Woman's Hour Folgen

Liz Brookes looks after her husband Mike, who has had vascular dementia and Chris Black cares for his wife, Helen, who has Picks disease, or Frontotemporal dementia. How have they coped during the pandemic? We also hear from Emily Holzhausen, Director of Policy and Public Affairs from Carers UK.Has the Covid crisis helped to usher in a future of flexible working? A new report from the campaign Flex Appeal says while that forced remote working during a pandemic is not the same as flexible working, there are lessons that can be learned from lockdown. Anna Whitehouse aka Mother Pukka who co-founded Flex Appeal, and Louise Deverell-Smith who runs Daisy Chain, an online platform that matches flexible employers with flexible job-seekers discuss.As part of our new series on life and shoes, we speak to Carmen about her espadrilles her mother danced in decades ago. Josh suffered his first major depressive episode just before he was due to take his A levels. At university his mental health deteriorated further. Josh and his mum Mandy have written a book 'The Boy Between'. They tell us about their experiences – in Josh’s case, learning to live with depression, and in Mandy’s case how best to support and help someone you love who suffers with depression.Cat Hyde is one of the founders of Seagulls, a project which takes leftover paint and repurposes it into new paint. They take volunteers such as Ash, a young woman who now works at their paint shop, who says that working at Seagulls was vital in her regaining her confidence. Maggie O’Farrell’s first picture book for children, 'Where Snow Angels Go By' is the story of a brave little girl who is visited by her snow angel in her time of need. The idea for the book grew out of a story Maggie told her own sick child in the back of an ambulance.Presenter: Jane Garvey Producer: Dianne McGregor

In April we spoke to Liz Brookes who looks after her husband Mike, who has had vascular dementia and to Chris Black who cares for his wife, Helen, who has Picks disease, or Frontal Temperal dementia. How they are getting on six months later? Emily Holzhausen, Director of Policy and Public Affairs from Carers UK joins them.For blind or partially sighted women it is impossible to read visual results of a standard pregnancy test. The Royal National Institute for the Blind has designed a prototype for a tactile test which means the user can maintain their independence and privacy. Jane Garvey talks to the Chair of the RNIB Ellie Southwood.Leila and Sahand were both married to other people when they fell in love and had a child together. Adultery is a crime in Iran, fearing for their lives they fled their homeland for a safe life elsewhere. We speak to Leila and to the director Eva Mulvad who has made a documentary film ‘Love Child’ about their life over the last seven years.Women still make up only 24% of those working in core science, technology, engineering and mathematics occupations in the UK, and recent data has revealed that women make up just 13% of students studying computer science in the UK. There is a similar lack of women studying mathematics courses. The Suffrage Science awards scheme hopes to change this. Jane is joined by science communicator Dr. Kat Arney and Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon.Presenter: Jane Garvey Producer: Lucinda Montefiore

We’ve just started a second lockdown in England – with other parts of the United Kingdom also going through variations of the same. But what if you’re pregnant? What’s going through your mind and what are you concerned about? As the pandemic’s gone on, we’ve heard about women being on their own for scans, deliveries and sadly, miscarriages too. And an enquiry has just started into a rise in stillbirths over the last Lockdown. Chloe discusses the issues with Bertie Harlev-Lam, Executive Director for Professional Leadership at the RCM ,also a working midwife, and Jo Mountfield, Vice President of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in Southampton, and a consultant obstetrician at University Southampton Hospital. Has the Covid crisis helped to usher in a future of flexible working? A new report from the campaign Flex Appeal says while that forced remote working during a pandemic is not the same as flexible working, there are lessons that can be learned from lockdown. They have surveyed more than a thousand employers about how their work has changed since March, and which aspects their employees are keen to keep longer-term. Chloe is joined by Anna Whitehouse aka Mother Pukka who co-founded Flex Appeal, and Louise Deverell-Smith who runs Daisy Chain, an online platform that matches flexible employers with flexible job-seekers. How did the humble biscuit become so embedded in our culture? Lizzie Collingham’s book The Biscuit: The History of a Very British Indulgence explains how it began as the foodstuff of explorers, then, sweetened, found its way into the recipe books of ladies of the manor and finally becoming our customary snack with a cup of tea. Chloe talks to Lizzie about the stories of women involved in biscuit production through the ages and asks her the all-important question: to dunk or not to dunk?What is a forest school and what are the benefits and challenges of outdoor learning? Can it re-engage children after the broken learning of the pandemic? Chloe discusses the issues with Sara Collins, Deputy Chair of the Forest School Association and founder of the Nature Premium campaign, which is calling for ring-fenced funding for schools to provide nature-based learning. She’s joined by Dr Rowena Passy, Senior Research Fellow at the University of Plymouth’s Institute for Education.Presented by Chloe Tilley Producer: Louise Corley Editor: Beverley Purcell