The Yardley Girls, Harassment of disabled women in public spaces

Woman's Hour

BBC

Society & Culture

4.1 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 6 August 2019

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Disability campaigner Dr Amy Kavanagh describes how she experienced harassment in public spaces when she started to use a white cane. Now she has started a project with Dr Hannah Mason-Bish, Director of Centre for Gender Studies at Sussex University to tackle the issue and the intrusions that she and many others face.

‘Beauty is your duty’ was an official propaganda campaign during WWII and the wearing of bright red lipstick seemed to be a patriotic duty and flash of glamour during tough times. While many factories and workers were commandeered for the war effort, the production of lipstick at Yardley’s cosmetics factory in East London continued apace. Kate Thompson’s latest book Secrets of the Homefront Girls features the lives and hardships of the women working in these factories. She joins Jane with two of the original Yardley Girls – Ann and Eileen.

What is breast milk donation and why are some people calling for it to be better funded? Jane talks to author Francesca Segal whose premature twins needed donated breast milk, about why the experience made her want to donate her own breast milk to repay the favour when her next child was born. Plus Dr Natalie Shenker, co-founder of Hearts Milk Bank, the UK’s first independent, non-profit human milk bank talks about the process and problems faced when dealing with donated milk.

Wrestler Heather Bandenburg aka La Rana Venenosa – Queen of the Sewer describes wrestling as her main vehicle of feminist resistance. She joins Jane to talk about its growing appeal and why she thinks more women should take it up. Her new book is "The Unladlylike: A Grrls Guide to Wrestling"

Presenter: Jane Garvey Producer: Caroline Donne

Interviewed guest: Dr. Amy Kavanagh Interviewed guest: Dr. Hannah Mason-Bish Interviewed guest: Kate Thompson Interviewed guest: Francesca Segal Interviewed guest: Dr. Natalie Shenker Interviewed guest: Heather Bandenburg

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
0:04.6	My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.
0:08.4	As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable
0:14.3	experts and genuinely engaging voices. What you may not know is that the BBC
0:20.4	makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,
0:24.6	poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.
0:29.7	If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds.
0:36.0	BBC Sounds, Music Radio Podcasts.
0:41.0	Hi this is Jane Garvey. Welcome to the Women's Our Podcast, it's Tuesday the. podcasts. fantastic voices from the East End of London. You can hear from Anne and from Eileen
0:54.8	with their memories of working in the Yardley factory in the East End. They also help with
1:00.5	Kate Thompson, the author's book about working women during World War II
1:05.5	so that's why they were on the program today. We also have wrestler Heather
1:09.4	Bandenburg and we'll talk to about breast milk donation so a lot on this edition that I really think you'll enjoy
1:17.4	We started with a conversation about sexual harassment. It was actually something that featured on the podcast yesterday
1:23.4	we talked about the fact that Emma Watson the actress are given a huge donation to help
1:28.8	set up a helpline to deal with sexual harassment in the workplace. Today, another aspect of
1:35.2	sexual harassment and an aspect possibly that most of us haven't really thought
1:38.6	about. What happens when you are a young disabled woman going about your business in any part of contemporary Britain.
1:45.6	You're about to hear the very powerful voice of Dr Amy Kavanaugh who is visually impaired
1:50.4	and started using a white stick in public relatively recently. Amy is 30. and she gets involved with Dr. Hannah Mason Bish, the director of the
1:59.3	Center for Gender Studies at Sussex University.
2:01.9	Hannah actually read Amy's tweets about what life
	...

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