to PREP. Anita is joined by Dr Jenny Whetham, Consultant and Joint Clinical Lead, Sexual Health and HIV Medicine, Brighton and Anne Aslett, CEO of the Elton John AIDS FoundationThe clever one. The funny one. The beautiful one. But which one is The Favourite? Set over a single week, but examining the highs and lows that define a family over the decades, this book is a story of rivalries and long-held resentments, about loss and grief and blame – and love. Fran Littlewood – also author of New York Times bestseller Amazing Grace Adams talks to Anita about her new novel.Presenter: Anita Rani Producer: Rebecca Myatt

In the biggest shake-up to reproductive rights in almost 60 years, MPs have voted to decriminalise abortion for women in England and Wales. This would mean a woman could not be prosecuted for ending her pregnancy after the 24 week limit, but medical professionals and others could still be held criminally liable if they assist. Nuala McGovern speaks to the BBC's political correspondent Alex Forsyth and Conservative MP Dr. Caroline Johnson, shadow minister for health and social care, who had put forward another amendment which would have required a pregnant woman to have an in person consultation with a doctor or appropriate medical professional before being prescribed medication to terminate her pregnancy, aimed at stopping so-called 'pills-by-post' abortions.Crime writer Karin Slaughter has sold over 40 million copies and been called the ‘Queen of Crime.’ She's been writing for 25 years and has just published her 25th novel. Called We Are All Guilty Here, it's the story of two teenage girls who go missing and the start of a brand new series featuring police officer Emmy Clifton. Karin tells Nuala why she wanted create a new series and how she manages a book a year on top of all the TV adaptations on her work. Do you co-sleep or bedshare with your school-aged children? A few years ago the Clueless actor Alicia Silverstone was criticised for saying she sleeps in the same bed with her 11-year-old and that she was 'just following nature.' It’s a divisive topic that provokes strong opinions and disagreement. So how common is it and what are the advantages and disadvantages of doing so? Nuala is joined by Genevieve Roberts, parenting columnist with the I newspaper, who regularly sleeps in the same bed with her children, and Sarah Blunden, Professor of Clinical Psychology and Head of Paediatric Sleep Research at Central Queensland University. One of the young women making waves in the male dominated sport of motor racing is 22-year-old Abbi Pulling. She’s considered as one of the most promising young drivers in world motorsport - she won the 2024 'F1 Academy' season, which has been set up to develop women and girls in the sport. She’s the first female driver to take a race victory in British F4 and is now racing in the GB3 category. Abbi told Nuala about the difficulties around funding for getting into racing and if women could make it into the top tier of Formula 1. Presenter: Nuala McGovern Producer: Andrea Kidd

We discuss the key recommendations of Baroness Louise Casey's report into child sexual exploitation and abuse, and ask what might change as a result? Nuala McGovern is joined by guests including BBC social affairs editor Alison Holt, social worker-turned-whistleblower Jayne Senior and documentary director Anna Hall, who has spent the past two decades covering the subject of grooming gangs. Comedian, actor and writer Rosie Jones joins Nuala to discuss her first sitcom, Pushers, which she stars in and co-wrote. She plays Emily in the Channel 4 show, who has very little left to lose after having her disability benefits cut when she loses her job - she finds herself building an illegal drugs empire. Emily isn’t your average street-dealer though - she’s sharp, funny, highly educated and has cerebral palsy. What better disguise could there be for criminal activity than to be entirely written off by society? Children are not playing outside enough, according to a new report by the Raising the Nation Play Commission, but instead are "sedentary, scrolling and alone". Nineteen commissioners, from doctors to campaigners, spent a year investigating play and childhood in England for the report. Among their recommendations are raising the digital age of consent to 16 and putting in place a statutory "play sufficiency duty" for local authorities. Joining Nuala to discuss this are Baroness Anne Longfield, executive chair of Centre for Young Lives and co-leader of the commission, and Debbie Watson, Professor of Child and Family Welfare at the University of Bristol. Presenter: Nuala McGovern Producer: Sarah Jane Griffiths

The Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has announced a full national statutory inquiry into child sexual abuse perpetrated by gangs after previously dismissing calls for a public inquiry. This comes after he said he has read every single word of an independent report into child exploitation by Baroness Louise Casey and would accept her recommendation for a full investigation. Nuala McGovern discusses what’s been announced with BBC Special Correspondent Judith Moritz and Maggie Oliver, who resigned from Greater Manchester Police in 2012 to publicly speak out against what she recognised as gross failures to safeguard victims of the scandal in Rochdale. She has recently had meetings with Baroness Casey and has taken a group of survivors to share their experiences with her.The BBC and the Arts and Humanities Research Board have selected six academics to be this year’s New Generation Thinkers on Radio 4 and Historical Criminologist Stephanie Brown will be joining Woman’s Hour. She talks to Nuala about her research into crime, punishment and policing and how society views women criminals.Lily Allen recently admitted that she ranks her friends in a recent edition of the BBC podcast Miss Me? The singer joked: 'I create lists of people who I like in order of how much I like them… I send that list to my assistant and ask her to schedule the time for me to have FaceTimes with them.' But joking apart, is it simply human nature to make a distinction between close friends and acquaintances, and everyone in between? Columnist for the iPaper Rebecca Reid and cultural historian Tiffany Watt-Smith join Nuala to discuss.BBC journalist Sanchia Berg and fertility lawyer Beverley Addison joins Nuala to discuss the recent cases of older couples becoming parents via surrogacy.Iris Mwanza started out as a corporate lawyer in both her native Zambia and then in the US. She’s also been Deputy Director in the Gender Equality Division of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. But she’s gone back to her roots for her debut novel, The Lions’ Den. Set in Zambia in the early 1990s, it follows Grace Zulu, a rookie lawyer, whose first pro bono case is to help the 17-year-old Willbess Mulenga. It’s been alleged that Willbess, who prefers the name Bessy, had sex with another man and he’s been arrested for offences ‘against nature.’ Presenter: Nuala McGovern Producer: Emma Pearce

Julianne Moore has won countless awards and nominations for films like Boogie Nights, The End of the Affair, The Hours, as well as winning an Oscar for her performance in the film Still Alice. Her latest role sees her play Kate in the upcoming film Echo Valley alongside Sydney Sweeney, who plays her daughter Claire. Julianne tells Nuala McGovern about her character who's coming to terms with a personal tragedy while running her farm and training horses, when her daughter shows up, hysterical and covered in someone else’s blood, flipping Kate’s world upside down.Next week not one but two amendments are being brought before MPs, both of which could mean, if passed, that women will no longer be prosecuted for terminating a pregnancy in England and Wales. It comes amid concern more women are being investigated by police on suspicion of illegally ending a pregnancy. Anita Rani is joined by the BBC's Health Correspondent Nick Triggle and Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi, one of those who is tabling an amendmentIn 2015, 22-year-old Alice Figueiredo took her own life whilst being treated at Goodmayes Hospital, east London. Over the course of her 5 month stay at the mental health unit she attempted suicide on 18 separate occasions. Following a seven-month trial at the Old Bailey, a jury found that not enough was done by the North East London Foundation NHS Trust, or ward manager Benjamin Aninakwa, to prevent Alice from killing herself. Alice’s mum, Jane Figueiredo, has spent the last decade fighting to get the case to court. She discusses the impact it has had on her family.Canadian born human rights lawyer, Stephanie Case, went viral online when she finished first place in the women’s section of the Snowdonia ultra-trail 100km race despite giving birth six months ago and breastfeeding her daughter at aid stations. Stephanie tells Nuala McGovern about her first race as a mother and first competition in three years and why she chose to continue to do the things she loves after becoming a mum.The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden is set in the Netherlands in 1960 and tells the story of Isabel and Eva, two women who are both struggling to find their place in a society that isn’t yet modern but does not want to reflect on the horrors of the Second World War. Yael joins Anita to discuss her critically acclaimed debut novel which has been shortlisted for the Booker and is this years Women’s Prize for Fiction winner.Presenter: Anita Rani Producer: Rabeka Nurmahomed

Last night the winners of this year’s Women’s Prize were announced. The winner for fiction is Yael van der Wouden for her novel The Safekeep and the non-fiction prize by Rachel Clarke for her book The Story of a Heart, which tracks the lifesaving gift of a transplant. Anita Rani discusses the winning books with the Chair of Judges for the Fiction Prize, author Kit de Waal, and Chair of Judges for the Non-Fiction Prize, journalist and author Kavita Puri.Race Across The World reached its finale on BBC One this week, after a nearly 9,000-mile dash across Asia, from the Great Wall in north eastern China to the southernmost tip of India, via the Himalayan peaks of Nepal. This year’s winner were mother and son team Caroline Bridge and her 21-year-old son Tom. Caroline talks to Anita about the experience.An entrepreneur and mother was refused entry to a tech event in London because she had brought her eight-month-old baby with her. Anita speaks to the woman in question, Davina Schonle, and the director and producer Jude Kelly about the issue of banning babies from events of this nature.It's festival season, with Glastonbury starting at the end of June. However it’s not just the music and the atmosphere that festival goers need to be thinking about. The UK Health Security Agency has warned that measles is circulating across the country, with high numbers in the South West and London. Anita is joined by the UK Health Security Agency Deputy Director of Vaccination Programmes, Dr Julie Yates - who is the former public health lead in South West on Glastonbury.Grammy-nominated Ute Lemper has had a career spanning stage, film and music. She is renowned for her interpretations of Kurt Weill, Brecht and chanson legends like Marlene Dietrich. Ute won the American Theatre World Award and the Laurence Olivier Award for her performance as Chicago’s Velma Kelly both on Broadway and in London's West End, and the Molière Award for her performance as Sally Bowles in Cabaret in Paris. Utel Lemper now has a new album, Pirate Jenny, celebrating the music of legendary composer Kurt Weill. She joins Anita to talk about her passion for his work.Presenter: Anita Rani Producer: Rebecca Myatt

Next week not one but two amendments are being brought before MPs, both of which could mean, if passed, that women will no longer be prosecuted for terminating a pregnancy in England and Wales. It comes amid concern more women are being investigated by police on suspicion of illegally ending a pregnancy. Anita Rani is joined by the BBC's Health Correspondent Nick Triggle and Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi, one of those who is tabling an amendmentThe Chancellor Rachel Reeves this week announced an extra £29bn per year for the NHS, along with funding boosts for defence and housing as she set out the government's spending plans for the coming years. What impact could the spending review announcements have on women? Eir Nolsoe, Economic Correspondent at the Telegraph, and Erin Mansell from the Women's Budget Group join Anita to discuss.The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden is set in the Netherlands in 1960 and tells the story of Isabel and Eva, two women who are both struggling to find their place in a society that isn’t yet modern but does not want to reflect on the horrors of the Second World War. Yael joins Anita to discuss her critically acclaimed debut novel which has been shortlisted for both the Booker and the Women’s Prize for Fiction.Olivier Award-winning actor Lara Pulver joins Anita in the studio to talk about playing matriarch Golde in the critically acclaimed production of The Fiddler on the Roof at The Barbican Theatre.Presenter: Anita Rani Producer: Corinna Jones

Canadian born human rights lawyer, Stephanie Case, went viral online when she finished first place in the women’s section of the Snowdonia ultra-trail 100km race despite giving birth six months ago and breastfeeding her daughter at aid stations. Stephanie tells Nuala McGovern about her first race as a mother and first competition in three years and why she chose to continue to do the things she loves after becoming a mum.In 2015, 22-year-old Alice Figueiredo took her own life whilst being treated at Goodmayes Hospital, east London. Over the course of her 5 month stay at the mental health unit she attempted suicide on 18 separate occasions. Following a seven-month trial at the Old Bailey, a jury found that not enough was done by the North East London Foundation NHS Trust, or ward manager Benjamin Aninakwa, to prevent Alice from killing herself. Alice’s mum, Jane Figueiredo, has spent the last decade fighting to get the case to court. She discusses the impact it has had on her family.This week it was announced by Deloitte that the total revenues of Women’s Super League (WSL) football clubs grew by 34 per cent to £65m in the 2023-24 season and are tipped to hit £100m for the first time next year. But while the four biggest-earning clubs generated most of the WSL revenue and the average WSL team’s revenue increased there remains a yawning gap between the top and bottom teams. At the same time average attendances in the Women's Super League dropped by 10% last season compared with the previous campaign. To unpick this mixed picture we hear from Dr Christina Philippou, Associate Professor of Sports Finance at the University of Portsmouth.A new Cambridge University report published today calls on public health bodies like the NHS to offer apps that rival private FemTech services to prevent policing of reproductive choices. They are calling for better governance of the industry to protect users of cycle tracking apps (CTAs) when their data can be collected and sold at scale. Dr Stefanie Felsberger is lead author of The High Stakes of Tracking Menstruation.Presenter: Nuala McGovern Producer: Sarah Crawley