Woman's Hour

Reports are coming through that Russian soldiers have raped women in Ukraine. There are reports that women have been raped in front of their children, and soldiers have filmed what they're doing. We hear the latest from BBC correspondent Emma Vardy, and discuss why rape in war happens, justice and trauma with Dr Jelke Boesten, Professor of Gender and Development at King's College London.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has now given guidance about single-sex spaces. This is for spaces like toilets, prisons and changing rooms. We talk to Baroness Kishwer Falkner, chair of the EHRC.

David Gauke, who used to be Secretary of State for Justice, comes on the programme to talk about the new divorce system. When he was in post he thought the system was making a difficult situation worse. He said that the law should allow people to move on constructively when divorce is inevitable, and that this would really help children.

A new book called Lessons in Chemistry follows the rise of an unconventional TV cook called Elizabeth Zott. Set in1960s America, her career as a chemist takes a detour when she becomes the star of a much-loved TV cooking show. She's a cross between Julia Childs and Marie Curie, and what she says dares her female TV viewers to reconsider not just the dinner menu, but their place in the world. We speak to the author, Bonnie Garmus.

The Paralympic five time gold medallist Ellie Simmonds was born with achondroplasia, the most common type of dwarfism. A new drug currently being trialled in the NHS and now approved for use in the USA aims to help children with achondroplasia grow taller. In a new BBC documentary: A World without Dwarfism, Ellie raises the question if cutting edge medicine can stop disability in its tracks, should we use it?

More than half a million women across the UK are on gynaecology waiting lists. This speciality has seen the steepest rise in waiting times in England since the pandemic began – it is now 60% bigger than it was in 2020. The needs of those waiting range from first outpatient appointments, scans, right through to surgery. The BBC’s Health Correspondent Catherine Burns talks through the figures. And Alicia Kearns the Conservative MP for Rutland and Melton also joins Emma.

Last night, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky delivered a powerful pre-taped message to the Grammy Awards. He urged musicians to "fill the silence" left by Russian bombs "with your music". At the heart of his plea was to keep Ukrainians and their identity top of people's minds. It has just emerged that The National Gallery has altered the title of one of the painting by Edgar Degas’ paintings from Russian Dancers to Ukrainian Dancers”, after calls by Ukrainians on social media. The painting depicts a troupe of female dancers dressed with garlands and ribbons appearing to reflect the national colours of Ukraine. Mariia Kashchenko, the Ukrainian born founder and director of the Art Unit joins Emma.

Over the last couple of weeks we've been hearing about the emotional power of clothes in our series Threads . Today, it's the turn of listener Lucy from Oxfordshire whose very short beaded black dress holds special memories of the day she and her now husband became 'official' .

This week the Metropolitan Police announced that actor Noel Clarke will not face a criminal investigation over sexual offence allegations, which he has always denied, because the information given " would not meet the threshold for a criminal investigation." Emma Barnett speaks to Meriel Beale who co-ordinated a letter in the Guardian with 2000 signatures from people calling for reform to the UK film and TV industry after the allegations were made against Clarke. What are women saying to her about power and consent within the UK film and TV industry?

Presenter: Emma Barnett

Interviewed Guest: Catherine Burns

Do you have a soundtrack to your life that you return to again and again? Or have music that powers you through? DJ Sister Bliss and Goldsmiths Professor Lauren Stewart, who studies the psychology and neuroscience of music, explore the power of music to affect our mood and well-being.

The Ockenden Review was published this week, led by midwife Donna Ockenden, into the maternity care provided to patients by the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust over a 20 year period. We hear from Kayleigh Griffiths, who lost her baby in 2016 who fought for years for the Review and Maria Caulfield, the Minister for Primary Care and Patient Safety.

In our series Threads we've been talking to listeners about the clothes they've hung on to. Dorothy tells us about a dress she wore age 14 at a barn dance in Hereford .

The Women's Diplomatic Battalion of Ukraine, a small group of women MPs have been criss-crossing Europe to garner international support for their war-torn country. Alona Shkrum, from the Batkivschyna party, Olena Khomenko and Mariia Mezentseva, from the Servant of the People party discuss their fight for their country.

Have you heard of Nubia from the DC comic books? She’s the adopted sister of Wonder Woman and DC’s first Black superwoman introduced in the 70s before disappearing from comics for decades. Nubia returned last year in a new book. We hear from cartoonist, Robyn Smith who illustrated the book.

Whenever there’s a catastrophic event somewhere in the world Lucy Easthope is likely to get a phone call .S he talks about her new book “When the Dust Settles”.

Presenter Anita Rani

Photo Credit: BBC/Freemantle Media Limited/Pete Dadds

Have you heard of Nubia from the DC comic books? She’s the adopted sister of Wonder Woman and is DC’s first Black superwoman introduced in the 70s before disappearing from comics for decades. Nubia returned last year in the new comic book Nubia: Real One, which is set in modern day America and tells the story of her teenage life. Anita talks to the cartoonist, Robyn Smith who illustrated the book about the importance of representing Black women and their stories in comics.

Next week, Justyna Wydrzynska from Poland will be the first pro-choice activist to appear in court, charged with breaking the country's strict abortion law. On the 27th January 2021 Poland enforced an near-total abortion ban. It is now only allowed in cases of rape or incest or when the pregnancy threatens the life of the mother. Justyna provided miscarriage-inducing tablets to a pregnant woman. Unlike in other countries where abortion is banned, women in Poland are not criminalised for illegal termination of pregnancy; instead it is those who order or carry out an abortion that face penalties. Anita is joined by Justyna and Dr Sydney Calkin, from Queen Mary University.

Are you familiar with parasocial relationships? It’s a psychological term to describe when someone thinks they have a friendship or bond with a person they have never met before or spoken to face-to-face. The most common parasocial dynamic exists between celebrities and their fans. But is it healthy? And do women often pay the price? Anita explores this with Gretchen Robertson, a psychotherapist whose clients include influencers and vloggers, and Flossie Clegg - a YouTuber and Digital Content Creator with over 700,000 subscribers.

Ramadan begins this weekend. It’s the month when Muslims refrain from eating or drinking between dawn and sunset to give more time for self-reflection, prayer and identify with the hungry. Statistics from Dubai show that women spend twice as much time in the kitchen during this time in Muslim communities around the world, which is a paradox given that it’s also a time of eating less. Much of the pressure comes from the preparation of the Iftar meals which end each day of fasting; an important time for families and communities to come together in homes and mosques. To discuss the issues are Shelina Janmohamed, Vice President of Islamic Marketing at Ogilvy and best selling author of Love in A Headscarf, and journalist and broadcaster Remona Aly.

Today we are dedicating the whole programme to the biggest maternity scandal in the NHS's history - leading to headlines across newspapers today stating childbirth is not safe for women in England. Those are the stark words of the midwife Donna Ockenden - the author of the long awaited Ockenden Review - published yesterday. Her mission? To find out what went on under the care of those working for the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust over a 20 year period. She concluded 201 babies and nine mothers could have survived if the Trust had provided better care, learned from mistakes and crucially listened to women.

Along with several other key guests she joins Emma to discuss her findings and where we go from here.

Presenter Emma Barnett.

Interviewed Guest: Kayleigh Griffiths

Do you have a soundtrack to your life that you return to again and again? Emma explores the power of music to affect our mood and well being with DJ and song writer and Sister Bliss and Professor Lauren Stewart from Goldsmiths who studies the psychology and neuroscience of music.

Whenever there’s a catastrophic event somewhere in the world Lucy Easthope is likely to get a phone call about it. She’s one of the country’s foremost disaster planners and long experience has taught her that the line between our everyday lives and catastrophe is a fine one. Name almost any global disaster of the last twenty years from 9/11 to the UK’s 7/7 terrorism attacks, the Grenfell fire, to earthquakes, plane and train crashes and you’ll find she’s been there behind the scenes with the clear up operation. She helps identify bodies, support the survivors and carry out the painstaking process of retrieving and returning invaluable, tattered possessions to the bereaved. She joins Emma Barnett to talk about her life and new book “When the Dust Settles”.

The government has today published its Domestic Abuse plan, bringing in new measures with the aim to tackle perpetrators and prevent abuse in the first instance. This includes plans to create the first national register of domestic abusers as well as offer more funding for victim support helplines and health services. This follows the Domestic Abuse Act introduced last year which updated the definition of domestic abuse to recognise a range of behaviours as abusive as well as establish children as victims too. But will these new measures protect women from domestic abuse and focus on taking tough action against perpetrators? Emma is joined by Rachel Maclean the Safeguarding Minister.

The second and final report into one of the biggest NHS maternity scandals in history has just been unveiled. The Independent Review into Maternity Services at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust , led by midwife Donna Ockenden, has examined nearly nine thousand maternity cases in which mothers and babies may have been harmed or died, over almost twenty years. Emma speaks to BBC Health Correspondent.

Emma Barnett speaks to Ella Jarmulska a Polish entrepreneur who wants to provide safer car rides to families fleeing the war in Ukraine. Displaced and disoriented, often with no idea where to go next, refugees are forced to put their trust in strangers. Trafficking rings are notoriously active in Ukraine and neighbouring countries in peace time. The fog of war is perfect cover to increase business.

Today sees the launch of a new campaign which calls for health professionals, the media, retailers and the public to ditch the term ‘morning sickness’ and refer to ‘pregnancy sickness’ instead. We talk to Dr Caitlin Dean, a nurse specialist in this area and to the co-founder, of the ‘Not Morning Sickness’ campaign Nicola Cutcher.

As the end of free testing draws near, we talk to Rose Gallagher from the Royal College of Nurses about who will pay for Covid tests for staff in the NHS. We’ll also consider the latest Government statistics which show just over half of pregnant women in England have had at least one covid jab with Professor Marian Knight the head of national surveillance of Covid hospitalisation in pregnancy.

In our series Threads we've been talking to listeners about the clothes they've hung on to. They'll never end up in the charity shop bag, they hold powerful emotions. Dorothy sent us a photo of a beautiful dress she wore age 14 at a barn dance in Hereford - happy memories.

And Marion Lees McPherson from the Society of Women Organists tells us how they're taking on the inequality of the ecclesiastical organ scene with men represent 90 per cent of permanent directors of music and organists in English and Welsh cathedrals.

Presenter: Emma Barnett

We speak to 3 MPs who are members of the Women’s Diplomatic Battalion of Ukraine. They are Olena Khomenko, Mariia Mezentseva and Alona Shkrum. They're all about shuttle diplomacy, pressing their case for international help.

Coverage of the Oscars has been dominated by Will Smith's punch in defence of his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. Nimco Ali, Independent Government Adviser on Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls and comedian, Shapi Korsandi give us their reaction, and discuss the messages a punch sends out.

Women make up more than half of all medical students but far less that that go on to work as surgeons. Researchers from King’s College London found that just 16 per cent of consultants and 34 per cent of registrars working across 10 surgical specialities are female. Roshana Mehdian-Staffell is a surgeon working in Trauma and Orthopaedics and speaks to Emma about the difficulties of going up the career ladder if you're a female surgeon.

We speak to the country-pop trio Remember Monday who are making a splash on Tik-Tok. Holly-Anne Hull, Lauren Byrne, and Charlotte Steele first met as sixth formers and bonded over John Mayer and harmonies. Now they’ve been singing together for a whole decade. They discuss why they sing in multi-story car parks, juggling their own careers alongside the band, and how their friendship has kept them together over the years.

TV shows go to huge lengths with their sets, costumes and wigs to make you feel like you’re looking back at the past but why – given hair removal is a fairly modern development – is body hair so rarely seen? We hear from historian Dr Marissa C Rhodes.

After Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe expressed her opinions at a press conference this week, 'ungrateful' started trending online. Reaction from Gina Miller who took the government to court and won over how it tried to implemented Brexit without approval from Parliament and Emily Thornberry a former shadow foreign secretary.

Best known for The Affair and Luther, and more recently playing her own grandmother in a BBC drama, actor Ruth Wilson on her two latest roles – on the London stage in The Human Voice and on screen in True Things.

Melinda Simmons on her role as the British Ambassador to Ukraine. She left Ukraine on 7th March 2022 eleven days after the Russian invasion and is now in Poland.

Woman’s Hour understands that the Independent Review of Social Care in England is set to recommend that there should be a renewed focus on alternatives to care with a major focus on kinship care. The Chief Executive of the charity Kinship, Dr Lucy Peake, and kinship carer Meyrem discuss.

Journalist Sally Peck on the joys of swapping one duvet for two in the bed with her husband.

Presenter: Chloe Tilley

Ammu, a term used mostly in South Asian Muslim homes for mother, is the title of Asma Khan’s new book. Part memoir, part cookbook 'Ammu' is a celebration of the food she loves to make but also of the woman who nurtured her and taught her to cook. Drawing on her experiences during the pandemic, the chef and founder of the acclaimed restaurant Darjeeling Express, celebrates the power of home cooking and the link between food and love.

How important are your sleeping arrangements in a relationship? Recently the journalist Sally Peck swapped one duvet for two in bed with her husband, and now she can’t imagine going back. Sally joins Chloe to explore what difference this simple change made to her marriage.

The second series of Bridgerton starts today and features Simone Ashley, a British actor of South Asian descent, in a lead role. She plays Kate Sharma, who has recently arrived in London and quickly draws the attention of Anthony Bridgerton. But what was life really like for South Asian women in Britain during this era? Professor Durba Ghosh lectures on Modern South Asia, the British empire and Colonialism at Cornell University.

Presenter: Chloe Tilley

Interviewed Guest: Asma Khan