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Woman's Hour

Female truckers; Dealing with disappointment; Caitlin Moran; Maternity failings

Woman's Hour

BBC

Society & Culture

4.13K Ratings

🗓️ 6 July 2021

⏱️ 58 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

There is currently a huge shortage of road hauliers in the UK. According to the Road Haulage Association, up to 100,000 more lorry drivers are needed to transport the food, medicines and equipment vital to the UK economy. It’s estimated that 95% of all the products we consume are at some point moved around by road freight. And with Brexit, the Suez Canal blockage, and coronavirus restrictions causing big logistical issues, more people are urgently needed…. But of the half a million licensed lorry drivers, only 5% are women. Why is this? And what would encourage more women to get behind the wheel? Emma speaks to driver Suzy Mackenzie and Kate Lester, the Chief Executive of Diamond Logistics.

Disappointment is a fact of life, but that doesn't make it any easier when it comes. At last night's Wimbledon, 18 year old British wildcard Emma Raducanu had to retire from her last-16 match after suffering apparent breathing difficulties. Although we're still not sure exactly what happened, it's not a huge leap of imagination to say that she'll be disappointed to see the end of her dream debut. But what can us mere mortals take from it? Annabel Croft, BBC tennis commentator and former British number one, and Julia Samuels, psychotherapist and author of 'This Too Will Pass: Stories of Crisis, Change and Hopeful Beginnings', talk about the nature of disappointment and the strategies we can use to pick ourselves up again.

Caitlin Moran is a journalist and columnist at The Times. Her first book ‘How to Be a Woman” came out in 2011 and has sold more than a million copies in 28 countries. The sequel ‘More than a Woman’ came out last year and is out in paperback today. She is currently on a live UK tour and joins Emma to talk about motherhood, daughters, female friendship and coming to terms with getting older.

Maternity services in England are failing mothers and babies leading to hundreds of avoidable deaths each year, according to a damning report by the Health and Social Care committee on maternity safety in England. It also describes a "debilitating culture of blame" preventing lessons being learned from previous tragedies. Jeremy Hunt, the former health secretary and chair of the committee pointed out that 1,000 more babies a year would survive if England's maternity services were as safe as Sweden's. The committee's report found although maternity safety had improved, the deaths of a number of newborn babies at several hospitals in recent years were a reminder that much more needs to be done. Emma is joined by Dame Professor Lesley Regan, Head of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at St Mary’s, Imperial College and past President of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless

0:06.8

searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the

0:11.8

telly we share what we've been watching

0:14.0

Fladiated.

0:16.0

Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming.

0:19.0

Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige.

0:21.0

And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less

0:25.0

searching and a lot more auction listen on BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.

0:35.0

Hello, I'm Emma Barnet and welcome to Woman's Hour from BBC Radio 4.

0:40.0

Good morning and welcome to the program.

0:41.0

I don't know if you were watching the

0:42.6

tennis last night but even if you weren't you probably will have heard about the

0:46.0

British wildcard 18 year old Emma Radicano who having to retire from her

0:50.2

fourth round match at Wimbledon after suffering breathing difficulties.

0:54.4

It really was a heartbreaking end to her dream debut and a tough watch.

0:58.8

You could see her battling to keep going.

1:01.4

It's important to say we are waiting still to hear from her and that is

1:04.8

something we will bring you if we hear it while we're on the program while we're

1:07.8

live. But Wimbledon officials did confirm her coming off court was linked to

1:11.6

breathing difficulties.

1:13.4

However, what's not too difficult to imagine

1:15.7

is the huge disappointment, not being able to bring

...

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