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Woman's Hour

Modern domestic service; Mud and Mascara in women's rugby; Teenage subcultures

Woman's Hour

BBC

Society & Culture

4.13K Ratings

🗓️ 5 February 2020

⏱️ 44 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Right now, there are thousands of people working hard in other people’s homes to keep them running smoothly. But what’s it like working in domestic service in modern Britain? Juliet Adame and Dawn Nickless talk about their experiences of the relationship between employer and employed, and the extent to which class still plays a role in people’s attitudes towards domestic workers. Jenni also speaks to Dr Lucy Delap from the University of Cambridge about how much the life of a cleaner, nanny and gardener has changed – or not – in the past 100 years, and why so many women feel mortally embarrassed about being the boss.

Women’s rugby is one of the fastest-growing sports in the world and 29% of all rugby players are women. Since it was announced as an Olympic sport in 2009, the number of participants has grown globally from 200,000 to over 2.6 million. As preparations are underway for this year’s Women’s Six Nations Catherine Spencer the former Captain of the England talks to Jenni about her memoir Mud, Maul, Mascara: How I Led my Country, and Lived to Tell the Tale.

Goth, punk, raver – what kind of teenager were you? The Museum of Youth Culture is currently touring their exhibition “Grown Up in Britain”, which showcases artefacts from teenagers throughout the decades. We discuss how teenage subcultures have evolved from the 50s to today with Ruth Adams, senior lecturer at Kings College London and Lisa Der Weduwe, Archives Manager at the Museum of Youth Culture, before kicking off our four-part feature series “A Short History of the Teenage Girl” with Kay from Derby.

Presenter - Jenni Murray Producer - Anna Lacey Guest - Lucy Delap Guest - Julieta Adame Guest - Dawn Nickless Guest - Catherine Spencer Guest - Ruth Adams Guest - Lisa der Weduwe

Transcript

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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.

0:29.0

BBC Sounds Music music radio podcasts.

0:34.4

Hello Jenny Murray welcoming you to Wednesdays edition of the Women's Our Podcast.

0:40.0

In today's programme, The Cleaner, the nanny, the housekeeper and the mistress of the house.

0:46.0

In the early 20th century domestic service was the biggest employer of women.

0:51.0

What's it like today? And how guilty do you feel if you have another woman cleaning

0:56.8

your house? Grown up in Britain is an exhibition put together by the Museum of Youth Culture, the teenager was first defined in

1:05.4

the 1940s in America. How did the teenage girl develop in the UK and how did she see herself? And the serial of course the third episode of 24 Kildare Road.

1:16.4

Now I was watching the start of the Six Nations Rugby tournament the other day and at one point it was mentioned that the women's six

1:25.0

nations would be starting soon. There was a rather flashy advert showing female

1:30.0

rugby players but no mention of when their games could be seen or where.

1:36.5

Which probably comes as no surprise to Catherine Spencer who was captain of the England

1:41.0

women's rugby team from 2007 to 2010. of the

1:43.0

England women's rugby team from 2007 to 2010.

1:45.0

She retired the following year

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