Rooprit Gill ran the Post Office in Handsworth, Birmingham, a business started by her father. But that came to an end when, like hundreds of other postmasters and mistresses, she was falsely accused of stealing money due to a faulty Post Office computer system. Rooprit — known as Roopie — joins Anita Rani on her first day back in the family Post Office after more than a decade.
As rugby fans across the UK look forward to the Women’s Rugby World Cup, Anita speaks with rugby trailblazer Deborah Griffin. An amateur player since university, Deborah co-organised the first ever Women’s Rugby World Cup, held in Wales in 1991. Earlier this month, she became the first woman to take up the role of President of the Rugby Football Union.
Annie & The Caldwells are a powerhouse gospel-soul family band from West Point, Mississippi, led by matriarch Annie Caldwell — a former member of the trailblazing 1970s gospel group Staples Jr. Singers. Formed in the 1980s with her guitarist husband Willie Joe Caldwell, the band was created to keep their children rooted in gospel music. They recorded their album Can’t Lose My (Soul) live in their hometown church. The Caldwells join Anita to talk about family, faith, and funky gospel soul.
Filmmaker Victoria Mapplebeck discusses her new documentary, Motherboard. The film captures the highs and lows of motherhood, her son Jim’s adolescence, and the deep maternal bond they share — much of it filmed on her smartphone. Motherboard is in cinemas from tomorrow.Presenter: Anita Rani
Producer: Dianne McGregor
PolitikTalkGesundheit, Wellness & Beauty
Woman's Hour Folgen
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire. The Woman's Hour Guide to Life collection is here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/guidetolife
Folgen von Woman's Hour
2000 Folgen
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Folge vom 14.08.2025Post Office scandal, RFU President Deborah Griffin, Annie & The Caldwells
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Folge vom 13.08.2025Women and heat, Surrey Police on catcalling stunt, Pregnancy sicknessAs a heatwave grips the UK, we ask whether soaring temperatures impact women differently to men and what should be done about it. Professor Mike Tipton, Professor of Human and Applied Physiology at the University of Portsmouth, joins Nuala McGovern to explain. The author Paula Sutton has written her second novel, The Body in the Kitchen Garden. The interiors stylist and TV and social media personality talks to Nuala about creating plots to challenge her fictional detective Daphne Brewster, and her real-life passion for cottagecore and swapping city living for a cosy rural lifestyle. Several newspapers this morning are talking about the decision by Surrey Police to send undercover female officers out jogging to catch catcallers. They went running during rush hour to expose the frequency that women are harassed while exercising in public. A 2021 survey by Runner's World revealed that 84% of women had been harassed while jogging. Inspector Jon Vale, Borough Commander of Reigate and Banstead and Surrey's violence against women and girls safer spaces lead, joins Nuala. A woman in Wales who felt forced to terminate her pregnancy after being unable to access the anti-sickness medication she needed is calling for the drug to be made more widely available. Sarah Spooner was suffering from hyperemesis gravidarum which left her vomiting more than 20 times per day and unable to eat or drink. But she found it virtually impossible to access Xonvea, a medication which is recommended as a first-line treatment in England but not in Wales. Nuala hears Sarah's story, and speaks to Dr Caitlin Dean from Pregnancy Sickness Support about why there is a postcode lottery across the UK for women needing Xonvea. Sydnie Christmas captivated television audiences when she won Britain's Got Talent in 2024, becoming the first female singer to win the contest. With a background in musical theatre, the singer and actress impressed the judges with her powerhouse vocals. Since her win, she has released a debut album, topping the iTunes charts in the UK and US, and now she's starring as villain, Cruella De Vil in 101 Dalmatians, the musical at Eventim Apollo, London. Presenter: Nuala Mcgovern Producer: Emma Pearce
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Folge vom 12.08.2025Nurses facing abuse in A&E, Sailor Jazz Turner, What is the true value of care?The chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing says their members are facing "abhorrent" levels of violence in accident and emergency departments. Nicola Ranger tells Nuala McGovern that their Freedom of Information request to hospital trusts in England found that there were more than 4,000 incidences of physical violence against staff in 2024, almost double the amount five years ago. She believes this could be linked to an increase in waiting times.Emma Holten tells us we need a feminist revolution. The author has spent years investigating the true value of care - and how rethinking it could transform our societies. Her debut book, Deficit: How Feminist Economics Can Change Our World, examines how mainstream economics systematically undervalues care work and advocates for reshaping policy to reflect its true worth.How is it possible to sail around the British Isles solo when you use a wheelchair, can’t swim and may suffer a seizure? Jazz Turner explains how she managed this in her yacht Fear. She has Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, which affects the joints but, in some cases like hers, can affect internal organs. Despite this life-limiting disease, Jazz now plans to sail around the world.Historian Dr Fern Riddell has written a book looking into the relationship between Queen Victoria and John Brown. It has been a source of gossip for over a hundred years, but Dr Riddell has found new evidence which might support the theory that they secretly married, and even had a child together.Presenter: Nuala McGovern Producer: Melanie Abbott
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Folge vom 11.08.2025Goalkeeper Hannah Hampton, Celine Song on Materialists, Women in constructionEngland goalkeeper and Lionesses legend Hannah Hampton joins Nuala McGovern on Woman's Hour fresh from winning the UEFA European Women's Championship. Born with a serious eye condition, doctors told her she should never play football. She came into the recent Euros with questions over her ability to fill the gloves of recently retired Mary Earps. To add to that, she revealed her grandfather had died just days before the biggest tournament of her life began earlier this summer. Despite this, Hannah had an extraordinary tournament, particularly in those agonising penalty shootouts. She joins Nuala McGovern to chat all about it. In June this year in Pakistan, Bano Bibi, a mother of five, and Ehsanullah Samalani, a father of three, were accused of having an affair and were shot - on the orders of a tribal leader, according to police. The event caused outrage, not just because it was another so-called ‘honour killing’, but because the authorities only took action after a video of the shootings went viral, more than six weeks later. Nuala is joined by Azadeh Moshiri, Pakistan Correspondent for BBC News, and Sheema Kermani, a woman's rights activist, dancer and theatre director who has been working with women in rural and marginalised communities for 50 years. Writer and director Celine Song’s semi-autobiographical debut Past Lives earned her two Oscar nominations and a host of other accolades when it was released in 2023. She talks to Nuala about her second film, Materialists, a romantic dramedy starring Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans, and how it was inspired by her own time working as a matchmaker for high-net-worth individuals in New York. Construction employs around 1.4 million people in Great Britain, according to the Office for National Statistics, but only around 15% of those people are women. And they don’t always have a positive experience, with 30% having reported sexual assault at work and 64% saying men were paid more for the same role. So, as the industry faces a recruitment crisis, how could it evolve to become a safer and fairer place to work and encourage more women into construction? Nuala explores the problems and the opportunities with Faye Allen, author of Building Women, and Dr Carol Massay of Unity for Construction, who’ve both worked in the industry for more than 30 years. And we remember long-serving Blue Peter editor Biddy Baxter, renowned for turning the children's show into a television institution, who has died at the age of 92.Presented by: Nuala McGovern Produced by: Sarah Jane Griffiths