The Conversation

Two swimming stars look back on their extraordinary careers and talk frankly about sexism in the sport, how they overcame major challenges to keep competing and how they dealt with their period ahead of a race.

Natalie Coughlin is among the greatest female swimmers in history, with 12 Olympic medals to her name. However when she was a teenager, and already a rising star in the pool, she suffered a severe shoulder injury which put her off competitive swimming altogether. It was only at university when she met her first female coach, Teri McKeever, that she once again felt inspired to go for gold. Natalie went onto become the only US woman to earn six medals at one Olympics. And at 35 years old she still hasn't officially retired.

Natalie du Toit is a Paralympic champion from South Africa who refused to be defined by the scooter accident that left her an amputee at the age of 17. Before the accident she had been dreaming of competing in the Olympics and was tipped for success. Three months after she lost her left leg at the knee, she was back in the pool, determined to see what she could achieve. Not only has she now won 13 Paralympic golds but she also competed at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. She retired from the sport in 2012.

(L) Natalie Coughlin (credit: Aaron Okayama)

Can women stop their intimate photos being published online without their consent? Kim Chakanetsa brings together two women fighting back against so-called 'revenge' porn

Nyika Allen is President and CEO of the New Mexico Technology Council. In 2015, Nyika's ex-boyfriend began posting compromising photographs of her on Twitter. As they were viewed by complete strangers she was overwhelmed by shock and humiliation, but decided that she would not let him win. As well as getting the images taken down, and taking her ex to court, she successfully lobbied her state's politicians. With her help, New Mexico is now one of a growing number of US states to pass a law against revenge - or non-consensual - pornography.

Talent Jumo supports survivors of revenge porn in Zimbabwe, through her organisation Katswe Sistahood. She says the trauma of the experience is often made worse by the reaction of family who can reject their daughters for bringing shame on them. She believes society stigmatises women for this whereas men are celebrated for their virility. And bullying by ex-partners is grounded in the assumption that they won't speak out. She is helping women do just that, as well as helping to draft much-needed laws that can punish this new crime.

Image: (L) Talent Jumo. Credit: DCNGO. Courtesy of The Global Fund

Cutting off men's ties, throwing sequined stilettos and storming City Hall - carnival may at first appear to be a frivolous occasion, but Joanna Impey speaks to two women who say that feminist and even revolutionary ideas are at the root of carnival traditions, and are still highly relevant today.

Staci Rosenberg is the founder of one of the few all-female Mardi Gras parades in New Orleans. When she moved to the city as a student, she discovered that the social clubs which organise the parades were mostly male, moneyed and invitation-only. So she set up the 'Krewe of Muses' - which now has over 1,000 members and has had to close its waiting list due to high demand.

Monika Hoerig is the spokeswoman for the City of Bonn in Germany. But once a year, she joins a group of women to 'overthrow' her boss, the Mayor, and take control of City Hall. This symbolic takeover can be traced back to the 1820s, when a group of washerwomen got together to ditch their work and complain about their menfolk. The event marks the start of the carnival season in the area.

Image: (L) Washer Princess. ©: Andreas Rentz/Getty Images

Are women treated unfairly on social media, and is the situation worse for women of colour? Krupa Padhy meets two social activists who unexpectedly found themselves at the centre of a digital storm, and asks what happened next.

Yassmin Abdel-Magied is a Sudanese-Australian engineer, writer and activist who was named Queensland Young Australian of the Year 2015. However just two years later she found herself facing a barrage of criticism after posting a seven word status online that was seen by many as disrespectful to fallen soldiers on Anzac Day. Although she apologised immediately, she says that didn't stop her becoming the most publicly hated Muslim in Australia, and the months of abuse only calmed down when she left the country for good.

(L) Munroe Bergdorf. Credit: Elvind Hansen

Two women who are spellbound by the power of storms talk to Kim Chakanetsa about why they are drawn to danger, what it feels like to be trapped inside a Category Four hurricane and the thrill of the chase.

Karen Kosiba is a scientist based at the Center for Severe Weather Research in Boulder, Colorado. She chases extreme weather events to study the wind structure inside tornadoes and to measure the winds in hurricanes. She is mostly focussed on the data she collects from the relative safety of a radar truck, but sometimes she gets a chance to look out of the window and marvel at the sheer force of nature.

Sarah Alsayegh is a photographer from Kuwait who started out taking photos of Kuwait City, seeking out the most dramatic sunsets, looming skies and dust storms as backdrops to her images. She also became the first Arab woman to travel to the area known as tornado alley in the US. She says people are often taken aback to see a woman chasing storms, but she loves the way they make her feel - like a tiny human being amidst the vastness of the natural world.

Image (L) Karen Kosiba (credit: Gino De Grandis)

Do women wield any real power in the boardroom? Kim Chakanetsa gets together top female executives from India and Ireland to discuss.

Named one of India's most powerful women by Fortune India, Roopa Kudva has extensive experience of sitting on the board, both as a CEO and as an independent director. She currently leads the philanthropic investment firm, Omidyar Network, in India and also sits on the boards of Infosys and Tata AIA Life Insurance as an independent director. Roopa says companies should have more women on their boards for two simple reasons: 50% of their customers are women, and companies with diverse boards have been proven to perform better.

Adaire Fox-Martin joined the executive board of the global software solutions company SAP in 2017, where she is one of two women. The board area she is jointly responsible for is Global Customer Operations, and she oversees the whole of Europe as well as China. Adaire describes this board area as the 'Crown Jewels of the company'. While she is not necessarily a fan of quotas per se, she says she can see that regulation and legislation can begin to effect change further down the line, and lead to an increase in the numbers of women in senior management. This in turn means that more women are now breaking through to board level.

Image: (L) Adaire Fox-Martin. Credit: SAP

Two award-winning photographers on the importance of having women behind the lens. They tell Kim Chakanetsa what drives them, the challenges they face in the field and how they justify the amount of travel they do in the name of reversing climate change.

Cristina Mittermeier is a Mexican photographer who grew up alongside indigenous Mexican tribes, and witnessed their struggle to maintain their way of life. As a teenager, she began to worry about the impact that overpopulation was having on the environment. She started out her career as a marine biologist, before deciding that her photos rather than her scientific journals could have more impact on the world.

Ami Vitale is an American photojournalist who won a World Press Photo 2017 award for her series about Chinese panda breeding programmes. As a National Geographic photographer she has travelled to more than 90 countries around the world, and her work focusses on the conflict that often arises between humans and their environment. She is based in Montana, USA.

Image (L) Cristina Mittermeierand (R) Ami Vitale

Braving rough seas to make a living - it's not easy being a fisherwoman, but for our two guests it's about much more than the catch. They talk to Kim Chakanetsa about working in the open air, forming unique bonds with their crew and about their hopes for a sustainable future of fishing.

Claire Neaton is one half of Salmon Sisters, a commercial fishing and nautical clothing company, based in Alaska. She and her sister Emma grew up in the remote Aleutian Islands in Alaska, and learnt to fish at their father's side. She says their unusual upbringing taught them to be self-sufficient and to value their family ties - and that protecting and maintaining the pristine conditions around Alaska's waters is her top priority for the future.

Steinunn Einarsdottir is a fisherwoman based in the remote north-west of Iceland. Her parents were both at sea when she was a child, and she had to fend for herself when they were away. For many years, she has fished year-round, which is rare for women in Iceland, but now she's had her second child she's working in fish farming. She hopes to get back to life on the waves when her children are a little older, despite the fact that it always makes her seasick!

(L) Claire Neaton (credit: Camrin Dengel)

A surrogate mother and a mother who used a surrogate - Kim Chakanetsa explores the ethics and emotions of carrying a child for someone else, with two women from the United States and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Krystal Wallace is from Texas and already had two children of her own when she saw a TV programme about surrogacy and thought it could be for her. After a rocky start, she has now been a gestational surrogate for three different childless couples. She hates the term 'womb for rent', preferring to call it 'extreme babysitting'. Krystal says seeing the parents' faces when they meet their child is the most amazing feeling for her, and she doesn't feel any sense of loss when they take the baby home.

Jeanne Kapongo is from DRC and now lives in South Africa. She and her husband dreamed of having a big family but it took them ten years to fall pregnant with their first child. She says that she would not have felt complete without a second child, but after four more miscarriages they decided to opt for surrogacy. Jeanne says she was lucky to find a surrogate mother she connected with straight away, although it was a nerve-wracking process, as in South Africa the surrogate has the right to terminate the pregnancy for any reason.

Image: (L) Krystal Wallace and (R) Jeanne Kapongo

Finding out your father is a serial killer, and living with the consequences. Kim Chakanetsa brings together two women from the US and Australia who share this unusual experience, and asks why they both decided to speak publicly about it.

Jenn Carson is a teacher in California and the daughter of Michael 'Bear' Carson, who committed three murders in the US between 1981 and 1983, alongside his second wife Suzan. Jenn was told about her father's crimes when she was nine years old, and says the discovery led to long-term nightmares and depression. She has only seen her father once since then, and recently campaigned - alongside his victims' families - for his parole to be refused.

Elisha Rose is an Australian lawyer who discovered by watching the news when she was 13 that her father Lindsey had murdered five people. Elisha used to visit her father in prison until she realised that he was never going to take real responsibility for his crimes. She says that while she will never obtain closure from him, having this experience has been a driver to make her own life meaningful and purposeful, and to do good in the world.

(L) Image: Elisha Rose. Credit: Australian Story.