Woman's Hour

Gail Porter, once one of the UK’s most sought after female TV presenters, talks about her life in the documentary Being Gail Porter. From developing alopecia to suffering severe mental health problems and ending up homeless. As the Office for National Statistics releases new employment figures – we look at what sorts of jobs women are losing and what's being done to save them, with the Economist Vicky Pryce and the TUC’s Head of Economics Kate Bell. As well-known high street fashion brands start selling clothes under the ‘Modest Fashion’ banner we find out what "modest fashion" really means from Reina Lewis from the London College of Fashion and the model Amina Begum Ali. Would you sacrifice having children to save the planet? Jane takes your calls and examines the issue with Anna Hughes who's chosen to be child free for environmental reasons and Professor Sarah Harper Director of the Oxford Programme on Fertility Education and Environment. Plus the playwright Miriam Battye and the actor Rebekah Murrell talk about their new play at the Royal Court in London which explores the highs and lows of female friendship. And Lorna Cooper gives us her tips for feeding a family of four on a budget of just £20 a week. Presented by: Jane Garvey Producer: Rabeka Nurmahomed Editor: Beverley Purcell

Lorna Cooper says she feeds her family of four on £20 a week. She's cut it down from £100. She offers her best tips for planning meals and stretching your grocery money. Churches, mosques and gurdwaras should be safe places for teenagers. Yet due to a loophole in the law adults in faith settings can have sexual relationships with 16 and 17 years old who are under their supervision. This would be illegal if it happened in a school. The MP Sarah Champion is leading a cross-party group of MPs looking into how teenagers can be better protected in faith settings and how this legal loophole can be closed. Why is the idea of connecting with past lovers so powerful? A new novel called Mix Tape by Jane Sanderson explores the power of music to bring soulmates back together. Radio 4 has a drama tomorrow which is about the famous novel, The Well of Loneliness. The drama is set in 1928 and is about the obscenity trial that led to the banning of the book. Written by Radclyffe Hall, the novel's about a love affair between two women. Shelley Silas is the writer of the Radio 4 drama and joins Jane to talk all about it.

A new scanning technique that can identify aggressive tumours could help to transform the treatment of breast cancer. Dr Ferdia Gallagher, an academic radiologist at Addenbrooke’s hospital in Cambridge explains. Meanwhile, cervical cancer affects more than 3,000 women a year, but there is concern that progress has stalled in tackling the disease. Dr Julie Sharp is head of health and patient information at Cancer Research UK and she discusses what needs to happen. How much do your girlfriends mean to you? A new play at the Royal Court theatre explores the highs - and the lows - of female friendship. The playwright Miriam Battye and actor Rebekah Murrell join Jenni to discuss. In October 1726, newspapers began reporting a remarkable event: In the town of Godalming in Surrey, a woman named Mary Toft was giving birth to rabbits. Mary was examined by medics and the case drew the attention of the King, government and law courts. Historian Karen Harvey talks about her new book The Imposteress Rabbit Breeder. And, Clara Ponsati is a highly regarded economics professor at the University of St Andrews, but in 2017, she was the Catalan minister of Education when the independence referendum was held. The Spanish government declared the vote illegal and it wants Ponsati to return to Spain to face a charge of sedition. The BBC’s Niall Gallagher takes a look at who she is and what is likely to happen next. Presenter: Jenni Murray Producer: Ruth Watts

In 1999, Gail Porter was one of the UK’s most sought-after female TV presenters. Most famously, she helped sell over a million copies of FHM magazine after her naked image was projected onto the Houses of Parliament. In Being Gail Porter, a documentary for BBC Scotland, she explores her rise to celebrity and her fall into depression, anorexia, self-harming and homelessness. She talks to Jenni about why, after more than 20 years, she now feels able to face up to what she's been through and begin to make sense of it all. Milly Chowles has set out to try to understand why, when it comes to relationships, we often repeat what we've done in the past. In the second of her series about toxic relationships she talks to Jo who felt compelled to seek out conflict and drama. Despite a lifetime of correspondence, just 160 of Jane Austen’s letters survive to the present day. The vast majority were burned by her beloved sister Cassandra after her death. But what secrets was she trying to destroy? In her latest novel, Miss Austen, Gill Hornby imagines the complex relationship and lives of these two sisters and the events that motivated the editing and rewriting of Jane’s history. Presenter Jenni Murray Producer Beverley Purcell Guest; Gail Porter Guest; Gill Hornby Reporter; Milly Chowles

The Office for National Statistics release new unemployment figures today. We look behind the numbers and ask what sorts of jobs women are losing and what’s being done to save them. What do we know about the jobs that women are employed in? And have efforts to help women get into better paid sectors changed the gender pay gap? Do you know what “modest fashion” is? It’s about wearing less revealing clothes, and if you’ve a religious faith which emphasises modesty, it’s a style which allows you to do just that and look great. Well-known high-street shops and on-line brands (like M&S and ASOS) sell clothes under this banner, appealing to a more diverse range of customers. But is it really just a new way of describing how many of us prefer to dress, especially as we get older? Reina Lewis from London College of Fashion together with Amina Begum Ali who’s a model, discuss how it fits into the UK’s £32 billion fashion industry. When you look back over your relationships do you see patterns? Our reporter Milly Chowles does and she wants to understand why this might be. In a new series about toxic relationships she talks to four women who have broken free. Today, a woman we are calling Nina who was drawn to bad boys. Writer Kate Murphy claims that as a society we’ve forgotten how to listen. She joins Jane to talk about what stops us & to argue the case for better listening. Presenter: Jane Garvey Interviewed guest: Vicky Pryce Interviewed guest: Amina Begum Ali Interviewed guest: Reina Lewis Interviewed guest: Kate Murphy Reporter: Milly Chowles Producer: Lucinda Montefiore