Is there a growing interest in women getting together to discuss ideas?
A report by the electoral commission has found that women are significantly less active than men in formal politics, but they are either more or at least equally interested in the issues.
There is a growth in a form of gathering popular in the 18th and 19th centuries known as salons. They were generally presided over by women of wit and intelligence and were designed to encourage the exchange of ideas.
Earlier this month the writer Carol Hayman held the third of a series of salons at the Old Market in Brighton. Reporter Rebecca Drought joins in and asks one of the participants, the novelist Fay Weldon, about the theme of the event.
Jenni discusses the revival of the salon with Clarissa Campbell Orr, senior lecturer in History at Anglia Polytechnic University and Carol Hayman.
