When it comes to potty training, we unpick the fads from what works. Rebecca Mottram, a children’s nurse who now runs her own business teaching potty training and Christina Hardyment, author of Dream Babies help us to work out the dos and don’ts - and what has changed over the years. Netflix's new comedy film Wine Country stars Amy Poehler and Tina Fey as friends who go away to the Napa Valley to celebrate a 50th birthday. During the course of the weekend, wine is drunk, singing and dancing ensue - and, tensions arise. We discuss why trips with female friends so often follow this formula with actor, Arabella Weir and Tianna Johnson, the founder of Black Girls Camping Trip. A play, loosely based on Thomas Hardy's 1895 tragic novel Jude the Obscure, has opened at the Hampstead Theatre in London. In this version Jude is a woman, a cleaner, a Syrian refugee who dreams of studying Classics at Oxford University. Actor, Isabella Nefar is joined by Karin Koehler, editor of the Thomas Hardy journal and a lecturer at Bangor University to discuss the challenge of re-working well-known characters for the stage. And, reporter Henrietta Harrison hears about a new libretto by Sheila Hill, performed by a community choir of women and children trained by Glyndebourne opera house in Sussex.  Presenter: Jenni Murray
Producer: Ruth Watts

Potty training, Going away with friends, Jude

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

Personal Journals

Society & Culture

History

Philosophy

Places & Travel

Health & Fitness

Now that women’s sport is advancing, we need clear safeguarding rules for women and girls about what is and isn’t okay when it comes to talking about female health outside the realm of medicine. That’s the call from Baz Moffat, one of the co-founders of The Well HQ, which aims to break barriers in women’s sport and champion education about female health. She joins Hayley Hassell to tell us more about their new Safer Sport poster campaign and why it’s needed. Once one of Russia's biggest pop stars, Manizha represented the country at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2021. Then Russia invaded Ukraine and Manizha used her songs and her platform to share her anti-war views. Subsequently her concerts were cancelled, her music banned and Manizha's safety, both in real life and online, has been compromised. She talks to Hayley about her life and her new single Candlelight. How do we keep children safe online? Hayley is joined by Esther Ghey and Marinna Spring to discuss Ofcom's new safety codes of practice. Bestselling author Nadine Matheson is a criminal defence lawyer and uses her own experiences in the world of criminal law to build her stories and characters. She talks to Hayley about the new book - ‘The Kill List’ - and why there aren’t more black female detectives in crime novels.  Four girls sitting in a Mosque in detention are stuck in darkness after a power outage. To pass the time, they tell Somali folktales and bond in a modern day take on The Breakfast Club. That’s the scene for Dugsi Dayz, performing now at the Royal Court Theatre. The writer and actor Sabrina Ali joins Hayley in the Woman’s Hour to tell us more about it. Presenter: Hayley Hassell
Producer: Laura Northedge
Studio Producer: Neva Missirian

Safer sport for women, novelist Nadine Matheson, Sabrina Ali on Dugzi Dayz

What’s like to start again with nothing? On New Year's Eve of 2018, journalist Helen Chandler-Wilde lost everything she owned in a storage unit fire in Croydon, where she'd stowed all her possessions. She has written about it in the book, Lost & Found - 9 life-changing lessons about stuff from someone who lost everything. She joins Hayley Hassall to describe her experience and explain why we get so emotionally attached to our belongings. The BBC Series I Kissed a Girl started over the weekend... it's the first UK dating show for gay women. Dannii Minogue hosts the show where ten single women are matched up with a partner to see if sparks will fly and the women will find love. In the first episode, all the women are matched with a partner and start getting to know each other. Comedian Catherine Bohart and TV critic Daisy Jones discuss. The number of children in care is continuing to rise each year, and every year thousands of new foster carers are needed. The comedian and writer Kiri Pritchard-McLean has done just that. During lockdown, Kiri and her partner embarked on a journey to become foster carers in north Wales and she’s ‘evangelical’ about the role. It’s the subject of her new seven-month comedy tour, Peacock. The charity Karma Nirvana has today written to the victims and safeguarding minister Laura Farris, calling for the government to introduce a statutory definition of honour abuse. The charity’s executive director Natasha Rattu explains why, alongside a woman we are calling ‘Dana’ who is a victim of this abuse, who describes her experiences and what a statutory definition would mean to her. Presenter: Hayley Hassall
Producer: Kirsty Starkey
Studio Manager: Duncan Hannant

Losing your possessions, Defining honour abuse, Foster caring

We are all ageing, if we're lucky, so in this Woman's Hour special programme, we're exploring how women can age well.   Anita Rani is joined by a panel of women of different ages to talk about the possibility of re-invention and the wisdom of age, as well as the difficulties and barriers women face as they get older. What we can learn from each other and how can women of different generations support each other?
 
Author and psychologist, Dr Sharon Blackie’s book, Hagitude: Reimagining the Second Half of Life, explores stories of little-known but powerful elder women in European myth and folklore – with the hope of inspiring women now. She joins Anita to discuss what we can learn from these stories and the power she feels we can gain if we embrace getting older.
 
NHS GP Dr Radha Modgil is often to be found on BBC Radio 1’s Life Hacks. Radha joins the discussion to explain the things we can do specifically to age well. She highlights exercise and nutrition, as well as the real need for women to have purpose in their lives, no matter what age they are and how that can impact our ageing both physically and mentally. 
 
Our reporter Martha Owen meets Lindi, Sue & Celia in the British Library in London, at a meeting for the Older Peoples Advisory Group – a forum for older community members – hosted by Age UK Camden. They give their thoughts on ageing, what they’ve enjoyed most about getting older and why dancing trumps housework. 
 
Cally Beaton was formerly a top TV exec, then she swapped the boardroom for the stage and became a comedian at the age of 45. Ten years later, she now refuses to make self-deprecating jokes in her sets. She joins Anita to discuss what it's like ageing in the public eye, defying her age and the importance of advice from older – and younger – women.
 
The writer and content creator Pippa Stacey's perceptions of ageing have changed because of her experience of a chronic illness. Pippa was diagnosed with ME, also known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, while she was at university. She joins Anita to reflect on the impact of the physical changes she has experienced, the pressures young women are under and why she wants to listen to older, and wiser, women. 
 
Presenter: Anita Rani 
Guest: Sharon Blackie 
Guest: Dr Radha Modgil 
Guest: Cally Beaton 
Guest: Pippa Stacey 
Reporter: Martha Owen 
Producer: Claire Fox 
Editor: Erin Riley
Studio Engineer: Giles Aspen

How to age well: A Woman's Hour special

What is it really like to be a co-parent? Hayley Allen’s son spends the weekdays with his dad and she takes care of him at the weekends. Carly Harris’ two children spend 80% of their time with her and are looked after by their dad every other weekend. Clare talked to Hayley and Carly about the difficulties and benefits of co-parenting. As talks reach a conclusion in Ottawa this week on a legally binding global treaty on plastic pollution, we speak to film director and campaigner Eleanor Church. Her documentary, X Trillion, comes out this week, and takes the viewer on an all-female expedition to the North Pacific gyre, where much of the world's plastic waste ends up. The risk of ACL injuries in female football players is up to six times higher than their male counterparts. Leeds Beckett University is leading a new study into why this risk rate is so high and the impact on athletes. Knee surgeon to the sports stars Andy Williams explains why this may be happening and footballer Emma Samways, of Hashtag United in Essex, tells us about her ACL injury from earlier on this year. Perinatal suicide, while thankfully rare, is the leading cause of maternal death in the UK. A new study from King’s College London is the first of its kind to focus on the causes. The perinatal period runs from the start of pregnancy to a year after giving birth – and the suicide rates among these women has recently risen. Clare spoke to Dr Abigail Easter, the lead researcher, and Krystal Wilkinson, who shares her own experience. Presenter: Anita Rani
Producer: Annette Wells
Editor; Erin Riley

Weekend Woman's Hour: Co-parenting, Plastic pollution, ACL injuries, Perinatal suicide

On today's Woman's Hour phone-in we ask what it's like to be a boy in 2024 and how society is shaping our future men.  On Monday we spoke to Catherine Carr about her Radio 4 series About the Boys. She spoke to boys up and down the country about how they felt about subjects like sex and consent, masculinity, friendship, life online and education and she found out that boys were experiencing confusing and often troubling messages about their role in society. She joins us, along with Richard Reeves, the President of the American Institute for Boys and Men to take your calls about boys. Please get in touch with your experiences and thoughts about boys; from bringing them up to being one. The phone lines open at 0800 on Friday 3 May. Call us on 03700 100 444 or you can text the programme - the number is 84844. Texts will be charged at your standard message rate. On social media we're @BBCWomansHour. And you can email us through our website. Presenter: Anita Rani
Producer Laura Northedge
Studio Manager: Bob Nettles

Potty training, Going away with friends, Jude

Download our free app to listen on your phone