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Woman's Hour

Weekend Woman's Hour: Holly Smale, Paris Lees, #MeToo in the British Army, Hormones and vaccines

Woman's Hour

BBC

Society & Culture

4.13K Ratings

🗓️ 29 May 2021

⏱️ 58 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A former senior Army officer is calling for the military to have a “#MeToo moment” and is claiming that hundreds of female troops have been raped and sexually abused by colleagues. Lt Col Diane Allen, who served for 37 years, says the Armed Forces are being run by “a toxic group of privately-educated white senior officers” We talk to Diane Allen and also hear from the Defence Minister Baroness Goldie.

Some women and trans men are reporting unusual symptoms after having their Covid vaccinations – ranging from menstrual irregularities to bleeding post menopause. We talk to the reproductive immunologist Dr Viki Male from Imperial College in London to find out what’s behind these symptoms.

The best selling author of the Geek Girl series Holly Smale has been diagnosed with autism at age 39. She said she feels relief that she now has an explanation for why she’s felt she’s never “fitted in”.

Prof Catherine Heymans, astrophysicist and world-leading expert in the so-called dark universe, is now the Astronomer Royal of Scotland. She's the first woman to hold this prestigious role, but the problem is she's still not entirely convinced she should have the job. She talks to us about impostor syndrome, challenging the status quo and dealing with aggressive criticism.

Paris Lees is a journalist, anti-bullying campaigner, and a Contributing Editor at British Vogue. She was the first openly trans woman to present on BBC Radio 1, and also the first to appear on Question Time. She’s written a memoir called What it Feels like for a Girl, which covers the period aged 13 to 18 – a turbulent, heady time full of adventure and disaster.

What generation do you define as? The term 'geriatric millennial' went viral last week, after writer Erica Dhwan used it to describe the micro-generation born between 1980 and 1985. Erica believes they make particularly good employees due to their experience of life before the digital world. Rosa Silverman, a senior features writer at the Telegraph, says she is proud to self-define as one of the around 5 million UK geriatric millennials in the UK.

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.

0:31.0

BBC Sounds music radio podcasts.

0:35.0

Hello, I'm Anita Rani and welcome to Womons Hour from BBC Radio 4.

0:39.8

Good afternoon and welcome to Weekend Womons Hour, the finest selection of choice cuts from the week just gone.

0:46.2

Coming up on today's program, the first female astronomer Royal of Scotland,

0:50.9

Professor Catherine Haymans of the University of Edinburgh, tells us about challenging centuries of male astrophysical thinking.

0:58.0

Holly Smale, author of the best-selling Geek Girl series, tells us how it felt to finally receive her clinical diagnosis of autism at the age of 39.

1:08.0

I've spent four decades essentially not knowing who I am or how to interact with the world and you know looking at my child

1:15.6

version of me and just feeling incredibly sad for her essentially so it's a kind of

1:20.9

celebration and relief but also a grief process.

1:24.0

Now do you define yourself as a geriatric millennial?

1:28.0

Responsible for the viral term is American writer Erica the one who joins senior features writer at the

1:34.6

telegraph Rosa Silverman to explain why 36 to 41 year olds might be the

1:39.8

ideal employees and the journalist anti-bullying campaigner and contributing editor at British Vogue, Paris Lease,

1:47.0

discusses the turbulent time of growing up and her memoir,

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