meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Woman's Hour

Weekend Woman's Hour: Windrush Women, Tracey Emin, Irene Tracey, Bridget Christie, Working Women in India, Glastonbury

Woman's Hour

BBC

Society & Culture

4.13K Ratings

🗓️ 24 June 2023

⏱️ 52 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On Thursday, the UK celebrated the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the Empire Windrush which made the 5,000 mile journey from the Caribbean to England in 1948. The passengers were mainly made up of ex-servicemen along with over 200 bold, pioneering women. Veteran nurse and founder of the Windrush Cymru Elders, Roma Taylor, former nurse Allyson Williams and journalist Amina Taylor join Nuala to discuss their experiences of leaving home to help rebuild Britain after WWII.

As visitors walk through the doors of the newly reopened National Portrait Gallery in London, they will see 45 hand-drawn portraits of women by British artist Tracey Emin, that have been cast in bronze. They are said to represent every woman. Tracey speaks to Krupa Padhy about her creative process and what she hopes people will take away from the images.

Professor Irene Tracey is only the second ever female Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford. In the last few weeks she has had to deal with several angry protests in Oxford over the appearance of Kathleen Stock at the Oxford Union. She allowed the talk to go ahead, saying, ‘we have to defend free speech’. Professor Tracey joins Nuala to talk about the battle over free speech, as well as what it’s like being a woman in the world of academia.

Comedian Bridget Christie’s stand-up has been credited with putting the funny in feminism. You might know her from Taskmaster or Ghosts. Now she’s created and stars in a comedy drama called The Change, which starts this week on Channel 4. She plays Linda, a woman who turns 50, discovers she’s menopausal and abandons her family to go off and find herself in the Forest of Dean. Bridget joins Nuala in studio.

Nuala McGovern talks to Rosa Abraham & Rituparna Chakraborty about the fact that nearly half of the population in India is female, but the number of working women has fallen to record lows.

For the first time ever, Woman's Hour broadcast live from Glastonbury. Four time Grammy nominee and folk legend Allison Russell joined Anita live for a very special performance. Alongside being a singer and songwriter Allison is a poet, an activist and a multi-instrumentalist. Fresh from performing alongside the one and only Joni Mitchell earlier this month she is at Glastonbury, performing on The Acoustic Stage.

Presenter: Krupa Padhy Producer: Hanna Ward Studio Engineer: Bob Nettles

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.

0:05.0

Hello, this is Krupa Party and you're listening to the Woman's Hour podcast.

0:09.4

Hello and a very warm welcome to Weekend Woman's Hour.

0:13.0

The program each week where we gather together the best bits of Woman's Hour from the week

0:17.4

gone by and put them all in one place for you.

0:20.0

Coming up this afternoon, in the week of the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the

0:24.9

Empire Windrush, we hear experiences of women from the Windrush generation who answered

0:30.2

the call from the British government to help rebuild the country after World War II.

0:34.7

My nightmare started when I actually went out on the wards.

0:38.4

I suffered a lot of racism and there was even physical abuse because my hands were slapped

0:44.3

away countless times to say that I was dirty and they didn't want my black dirt to rub off

0:50.5

on them.

0:51.8

That is Tracy Eman tells us all about her latest project during 45 women to feature on the

0:57.5

entrance doors of the Revamped National Portrait Gallery.

1:01.1

Plus Oxford University's Vice-Chancellor Irene Tracy on Free Speech and for our Women

1:06.8

in India series, we hear about why a record number of women are dropping out of the workforce.

1:12.4

Most families educate their girls for the managed market.

1:16.0

If as a prospective bride you indicate that you want to work and you want to stay

1:21.2

employed or you want to start being employed after marriage, that can act as a penalty.

1:27.2

All of that to come, so do settle in.

1:29.4

But first, on Thursday the UK celebrated the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the Empire

1:35.5

Windrush which made the 5,000 mile journey from the Caribbean to Tilbury Docks in June 1948.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.