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Hello, Jenny Murray, welcoming you to the Woman's Hour podcast for the 1st of October 2020.

My last ever.

Good morning and welcome to Woman's Hour.

And yes, it does feel very strange to be saying that for the last time after 33 years,

although I am much cheered by a gift from Mary Berry.

It's a chocolate cake, which is sitting in front of me waiting to be shared with the team.

And we will wait till the end of the programme.

I promise you.

Later in this morning's programme, we'll look back at some of the amazing people I've encountered in this studio

since September 1987, ranging from Margaret Sacher through Betty Davis, Hillary Clinton and Joan Buyers.

But we begin with four women who are my contemporaries, with whom I've often shared the three steps forward

and two steps back of the moves towards equality between the sexes.

They're the Labour MP for Camelwell and Peckham and Mother of the House, Harriet Harmon,

Baroness Elena Kennedy QC, the pose and novelist, Jackie K, who's Scotland's national poet, the Macca,

and Jude Kelly, the founder and director of the Well Foundation.

And I am so sorry we can't have you all in this studio to share the Mary Berry cake,

but of course we are all down the line.

But Jude, let's start with you.

You know, we want to be positive and we want to feel empowered on a morning like this.

But this pandemic, how much of a two steps back for women do you see in the pandemic experience?

OK, well, there's no doubt about it that economically it's a big step back.

...