Weekend Woman's Hour: Live from the Women of the World Festival

US activist, writer and social worker, Feminista Jones joins Jane in our glass box at WOW. She will discuss the importance of festivals in gathering large groups of women together rather than relying on social media as a main means of communication, and why sexual liberation is so important to her. 

Just because we don’t know much about women from history who worked in science, it doesn’t mean they were not there says author, Stella Duffy. She joins Jane to tell us who they were and why we know so little about them.

Becky John’s passion for pants led her to set up her own brand six years ago. All their materials are off cuts from other factories, fabrics that would otherwise be thrown away. Becky is at WOW running a workshop' Who Made Your Pants' on a way of showing pants that isn’t overtly sexual. She joins Jane to discuss her online business, why she only employs women who have had a hard time and why she has a waiting list of women wanting to work for her. 

Gaggle is an all-female alternative choir based in London. Tired of the sexism in the music industry, it was formed in 2009 by Deborah Coughlin. Members don’t audition but women with bit of character and interesting lives are invited to join. Referred to by NMEas one of the most innovative groups in music, they released their first album From the Mouth of the Cave in 2012. They perform live at WOW for the Woman’s Hour audience.

Practising midwife Terri Coates talks to Jane about how she became the advisor for Call the Midwife from its early literary beginnings as the memoir of Jennifer Worth. That role has continued in a Bangladeshi version of the BBC series using good drama as education to broadcast health messages and changing dangerous practices to a population with high illiteracy rates.

Award winning poet and playwright Sabrina Mafhouz performs live from the festival with light-hearted observations of the events, conversations and performances taking place.

Women of the World Festival has become a global event since it first started five years ago. By 2018 Southbank Centre aims to have WOW's all around the world and 12 WOW's across the UK during the festival in March. Jane speaks to Claire McDermott from WOW Derry-Londonderry, alongside Cathy Hunt from the WOW in Australia’s Northern Territories and Jamilla Deria from WOW Harlem in New York City who are to have their first festival in June this year.