Woman's Hour

Mona Eltahawy on embracing female anger; Maternal ambivalence; Women in the Senedd

05.11.2021 - By BBC Radio 4Play

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'We need to dismantle the patriarchy' is a familiar feminist rallying cry. But Egyptian-American writer and activist Mona Eltahawy believes we should stop just saying it, and start actively defying and disrupting the patriarchy now - with force if necessary. Mona's latest book is The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls. She joins Emma to explain why she wrote it with enough 'rage to fuel a rocket.'

In a recent article, writer and travel editor at the Independent, Cathy Adams said she wished the phrase 'I sometimes resent my baby' went down better at the pub. She describes imagining an alternate life without her son at the centre, and how thirteen months after her son's birth she's still struggling to articulate her feelings because of the lack of language surrounding maternal ambivalence. Cathy joins Emma - along with Amy Brown, a Professor of Child Public Health - to discuss these conflicting emotions and why we find it so hard to openly talk about the challenges of being a parent.

In Thursday’s Elections in Wales Natasha Asghar made history by becoming the first woman from a Black or Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) background to be elected to the Welsh Senedd. She’ll represent South Wales East for the Tories – a seat held by her dad until his death last year. However the overall number of women elected was down on the last Election. Emma talks to Natasha about what the victory means to her and how she feels about following in her father’s footsteps. Plus Jess Blair from the Electoral Reform Society Wales tells us why more needs to be done to make sure that we see more women coming through.

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