Woman's Hour

Brigitte Macron, Miriam Stoppard, Going It Alone

Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.

Going It Alone, Venezuela, Military children

In our new series Going it Alone we are hearing from three women about their experiences of having a child without a partner. These are women who are having donor conceived children, which is different to single mums who may have split up with the child’s father. Statistics show that more women than ever in the UK are choosing to become solo mums by choice. Today Lucy tells us her story. We also hear a discussion about the legal and practical implications of this with Nina Barnsley, Director of the Donor Conception Network and Clare Ettinghausen, a Director at the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority.Today Delcy Rodriguez will be sworn in as Venezuela's president after the capture of Nicolas Maduro, who has been in charge of the country since 2013. And she is not the only woman in the spotlight following this weekend's events. Cilia Flores, who is the wife of Maduro and a political force in her own right, was taken with her husband and is now set to appear in a New York court in the coming hours. Attention is also on Maria Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel peace prize winner. The BBC's South America correspondent Ione Wells and Professor Rebecca Jarman from Leeds University, an expert in Venezuelan politics and history, discuss.There are over 100,000 children who have at least one parent serving in the British military. Louise Fetigan was a serving army officer when she had her first child in her early 20s. She had been posted to Germany, was looking after a newborn and her husband had been deployed to Iraq. She has set up the charity Little Troopers to provide specific support for the children of military families. Presenter: Nuala McGovern Producer: Kirsty Starkey

Weekend Woman's Hour: Toni Collette, Adults regressing, The Archers special

Since her big break in Muriel’s Wedding 30 years ago, actor Toni Collette has graced our screens in a huge list of standout roles from The Sixth Sense to Hereditary, Little Miss Sunshine to Mickey 17. She joined Kylie Pentelow to discuss her latest film, Goodbye June. The emotional directorial debut from Kate Winslet tackles themes of love, loss and Christmas as a fractious family come together to sit vigil for the family matriarch, played by Helen Mirren.From the very beginning of the NHS in 1948, Irish women were actively recruited to staff British hospitals. By the 1960s, there were around 30,000 Irish-born nurses - making up roughly one in eight of all nurses – yet their contribution has often gone unrecognised. A new book aims to change that. Based on dozens of interviews, it tells the story of Irish nurses in their own words. We hear from co-author of Irish Nurses in the NHS: An Oral History, Professor Louise Ryan, who spent years researching Irish migration and from Ethel Corduff, who came to England to train as a nurse, a career she spent 40 years in.Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport, or RED-S as it's known, was once framed as a concern only for elite athletes. But as running culture intensifies alongside weight-loss jabs and healthy eating trends, RED-S has become more widespread. It's often hard to spot, but the long-term consequences can be devastating, impacting immune function, growth and fertility. Sports dietitian Renee McGregor and Jodie Pearlman, who experienced the condition first hand, joined Kylie to talk about the condition.Why can adults seem to regress to childhood or teenage behaviours at Christmas? We discuss family dynamics and the kinds of behaviour that can re-surface with everyone under the same roof again. Guardian columnist Elle Hunt shares her own experience alongside Woman's Hour listeners, and psychotherapist Julia Samuel offers advice.It's 75 years since The Archers first launched. Woman's Hour broadcast from Ambridge to celebrate the female characters who have helped this programme tackle some of the most challenging, contentious and sensitive issues affecting women. Nuala McGovern joined Felicity Finch, who plays Ruth Archer, for a behind-the-scenes tour, along with Technical Producer Vanessa Nuttall.Presenter: Kylie Pentelow Producer: Annette Wells

Living at home during university, Child violence in the DRC, What is RED-S?

Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.

Woman's Hour celebrates the women of The Archers

It's 75 years to the day since The Archers first launched. Woman's Hour has come to Ambridge to celebrate the female characters who have helped this programme tackle some of the most challenging, contentious and sensitive issues affecting women.Nuala McGovern is joined in The Archers studio at BBC Birmingham by writer Sarah Hehir, Dr Cara Courage from Academic Archers, who studies the social history behind the programme, Sunny Ormonde, who plays Lilian Bellamy, and we also hear from Emerald O'Hanrahan, who plays Emma Grundy. Times columnist and long time fan of The Archers Libby Purves shares a condensed history of the women of Ambridge. Nuala also gets a behind the scenes tour from Felicity Finch, who plays Ruth Archer, and Technical Producer Vanessa Nuttall.Presenter: Nuala McGovern Producer: Simon Richardson