While the proportion of girls studying science subjects beyond high school is going up, physics, maths and engineering are still dominated by men. Ella Al-Shamahi talks to two women from Sweden and the UK who are using social media platforms to try and encourage greater equality in STEM subjects.

Eleonora Svanberg is a half-Swedish and half-Persian mathematical physics PhD student at the University of Oxford. With over half a million followers on social media platforms, @eleonorasvanberg discusses topics related to science, education and equality. Her first book in 2024 was about mathematical confidence, mainly aimed at young girls.

Dr Clara Nellist is a particle physicist and science communicator. She’s from the UK and has studied in France, Germany and the Netherlands. Clara’s work has focused on pixel detectors, the properties of the Higgs boson and the top quark, the heaviest known particle. She’s now working on the ATLAS experiment at CERN she’s has over a quarter of a million followers on social media where she posts videos @particleclara.

Produced by Jane Thurlow

(Image: (L) Eleonora Svanberg, credit Laura Smith. (R) Clara Nellist, credit Clara Nellist.)

Datshiane Navanayagam talks to two women from Sweden and the United States about what they've learned about treasuring moments of joy.

Kate Bowler is an historian, podcaster and author. She wrote Joyful Anyway after a stage IV bowel cancer diagnosis. Kate says joy isn't something that can be sold by influencers or found in daily journaling. It comes in both the surprising and the expected moments life brings us - and it's perfectly possible to be unhappy and filled with joy at the same time.

Marit Kapla is a Swedish author and journalist. For two of her books she's listened to hundreds of people talk about their lives. Her prize-winning Osebol is based upon interviews with almost all the residents of her home village. Love in Swedish consists of interviews with people all over Sweden about love. Marit says finding joy in one’s life can be difficult and complicated, and the people she's spoken to have many different approaches.

Produced by Jane Thurlow

(Image: (L) Marit Kapla, credit Ola Kjelbye. (R) Kate Bowler, credit Michaella Jelin.)

Why does it become much harder for older women to become pregnant? And how does fertility treatment differ from one country to the next? Ella Al-Shamahi finds out what women need to understand about their bodies.

Ella speaks to Sarah Allison who underwent fertility treatment in India, Spain and Greece. Sarah is now a fertility advocate and writes under the name Solo Fertility 40s.

She also talks to Dr Alison Campbell, a clinical embryologist and chief scientific officer of the Care Fertility Group, and a fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists.

(Image: (L) Sarah Allison, courtesy Sarah Allison. (R) Alison Campbell, courtesy Alison Campbell.)

Datshiane Navanayagam discusses the impact of toxic masculinity in South Africa and South Korea. The United Nations has raised concern about online communities promoting misogynistic and anti-feminist views saying they’re a serious threat to gender equality. 

Seungsook Moon is Professor of Sociology at Vassar College in New York State. She grew up in Seoul, and her research includes gender and social change in South Korea. In particular, she focuses on the remaking of masculinities shaped by neoliberal transformation of economy, politics, and culture locally and globally. South Korea ranked the highest out of 30 countries for how citizens perceive tension between men and women, according to a study by King’s College London. But what is driving the country’s gender-divide and how is misogyny taking shape online?

Produced by Elena Angelides

(Image: (L) Kutlwano Mokgwathi, courtesy Kutlwano Mokgwathi. (R) Seungsook Moon, courtesy Seungsook Moon.)

Datshiane Navanayagam talks to two women from Uganda and the UK working at seed banks to secure the future of the world's plant life.

Gloria Otieno is a scientist and genetic policy specialist with Alliance Biodiversity CIAT working to create and support seed banks in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. She grew up on a farm in Uganda and witnessed her community lose access to the finger millet they used for ceremonial occasions and only got it back through a gene bank. She says it brought home to her the importance of preserving a diversity of crops.

Charlotte Lusty is head of seed collections at the Millennium Seed Bank at Kew in the UK, the world’s biggest wild seed bank. The underground vaults store millions of seeds from across the globe. With an estimated 45 per cent of flowering plants globally threatened with extinction, it’s an important insurance policy for the future.

(Image: (L) Charlotte Lusty, credit Sebastian Kettley. (R) Gloria Otieno, credit Sustlives.))

When devastation strikes around the world there are groups of experienced, dedicated teams that will fly in to support local people in saving lives. Others support people in the long, slow task of dealing with the aftermath and impact on health, homes and livelihoods. Datshiane Navanayagam talks to women from Venezuela and the UK about their roles in disaster response.

Claudia González grew up in La Guaira, Venezuela which has recently been hit by two earthquakes. She works for World Vision Venezuela and was at a United Nations meeting when the disaster struck. On returning to Caracas she learned many of her school friends and their families had died in collapsed buildings. Since then she's been working round the clock to support her team working with UN agencies to coordinate the emergency response.

Lori Demontigny is a registered nurse with Doctors Without Borders (MSF) providing care in crisis zones. Lori was working in Myanmar when it was hit by its worst earthquake for over a hundred years in March 2025. It's thought over five thousand people were killed. She's now project coordinator for MSF in Bangladesh.

Produced by Jane Thurlow

The trades and construction sectors are crying out for new talent, yet many school leavers have no idea that this industry could offer a meaningful and lucrative career path.

Datshiane Navanayagam speaks to two women on a mission to get more young people, especially girls interested in jobs like electrician, carpenter and bricklayer. They also discuss the importance of having female role-models in the industry.

Judaline Cassidy is a plumber who honed her craft in her native Trinidad and Tobago before moving to New York where she set up Tools and Tiaras: an organisation that introduces girls and young women to trade skills.

Renee Preston is from the UK and founded Construction for Women to help tackle the industry’s growing skills shortage. She’s a passionate advocate for policy change that gives young people greater access to construction sites and hands-on industry experience.

Producer: Hannah Dean

(Image: (L) Judaline Cassidy, courtesy Judaline Cassidy. (R) Renee Preston, credit Emma Boyle.)

The weaker sex? The fairer sex? The female body has often been viewed as less strong and less powerful than that of men. Datshiane Navanayagam meets two female scientists who are challenging that assumption. They reveal the ways in which women’s bodies actually come out on top.

Starre Vartan is an Australian science journalist, based in America. In her book The Stronger Sex she explores the different areas where women have the physical edge over men, from endurance events to immune response.

Marlo Möller is Professor of Molecular Biology and Human Genetics at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. Her research explores why women appear to be better at fighting off and surviving diseases like tuberculosis.

Produced by Hannah Sander

(Image: (L) Starre Vartan, credit Starre Vartan. (R) Marlo Möller, credit Annecke Vermeulen.)

Statues in parks and city centres are meant to celebrate history and inspire for the future. But it's thought that in nearly every country in the world, women only make up 2-3% of the public statues. Datshiane Navanayagam talks to sculptors from the US and Nigeria who are working to redress the balance.

Meredith Bergmann is an American sculptor creating giant bronzes of significant female public figures for parks and historical sites around the United States. Her “Women’s Rights Monument” was unveiled in 2020 for the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote. It was the first statue of a woman, joining 22 statues of historical men in Central Park in New York.

Sokari Douglas Camp makes steel sculptures that vary in size from 30cm to 5m tall. Influenced by her Nigerian heritage, her latest exhibition, Fashion and Fortune, explores clothing, commerce and emblems of wealth using elaborate headdresses and the incorporation of coins to highlight both oppression and creativity.

Produced by Jane Thurlow

(Image: (L) Sokari Douglas Camp, credit Jonathan Greet. (R) Meredith Bergmann, credit Michael Bergmann.)

The film industry is massively dominated by men. But women-only film festivals are shaking things up, celebrating the female directors, producers, cinematographers and editors behind the camera. Datshiane Navanayagam meets two women who run female film festivals.

Bina Paul in India is the director of the Asian Women's Film Festival in New Delhi. As a film editor with decades of experience, she recently saw one of her films celebrated at the Cannes film festival in France.

Amal Ramsis in Egypt founded and runs the Between Women Filmmakers’ Caravan (BWFC), which showcases films directed by women from the Arab world and Latin America. She is also a documentary filmmaker.

Producer: Hannah Sander

(Image: (L) Bina Paul, courtesy Bina Paul. (R) Amal Ramsis, credit Rania Zahra.)