Dame Eileen Atkins; Equal pay; Harassment in Parliament; Composer Charlotte Bray
Woman's Hour
BBC
4.1 • 3K Ratings
🗓️ 19 October 2021
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In our final discussion to mark our 75th anniversary we look at the issue of equal pay. This was identified as the area women most want to see change in their daily lives and 70% of those asked said they had experienced inequality in this area. Emma Barnett talks to Baroness Kishwer Falkner who’s head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission which regulates the Equality Act and also to Emma Satyamurti a lawyer leading a group action for equal pay by female staff working in Morrisons.
Dame Eileen Atkins joins Emma to talk about the journey from being Tottenham's answer to Shirley Temple to hugely respected actor for stage, screen and TV. Her memoir is called 'Will She Do?'
Today MPs are going to debate new government plans that would mean members who are suspended for sexual harassment or bullying could face a by-election. Labour want the measure to apply retrospectively - so that it would include the Conservative MP Rob Roberts who was suspended from Parliament for six weeks in May after an independent panel found he had sexually harassed a former employee. He did not face a petition to trigger a by-election due to a loophole in parliamentary procedure - because the panel that handed down his suspension doesn't have those powers. BBC political correspondent, Chris Mason, explains.
Composer Charlotte Bray has composed new song cycle called Crossing Faultlines. Believed to be the first of its kind to address the topic of women in the workplace, the song cycle explores themes of mentorship, discrimination and ambition. The piece was commissioned as part of a new recital programme dream.risk.sing: elevating women’s voices, an initiative conceived to express women’s stories through song. Emma is joined by Charlotte Bray, Samantha Crawford and Lana Bode.
Presenter: Emma Barnett Producer: Anna Lacey
Interviewed Guest: Baroness Kishwer Falkner Interviewed Guest: Emma Satyamurti Interviewed Guest: Eileen Atkins Interviewed Guest: Charlotte Bray Interviewed Guest: Samantha Crawford Interviewed Guest: Lana Bode
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.6 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
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| 0:41.0 | Hello I'm Emma Barnet and welcome to Womensa from BBC. podcasts. is a theme of today's programme, not least because it was the area flag during our |
| 0:54.8 | poll about equality to mark Woman's Hour's 75th birthday where women wanted, demanded |
| 1:00.4 | the most change. We will get to that shortly and the nuts and bolts of pay |
| 1:05.0 | and what happens to women's trajectory in various workplaces, but what I wanted to ask |
| 1:09.9 | you today was about those individuals who have helped you in your working life, whatever it is. |
| 1:16.3 | One of my guests today, the actor and writer Dame Eileen Atkins, who's just written her |
| 1:20.6 | memoir about the early stages of her career describes |
| 1:23.7 | those people in her life as saviors. Perhaps you call them something else, |
| 1:28.6 | perhaps they're mentors, champions, angels, the people who pick you up by the scruff of your neck and tell you |
| 1:34.6 | what's what and to keep on keeping on. |
| 1:37.0 | Who are they and what have they said or done that has stayed in your mind and perhaps kept you going when things have got tough in your working life. |
| 1:45.8 | Text me here at Womons hour on 84844. I'm very much looking forward to hearing some of these stories |
| 1:50.8 | and some of these sayings. I should say text will be charged |
| 1:53.3 | at your standard message rate. On social media you can get in touch with me via |
... |
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