Woman's Hour

Fourteen years ago this week, 21-year-old British student Meredith Kercher was sexually assaulted and killed in a brutal attack in her apartment in the Italian city of Perugia. Her death was a shocking and unimaginable loss to her family. But sadly her name did not become the most memorable in the murder investigation that followed. As the world's media descended, a narrative quickly emerged around Amanda Knox - Meredith’s American flatmate - and her then boyfriend Rafaele Sollecito. Dubbed 'Foxy Knoxy', the story became about a sexually voracious femme fatale and her accomplice, who it was said killed Meredith in a drug-fuelled sex game gone wrong. After being found guilty and serving four years in prison, Amanda was fully exonerated by the Italian Supreme Court on appeal in 2015. Amanda now lives back in Seattle, is married, and has just had a baby - having built a career as a writer, podcaster, and campaigner against wrongful conviction. In an exclusive interview with Woman’s Hour and Newsnight, Amanda Knox talks to Emma about trying to restore her reputation, losing control of her identity, and speaking out about the film Stillwater starring Matt Damon, which she says drew on and profited from her story without her consent.

Since 2008, 12 and 13-year-old girls have been offered a vaccine against human papilloma-virus - or HPV - with a view to helping prevent cervical cancer. Now a new study published today in The Lancet has found that it doesn't just help, but has the potential to almost wipe the disease out completely. Cervical cancer rates in women who had HPV jabs as teenagers were found to be lowered by as much as 90% compared to those who hadn't. And as the vaccine is now also given to boys, it dramatically decreases the amount of virus circulating in the population to infect women who can't take the vaccine. Professor Dame Lesley Regan, Head of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at St Mary's Imperial College and past president of the Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists discusses what it means for women's health.

The cost of repeat prescriptions for hormone replacement therapy in England is to be significantly reduced. The Labour MP for Swansea East, Carolyn Harris, had put forward a Bill to make HRT free, as it is currently in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland where there are no charges for prescriptions. Although the Government didn’t support the change in full, it announced at the end of last week that women would only have to pay for one prescription charge a year – potentially saving over £200 annually. The Government also announced that they will be setting up a menopause taskforce, which will be co-chaired by Carolyn Harris, who says it is time to revolutionise menopause support.

Though best known for playing Rizzo in the film Grease, First Lady Abbey Bartlet in the television series The West Wing, and Julianna Margulies’ mother Veronica in The Good Wife, multi-Emmy award-winning actor Stockard Channing is a Broadway veteran nominated for multiple Tonys. Currently on stage at the Hampstead Theatre in London in ‘Night Mother’ - a tense two-hander play that takes place over a single evening – she joins Emma to discuss her latest performance and first as a London resident.

Kathleen Stock was until last week a professor of philosophy at the University of Sussex. In the last few years she has become better known for her gender critical views, contributing to the highly charged public debate over trans rights and what she and others see as the re-defining of the word ‘woman’. This year she published a book called Material Girls: Why Reality Matters for Feminism, in which she argues that we are in an era of Emperor’s New Clothes, that it isn’t possible for people to change their biological sex, and that someone’s sex should sometimes takes precedence over their gender identity. She is also clear that “Trans people deserve lives free from fear. They deserve laws and policies that properly protect them from discrimination and violence. But as she says…laws and policies based around gender identity are not the right route.” She gives an exclusive interview to Emma Barnett.

Leanne Benjamin OBE was principal for 20 years with the Royal Ballet. As one of the most important ballet dancers of the past 50 years, she looks back on her career spanning from 18 to 49, in her new autobiography, ‘Built for Ballet’.

Richard Ratcliffe, the husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe who's still detained in Iran, is on hunger strike again in Whitehall, close to government buildings. Today is Day 10. He wants the government to do more to secure Nazanin's release. She's been held in Iran for five years on spying charges - which she denies - and recently lost her appeal against a second prison sentence. Richard joins Emma from outside the Foreign Office in Whitehall.

Presenter: Emma Barnett

Interviewed Guest: Kathleen Stock

The starting gun has fired on COP26, and the UK now has less than two weeks to get around 200 countries over the line towards stronger commitments on climate action. It's not going to be easy. Of the 25 COPs that have gone before, only one produced concrete targets for change. That was the 2015 Paris climate conference - aka COP21 - where two new ideas were launched onto the international stage: keeping average global temperature rises below 1.5C, and the notion of aiming for 'net zero'. Women were at the forefront of the Paris negotiations and we unite three of those women in a Woman's Hour COP special - Laurence Tubiana, France's Climate Change Ambassador and Special Representative for COP21 - who many recognise as the main architect of the Paris Agreement; Amber Rudd, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change at the time of Paris and the then leader of the UK's COP21 negotiating team; and Jennifer Morgan, one of a group of women who brought the idea of Net Zero to the global stage during Paris. She is now Executive Director of Greenpeace International. They discuss women's role in Paris's success, the origin story of net zero, the successes and failings of global governments in delivering on their promises, and their hopes for COP26 bringing about necessary change.

Presenter: Emma Barnett

Lily Cole is a model, actor, filmmaker, entrepreneur, podcast host and environmental activist. She's written a book about the climate, offering solutions to global challenges. She now lives in Portugal but we speak to her from COP26 in Glasgow. We also speak to the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg who sets the scene for us in Glasgow.

We go back to Hasina Safi, who used to be Women's Minister in Afghanistan. Now she's a refugee in the UK, living in an hotel. We find out how things are for her and her family since we spoke to her last month.

We speak to Dr Youmna Mouhamad who's designed a new comb to make conditioning and combing afro hair easier and less painful. She explains how she came up with idea and how she moved from a concept to a engineered product.

And finally Shadow Education Secretary Kate Green about secondary school children getting vaccines, and protests outside schools. Labour are now calling for exclusion zones around schools to "stop the spread of misinformation".

The details of US President Bill Clinton’s affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky and the 1998 impeachment proceedings may be unfamiliar to some young women today. Impeachment: American Crime Story on BBC Two, aims to reframe the Clinton scandal from the perspective of the women it engulfed. Jessica Bennett from the New York Times and Sarah Baxter, former deputy editor of The Sunday Times discuss.

The BBC Specialist Disinformation Reporter Marianna Spring who appeared in front of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee this week to present the findings from her BBC Panorama investigation into the rising online abuse against women.

Should parents be allowed ‘teen-ternity’ leave? Suzanne Alderson on why she wants employers to allow parents to take leave to help teenagers who are struggling.

Ahead of the 2021 UN Climate Change Conference, COP26 starting this Sunday, Zaqiya Cajee, a pre-loved fashion advocate and Mikaela Loach climate justice activist and fifth year medical student talk about how to engage people on climate change action and their hopes for the conference.

The wig designer Angela Cobbin has written her memoir. My Name Is Not Wigs. She tells us about about becoming a theatrical wig designer for countless plays, musicals, TV shows and films over five decades.

Your libido as you age with Scottish storyteller, Marie Louise Cochrane and sex expert Tracey Cox.

Presenter: Jessica Creighton

Monica Lewinsky is a name that most people will know. But for a whole new generation of women, including younger millennials who were children at the time, the details of US President Bill Clinton’s affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky and the 1998 impeachment proceedings it led to may be unfamiliar. Impeachment: American Crime Story on BBC Two, aims to reframe the Clinton scandal from the perspective of the women it engulfed. Jessica Creighton talks to Jessica Bennett from the New York Times and Sarah Baxter, former deputy editor of The Sunday Times.

Women in the military are suffering serious long term physical and mental health problems because of widespread bullying and sexual harassment. Research by the University of Oxford, King’s College London and the charity Combat Stress found over 20% were sexually harassed, over 5% were sexually assaulted and over 20% were emotionally bullied. Laura Hendrikx, is the author of the study which was published in the BMJ Military Health Journal. She and Chloe Tilley are joined by veteran Colonel Ali Brown.

Have you been watching Maid on Netflix? The 10-part series is a word-of-mouth hit, about a single mother in the US who flees her abusive partner and takes up cleaning for wealthy clients to support her and her daughter. Inspired by the 2019 memoir 'Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive', it tackles poverty, domestic abuse, motherhood and homelessness. Rachael Sigee, a freelance journalist and TV critic and Caron Kipping, a divorce and separation coach and Independent Domestic Violence Advocate, herself a survivor of domestic abuse, discuss why it's so popular.

The Lowdown, the world's first review platform for contraception, has found that women prefer the coil to any other contraceptive method. Long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCS), such as the implant, injection, the hormonal and copper coil tend to be those chosen most frequently. However, during the pandemic, the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare (FSRH) has found a steep fall in access to these LARCS. Alice Pelton Founder of the Lowdown and Dr Asha Kasliwal, President of the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Health Care, discuss.

Blogger Toni Tone has thousands of followers across social media - many of whom call her “the big sister I never had”. Her work on relationships and female empowerment have been shared by the likes of Demi Lovato, Khloe Kardashian and Oprah Magazine. Toni’s new book of ‘I Wish I Knew This Earlier’ is a Sunday Times bestseller, and details her advice on the complicated, and sometimes painful, world of dating. Toni joins Chloe to discuss.

Presenter: Chloe Tilley

Interviewed Guest: Laura Hendrikx

We talk to an Afghan family housed in one of the many hotels which have become home for thousands of others like them. Many families and children often struggle to exercise which has an impact on their physical and mental health.

With COP26 being held in Glasgow next week we talk to investment director, Maike Currie to talk about why sustainable investing matters more to women than men, and how you can invest to save the planet - and make it a better place.

In the second of our series, our reporter Milly Chowles looks at toxic relationships and talks to Jo who felt compelled to always seek out ups and downs and drama.

Presenter: Chloe Tilley

Budget 2021: What do you want to change? We hear from Mary-Ann Stephenson, Director of the Women’s Budget group, an independent not-for-profit organisation that monitors the impact of government policies on men and women

Angela Cobbin, wig designer and MBE has written a memoir. My Name Is Not Wigs takes readers through her beginnings as a hairdressing student in the early 60s to becoming a theatrical wig designer for countless plays, musicals, TV shows and films over five decades. She joins Chloe live in the studio - with a wig in hand - to talk all about it.

Plus as Princess Mako a member of the Japanese royal family marries her college sweetheart Kei Komuro we talk to Hanako Montgomer a Japan reporter for Vice News about why she'll be forced to forfeit her royal status. A Japanese law which doesn't apply to men.

Presenter Chloe Tilley

Last week, a whole new set of climate-related phrases entered the Oxford English Dictionary including global heating, eco-anxiety and net zero. But despite being increasingly used in conversation, do people really know what terms like 'net zero' mean - and what is the general public willing to do to get us there? Prof Becky Willis from Lancaster University set up a research project called the Net Zero Diaries to try and find out. She talks about the latest results along with Pearl, who took part in the study. Chloe Tilley is also joined by Aneaka Kellay from the People Powered Retrofit project, to discuss what people on all sorts of budgets can do to reduce the carbon emissions from their homes.

Staffing shortages have long been a problem for the UK's maternity services. There aren't enough midwives joining the profession and too many are deciding to leave. A survey by the Royal College of Midwives earlier this month found that over half were considering quitting thanks to burnout and concerns about safety and quality of care. Now the President of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, Dr Edward Morris, has told the Guardian newspaper about his 'increasing concerns' about the 'immense pressures' facing maternity staff as we enter another winter with rising Covid cases. So is there a crisis in labour wards? We hear from a London-based midwife and Dr Jo Mountfield, Consultant Obstetrician at University Hospital Southampton

Over a century ago suffragettes planted an arboretum of 47 trees in Batheaston, each representing an activist. Today only one tree survives – a black pine planted by suffragette Rose Lamartine Yates in 1909. We discuss the history of the “suffragette wood” and plans to propagate the seeds of the last surviving tree with Dr Cynthia Hammond and artist Lucy Neal.

We speak to BBC Specialist Disinformation Reporter Marianna Spring who is appearing in front of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee this week to present the findings from her BBC Panorama investigation into the rising online abuse against women, and how social media algorithms are promoting hate.

Presenter: Chloe Tilley

Interviewed Guest: Aneaka Kellay