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Woman's Hour

What's so funny about socially aspiring women?

Woman's Hour

BBC

Society & Culture

4.13K Ratings

🗓️ 30 May 2019

⏱️ 44 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The third and final series of Mum is currently airing on BBC2 and Pauline is proving to be as terrifyingly class-conscious as ever. Why do so many British sitcoms and novels centre around women who are obsessed with status? From Margot in The Good Life to Hyacinth Bucket, from Mrs Bennett to Becky Sharp - why are so many of our iconic female characters shameless social climbers? Jenni talks to television critic Julia Raeside and journalist and critic Alex Clark. Jenni speaks to Jo Miller as she steps down from one of the most high-profile local government jobs in the UK. Jo was appointed Chief Executive of Doncaster Council by central Government in 2012, when the Council was officially a “failing” local authority. Jo’s turnaround strategy has brought in investment of £2 billion and the town is now in the UK’s top ten for growth. How did she achieve this and why is she leaving? A report by Lancaster University and Fatherhood Institute earlier this year states that the number of men working in early years childcare is just 2%, a figure which has not changed for decades. What can be done to attract more men into the career? And, for those working in the sector already, what is the reaction from parents to having a man working with young children? Nearly 2,000 domestic abuse survivors iare being put at risk of homelessness because local authority rules state they aren’t vulnerable enough, according to a new report published by the All Party Parliamentary Group for Ending Homelessness. The research and funding was carried out by Crisis, the national charity for homeless people. Presenter: Jenni Murray Producer: Laura Northedge Interviewed Guest: Alex Clark Interviewed Guest: Julia Raeside Interviewed Guest: Jo Miller Interviewed Guest: Rebecca Pritchard

Transcript

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0:00.0

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts

0:04.8

Hello, Jenny Murray, welcoming you to the Woman's Hour podcast for Thursday the 30th of May.

0:10.8

If you're watching Mum on BBC 2, the awful Pauline, who are you driving you man?

0:16.7

Why are so many women in sitcoms and stories, Margot, Hyacinth, Bokeh, Mrs. Bennet or Beckyshop

0:23.6

such relentless social climbers?

0:26.9

As more and more families look for child care, why are so few men prepared to train for

0:31.6

the job of looking after little children?

0:34.1

And as Joe Miller prepares to leave her job as chief executive of Doncaster Council, how

0:39.0

did she and her mayor, Ros Jones, manage to turn around a failing council despite ever

0:44.7

increasing austerity?

0:46.8

Now you sort of expect that if you were the victim of domestic violence and managed to

0:51.6

escape the home you shared with your abuser, you might be considered a priority for

0:56.7

housing.

0:57.7

A report by the all-party parliamentary group for ending homelessness shows that nearly

1:03.0

2,000 survivors of domestic abuse in any one year are put at risk of homelessness in

1:09.4

England because they're not considered a priority.

1:12.7

Well, early this morning I spoke to Danielle, who became homeless in 2014 when she had to

1:18.5

flee a privately rented property she shared with her then partner.

1:23.0

She described their relationship.

1:25.4

We met when we were pretty young I think about 13, 14 and it was really nice at first

1:30.3

and then all of a sudden about a year into it and all this time around this family got

1:34.6

really angry and like really aggressive.

...

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