Woman's Hour11 Jul 2025

Katie Brayben, Maternal deaths, Fangirls

Katie Brayben is a two-time Olivier award winner for Best Actress in A Musical for Tammy Faye and Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. Now she is reprising the role of Elizabeth Laine in Girl From the North Country currently on stage at the Old Vic in London. Katie joins Anita Rani to explain what has drawn her back to this role.

A third of women who died during or in the year after pregnancy were known to children’s social care, according to new research. The study by Kings College London, Oxford University and the charity Birth Companions, examined the data of nearly 1,400 women who died between 2014 and 2022. In particular, they looked at the 420 known to social services, half of those women died by suicide or from substance-related causes. Anita discusses the research with Kaat De Backer, Researcher King’s College London and Amy Van Zyl, Chief Executive, Her Circle.

From Frank Sinatra to the Beatles, many of the biggest male stars built their early careers on the romantic appeal to young women. Bea Martinez-Gatell is author of Swoon, Fangirls, Their Idols And The Counterculture of Female Lust – From Byron To The Beatles. She joins Anita to explain that far from passive consumers, fangirls were actually tastemakers, visionaries and cultural disruptors.

Actor Jane Birkin's original Hermes Birkin has sold for £7.4 million pounds - becoming the most valuable handbag to ever be sold at auction. What makes the bag so iconic? Justine Picardie, writer and former editor in chief of Harpers Bazaar, and Marisa Meltzer, who has written It Girl: The Life and Legacy of Jane Birkin, join Anita to discuss the story behind the bag and what makes a fashion accessory so alluring.

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(2000)

Consent, Top Fuel drag racing, Grey hair

To mark our 80th anniversary, Woman's Hour commissioned a survey of 2,000 women across the UK to explore how women feel about using their voice in different areas of their lives, from the most public ...

8 Okt 57min

Woman's Hour celebrates 80 years from the Glasgow Women's Library

Launching the theme of our 80th birthday year: "Use Your Voice", we celebrate live from the Glasgow Women's Library in Scotland, the sole accredited museum of women’s history in the UK.Nuala McGovern ...

7 Okt 57min

French student protests; Elizabeth Day and Sarah Solemani on TV drama The Party; could some adoptions be avoided?

Hundreds of schools in France have closed after clashes between police and student protestors. Chloe Quesnel is a high school teacher in Nice in France. She's been watching her students take to the s...

6 Okt 57min

The Lost Children of Tuam, Ashley James on incontinence, Kemistry

Monica Dolan is starring in a new film, The Lost Children of Tuam, co-produced by Liam Neeson. In it, she plays the extraordinary amateur historian, Catherine Corless, whose relentless pursuit of the ...

5 Okt 56min

Weekend Woman's Hour: School uniforms in porn, The Farmer's Wife, 'Empty nesters'

A group of school children have set up a petition calling on the government to ban the use of school uniforms in porn. They say they want to abolish the sexualisation of children through the inappropr...

3 Okt 56min

Protests in Delhi, Retatrutide, The Farmer's Wife, Baby Loss

Multiple protests have been taking place in Delhi over the past week. Hundreds of women have come together in India's capital to protest against a series of sexual assaults - most recently the alleg...

2 Okt 57min

Cornell University rape investigation, Tributes to Esther Rantzen, Sunbeds

New York state prosecutors say they will reopen a criminal inquiry into the alleged rape of a woman at Cornell University in 2024. The woman, referred to in court documents as Jane Doe, alleges in her...

1 Okt 57min

The Women's Art Collection at 40; school uniforms in porn; the history of widowhood

The Prime Minister Andy Burnham has announced an end to the triple lock for the state pension from 2030, and it’s thought that women could be most affected by the proposed changes. Kylie Pentalow is ...

30 Sep 57min