Woman's Hour

There's been a stark warning to MPs about the number of women pensioners living in poverty. The house of commons work and pensions committee has been hearing the pension system is dysfunctional, and contributing to more gender disparity, that's according to the feminist economic think tank the Women's Budget Group, which gave evidence yesterday. Anita Rani is joined by their incoming director Dr Daniella Jenkins and Sarah Pennells, consumer specialist at Royal London finance company.
New figures revealed in a super-complaint suggest tens of thousands of sexual offence investigations are taking years to complete with some stretching beyond seven years to complete. Campaigners say excessive police delays are causing serious harm to survivors leaving them in limbo and may even be breaching their human rights. The complaint has been submitted by a coalition of legal and support organisations including Cambridge Rape Crisis Centre. Anita is joined by one of the co-authors, Ellie Ball, an Independent Sexual Violence Advisor Manager, who’s helped survivors of sexual violence navigate the criminal justice system for over a decade.
Madeleine Gray’s first book Green Dot was a big hit and she's just published her second novel – Chosen Family. She joins Anita to discuss her fairy tale debut novel story, how then writing a second was daunting and why your ‘chosen family’ is so important.
Is there a gender gap when it comes to using AI? Journalist Olivia Petter says the men she meets are obsessed with using it but believes that women are far more cautious. Studies show women are less likely to use AI in the workplace. As the government rolls out free AI training for every UK adult, the question is: what happens if women don’t feel equally confident or equally protected in this new AI driven world? Olivia and Prof Gina Neff from the  Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy at the University of Cambridge join Anita to discuss.
Presenter: Anita Rani
Producer: Corinna Jones

Pornhub has announced it will restrict access to its website in the UK from next week, blaming the tougher age checks which have been introduced for explicit sites. Back in October, their parent company Aylo said the law change, which was made under the UK's Online Safety Act, had caused traffic to their website to fall by 77%. As of next week, only people who have previously made a Pornhub account will be able to access its content. Nuala McGovern discusses the implications of these changes with Dr Fiona Vera-Gray, the author of Women On Porn and Professor of Sexual Violence and the Co-Director of the Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit at London Metropolitan University.
The decision by Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to suspend home birth services is to be challenged in the High Court. The suspension was announced back in November after the trust cited safety concerns raised by their staff and dealing with more complex births. Now a coalition including the charity Birthrights is taking the trust's leaders to judicial review asking them to reconsider the suspension. Nuala is joined by Birthrights' legal lead Laura Mullarkey and Matthew Hill, Health Correspondent for the BBC in the South West.
This weekend gamers and music fans alike will be headed to 'BAFTA Games in Concert' which is starting its tour in London. It's celebrating two decades of BAFTA-nominated and award-winning games music and the composers behind these hugely popular gaming soundtracks. One of those composers is Jessica Curry. Ten years ago her score for the videogame 'Everybody's Gone to the Rapture' won a BAFTA Games music award, the first for a solo woman. Jessica tells Nuala why her music channels grief, love, and loss and the impact music can have on gamers.
It's a week to go until the Winter Olympics gets underway in Italy. With a record 47% of female athletes competing, the games will be the most gender-balanced in Winter Olympic history. Two women who are gearing up to cover every twist and turn of these Games are former two-time Winter Olympic snowboarder and broadcaster Aimee Fuller and Jeanette Kwayke, who'll be fronting the BBC's coverage as part of an all-female line up alongside Clare Balding and Hazel Irvine.
Presenter: Nuala McGovern
Producer: Andrea Kidd

A large UK study of nearly 125,000 women has found that the menopause can cause a loss of grey matter in women's brains affecting memory and emotions, similar to that seen in Alzheimer's. Published in the journal Psychological Medicine, the researchers say it may help explain why we see almost twice as many cases of dementia in women than in men. Professor of Clinical Neuropsychology Barbara Sahakian, from the University of Cambridge and the senior researcher on the study and Dr Paula Briggs, Consultant in Sexual and Reproductive Health at Liverpool Woman’s NHS Foundation Trust, discuss the findings with Nuala McGovern.
There’s been much discussion about the benefits of singing, but with less singing happening in schools - over half of state secondary school teachers have said that their pupils never sang together in assembly - how do you encourage children and young people to sing and what are the benefits? As the BBC launches Get Singing, a Nationwide music education initiative, we talk to Julia Fraser, the head of Luton Music Service, and Baz Chapman from the Sing Up Foundation.
Laura Dickerman’s first novel Hot Desk is set against the backdrop of the publishing industry over two generations. A couple of editors share a desk in a new office – and eventually fall in love. Laura talks about bookish characters, the romance of women’s friendships and getting published for the first time, aged 62.
Global attention has been focused on Greenland since President Donald Trump repeatedly said the United States should take control of the self-governing region within the Kingdom of Denmark. Despite being around nine times the size of the UK, Greenland has a population of just 57,000 people, with the majority being indigenous Inuits. But beyond the heated geopolitical debates, we want to find out what is life like for women in Greenland today? Tillie Martinussen, a former MP in Greenland, tells us about women's position historically and the issues they face now.
Presenter: Nuala McGovern
Producer: Melanie Abbott

Tens of thousands of children in England have spent more than a year waiting for NHS community care, such as hearing services, speech and language therapy and disability support, the BBC has found. Nick Triggle, BBC News Health Correspondent and Harriet Edwards, Strategy Lead at the national disability charity, Sense, join Nuala McGovern to discuss the findings.
Author, economist and politician Yanis Varoufakis joins Nuala to discuss being, as he describes it, raised a misogynist. He also talks about the women in his life that helped change that and what he believes lies behind the growth in misogynist attitudes.
A new ITV crime documentary, Killer in the House, traces the story of one of the most notorious double murder stories in recent UK history, where a respected Northern Irish dentist, Colin Howell, murdered his wife and his lover’s husband, staged it as a double suicide, and evaded justice for nearly twenty years. Howell was never suspected for the murder of Lesley Howell and Trevor Buchanan, until his confession in 2007, implicating his former lover, Hazel Stewart. Lauren Bradford-Clarke, daughter of Lesley and Colin, talks to us about the impact this crime had on her family.
Bonnie Langford has been a British household name for more than 50 years, singing and dancing across many stages in countless musicals, as well as memorable TV roles in EastEnders and Dr Who. Now she's playing Mrs Bird in the much-acclaimed Paddington The Musical in London's West End. She joins Nuala to discuss the joys of treading the boards with that much-loved, life-sized bear.
Presenter: Nuala McGovern
Producer: Simon Richardson

Should the UK follow Australia in bringing in a social media ban for under 16s? Nuala McGovern discusses the issue with Hannah Ortel from the Brianna Ghey Legacy Project, and Dr Fiona Scott, Senior Lecturer in digital literacies at the University of Sheffield.
Double Olivier award-winning actress Denise Gough joins Anita Rani to talk about her latest role as Amy Fowler in a new play based on the famous western High Noon. She also discusses what it’s been like to find her singing voice for the first time in 30 years.
Women dominate this week's BRIT Award nominations. Best Pop Act is an all women shortlist: RAYE, Lily Allen, Lola Young, Olivia Dean and JADE.
Lola Young and Olivia Dean have the most nominations, both up for Artist of the Year, alongside Lily Allen, JADE, Little Simz and PinkPantheress. Nearly two thirds of the nominations feature women as solo artists or in mixed gender group - the highest representation yet. So why are women riding high in the music industry at the moment? Anita talks to Roisin O'Connor, Music Editor at The Independent.
Brooklyn Peltz Beckham, the eldest son of the Beckhams, has said that he is not in touch with his family and does not want to reconcile with them. How do you know when you’ve reached the point when the right thing to do could be to walk away? Writer Eilidh Dorgan and Psychotherapist Dr Sara Young discuss.
Eat the Rich (but maybe not me mates, x) is the acclaimed comedy show from Jade Franks. A sharp, funny take on class privilege, it follows Jade’s first term at Cambridge after swapping life in a Merseyside call centre for one of the UK’s most elite universities. After a smash-hit run at the Edinburgh Fringe, the show is now being developed for TV.
Presenter: Anita Rani
Producer: Dianne McGregor