Carrie Johnson, Supreme Court nominee, Women & work in the 17th century, Rising popularity of thongs, MMR

Woman's Hour

BBC

Society & Culture, Health & Fitness, Personal Journals

4.2 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 1 February 2022

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As the Prime Minister apologises for a failure of leadership, accepting Sue Gray's report, and promises to overhaul Number 10 - his place of work and home - what of Carrie Johnson? And concerns about the blurring of lines... The pandemic has changed the way some women work and has blurred the boundaries between home and work for many. A new book by Professor Laura Gowing of King’s College London called 'Ingenious Trade' unearths the stories of women at work in 17th Century London and shows how crucial to their identity paid employment was. For those who remember the late 90s and early noughties, thongs were a defining emblem of popular fashion, often poking out of denim and low-rise trousers. Today, clothes retailers are seeing a surge in their thong sales since 2019, and with the resurgence of ‘y2k’ style among young people, it seems that thongs are back. Joe Biden announced last week that he'd fulfil his campaign promise of the first black female justice just as Justice Stephen Breyer said he would retire. Biden said that it was long overdue in his opinion and that he will reveal his choice of a younger, liberal judge by the end of February. While many Americans welcome diversity in the Supreme Court, Biden has also faced criticism for playing identity politics. Emma discusses this with Kimberly Peeler-Allen who is the co-founder of Higher Heights, an organisation that builds the collective political power of Black women and Lawrence Hurley, Reuters U.S. Supreme Court Correspondent. Latest data from the UK Health Security Agency shows that more than one in ten children starting school in England are at risk of measles because they haven't had their jabs. Vaccine rates for the MMR, which helps protect five-year-olds against measles, mumps and rubella, have fallen to their lowest level in a decade. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, there's been a concerning drop in the number of children receiving these vaccinations on time, with some parents perhaps not wanting to burden the NHS or unaware doctors were still offering appointments. Presenter: Emma Barnett Producer: Kirsty Starkey Interviewed Guest: Caroline Slocock Interviewed Guest: Caroline Wheeler Interviewed Guest: Professor Laura Gowing Interviewed Guest: Alizé Demange Interviewed Guest: Letty Cole Interviewed Guest: Kimberly Peeler-Allen Interviewed Guest: Lawrence Hurley Interviewed Guest: Professor Helen Bedford

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.
0:05.4	Hello, I'm Emma Barnett and welcome to Woman's Hour from BBC Radio 4.
0:10.0	Good morning and welcome to the programme.
0:12.5	From Thongs to the US Supreme Court, I've got you covered today.
0:16.2	Or not in the case of Thongs.
0:18.3	But what I am intrigued to hear your take on is how much work is your identity and the
0:23.3	blurring of lines between work and life, wittingly or unwittingly.
0:28.0	On today's programme, we're going to learn together about how much work formed a part
0:31.6	of women's identity in the 17th century and how welcome that was.
0:36.5	Because of course what's different between men and women on the work front is that women
0:40.2	have to fight for the right to work, to be paid properly and treated well, if not equally,
0:45.9	to actually leave the home and have a separate identity.
0:49.5	Some of you will have jobs which are just that.
0:52.1	They do not define who you are and you make all efforts to ensure that.
0:56.5	They just are a way of paying the bills.
0:59.1	Some of you won't be working and are looking and needing and very mindful of that.
1:03.8	Some of you may be at the start of your working life or at the end.
1:07.3	But those boundaries between work and life have blurred in the digital age and of course
1:11.4	during the pandemic as people have begun working where they live or carried on but with
1:15.5	more intensity, it is a blur.
1:18.8	How much of you is you and how much of that is bound up in work?
1:22.8	Perhaps you're happy with that or have you tried to make a change?
	...

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