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Woman's Hour

Gender pay gap, 'Spicy' fiction, Is rugby safe? Labubu dolls

Woman's Hour

BBC

Society & Culture, Health & Fitness, Personal Journals

4.22.9K Ratings

🗓️ 26 August 2025

⏱️ 58 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A new report, published yesterday, says Britain’s gender pay gap has been understated for two decades, casting doubt on the accuracy of official figures. It's news that might have big implications for women in the workplace and policymakers, from the Bank of England to ministers, who rely on these figures to make big economic decisions. Alex Bryson is Professor of Quantitative Social Science at University College London and worked on this research and Amy Borrett is a data journalist at the Financial Times. They join Nuala McGovern to discuss.

Have you heard of 'spicy' fiction? Now worth £53 million annually, it's a genre that's booming, with sales of romance fiction up 110% between 2023 and 2024 in the UK. And it's mainly women reading these erotic novels, giving them chilli ratings depending on the level of explicit content, and sharing their across Instagram and TikTok. So, what's driving this trend? Nuala is joined by author Emma Lucy, who writes spicy fiction, and Stylist journalist Shahed Ezaydi to find out more.

If you’ve been watching any of the Women’s Rugby World Cup you may have seen ‘high tech mouthguards being used. They will now flash red — signally potentially high impacts, requiring players to have a head injury assessment - a move aimed at improving player safety. So just how safe is it for women to play rugby? What are the risks of getting injured, and what is being done to mitigate those risks? We hear from Fi Tomas, women’s sports reporter at the Telegraph, Dr Izzy Moore, reader in human movement and sports medicine at Cardiff Metropolitan University and Welsh Ruby Union injury surveillance project lead, and Dr Anna Stodter, senior lecturer in sport coaching at Leeds Beckett University, former Sottish International player, who also coaches the university team.

With queues leading out of the shops and reports of thefts, we look at the lengths to which some women will go to get their hands on the latest style must-have, Labubu dolls.

Presenter: Nuala McGovern Producer: Kirsty Starkey

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

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 just to be recognised by others. The long history of heroism

0:27.8

with me, Rory Stewart. Listen on BBC Sounds. Hello, this is Neula McGovern and you're listening

0:34.4

to The Woman's Hour podcast. Hello and welcome to the program.

0:38.8

I hope you had a good bank holiday weekend.

0:41.2

Well, as the women's rugby World Cup gets into full flow,

0:44.2

we're going to find out about safety in the sport

0:46.2

and also whether a flashing mouth guard could help concussion rates.

0:51.0

Also, a new report says the country's gender pay gap has been underestimated

0:55.7

for the past two decades. We'll hear how that could have happened and the possible implications.

1:02.0

Now, if you've had the experience of a gender pay gap, and in particular, if you have advice on how to

1:07.8

tackle it in the workplace, we'd love to hear from you. I wonder, is there

1:11.8

transparency between your male and female colleagues on what you are paid? Is salary something

1:17.9

you felt or feel you can broach with your workmates? And also, did you take any action to rectify

1:25.0

any disparities you may have found.

1:29.6

Or maybe you came up against barriers.

1:32.1

I'd like to hear the number is 84844.

1:34.2

Social media, we're at BBC Woman's Hour.

1:36.3

Or you can email us through our website. For a WhatsApp message or a voice note, the number is 0300-100-400-444.

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