Femicide Census, Period Pain, Eve Myles, Forced Adoption
Woman's Hour
BBC
4.1 • 3K Ratings
🗓️ 2 September 2025
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
New figures from the latest Femicide Census out are out today. It records the killings of women. It shows that 122 women, that’s more than 2 women a week, were killed by men and boys in 2022. Most women were killed by a current or former partner, but it also reveals that 10% were killed by their sons. To discuss the findings Nuala McGovern was joined by the co-founder of the Femicide Census, Dr Karen Ingala Smith.
New research from Oxford University has revealed that teenagers who suffer moderate or severe period pain, are more likely to experience chronic pain as adults. What is the link at play and how can we treat women who suffer from their teen years in to adulthood? We hear about the findings from Katy Vincent, Professor of Gynaecological Pain and Consultant Gynaecologist and she explains what this can teach us about mitigating pain in sufferers.
Eve Myles is a Welsh actress, whose television roles include Ceri Lewis in the BBC Wales drama series Belonging, Gwen Cooper in the BBC science-fiction series Torchwood and the formidable lawyer Faith Howells in the bilingually produced drama series Keeping Faith. Eve discusses her character Fran in The Guest - a new four-part, propulsive thriller on BBC One. It centres on the toxic and beguiling relationship between a successful business owner, Fran and her employee, Ria.
Between 1949 and 1976, thousands of pregnant women and girls in the UK were sent away to "prison-like" homes run by the church and state and had their babies put up for adoption. This week sees ITV’s Long Lost Family Special: The Mother and Baby Home Scandal - which follows three families as they search for their relative. One of those is Jean who was 16 when she was sent to a mother and baby home in 1956. After giving birth she unwillingly handed over her baby for adoption. Jean’s eldest daughter, Cathy was found by the programme. We hear from Cathy and the programme’s director Helen Nixon.
Who was Scotland’s first, largely forgotten, female MP? The Duchess of Atholl had campaigned against votes for women but in 1923 she stood for election herself, and won. Her biographer Amy Gray joins Nuala to address the many contradictions of this pioneering politician. In her new book, Red Duchess: A Rebel in Westminster, Gray argues that Atholl hasn’t received the credit she deserves for championing the welfare of women and children at home and abroad and for challenging the appeasement of Nazi Germany - a decision which ended her political career.
Presenter: Nuala McGovern Producer: Kirsty Starkey
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Rory Stewart and I grew up wanting to be a hero and I'm still fascinated by the ideas of heroism. |
| 0:09.0 | In my new series, I'm taking in the long sweep of history from Achilles to Zelensky and asking, what is a hero? |
| 0:16.0 | Simply doing your job, being a decent human being. |
| 0:20.0 | A true hero is someone who just kind of shines by |
| 0:23.1 | their own light and that light is to be recognised by others. The long history of heroism with me, |
| 0:28.6 | Rory Stewart. Listen on BBC Sounds. Hello, this is Neula McGovern and you're listening to |
| 0:34.6 | The Woman's Hour podcast. Hello and welcome to the program. |
| 0:39.6 | Well, period pain. It can start in the teenage years, often an unwelcome addition to growing up. |
| 0:46.8 | But there is a new study from Oxford University that found teenagers who experience moderate or |
| 0:52.2 | severe period pain are significantly more likely to develop |
| 0:55.8 | chronic pain in adulthood. So researchers are calling for more attention to be given to teens period |
| 1:02.9 | pain. And I'm wondering, is that something that you went through teenage period pain? |
| 1:07.3 | Or perhaps do you have a daughter that's going through it? How do you talk to her about it? |
| 1:12.4 | And as we know, it can be hard to be treated for period pain. So have you been able to teach her |
| 1:16.7 | to advocate for herself? You can text the program. The number is 84844 on social media. We're at BBC |
| 1:23.0 | Women's Hour or you can email us through our website for a WhatsApp message or a voice note using the number |
| 1:28.1 | 0300-100-400-444 is the way to get in touch with us and we will get into that research and |
| 1:35.5 | exactly what it found. Also at this hour we're going to learn about the Red Duchess through a new |
| 1:39.8 | book about Kitty Athel. She's Scotland's first female MP. We're going to learn all about her. She's been forgotten in many ways. And we also, if you were listening to us on Friday, you will perhaps have heard from mothers about forced adoptions that took place in the UK. Well, today we're going to hear from Cathy instead, who as a baby was taken from her birth |
| 2:02.1 | mother, Jean. They've met after almost 70 years. But I want to begin instead with new |
| 2:08.2 | figures from the latest Femicide Ascences, which are out today. It records the killings of women, |
| 2:14.0 | and it shows that 122 women, that's more than two women a week, were killed by men and boys in 2022. |
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