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Woman's Hour

The future of feminism; Patricia Clarkson; Marina Benjamin

Duration: 45 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW

Available for over a year

This week the Fawcett Society celebrates its 150th anniversary. It also marks the point when Millicent Fawcett and other campaigners handed in the first petition for women's suffrage to Parliament. On Tuesday we looked at the impact of a century and a half of feminism on women's lives. Today we look at where women continue to need to make inroads and what battles there are left to win? Sam Smethers, chief executive of the Fawcett Society, Helen Lewis, deputy editor of the News Statesman and writer and teacher, Lola Okolosie, join Jenni.

In a society obsessed with living longer and looking younger, what does middle age nowadays mean? Jenni talks to Marina Benjamin about The Middlepause - On Turning 50. How should a fifty-something be in a world constantly redefining ageing, youth, and experience?

American actor Patricia Clarkson stars in Learning to Drive, a film about a woman who finally takes lessons following the break -up of her marriage. Patricia talks to Jenni about becoming a Hollywood sex symbol in her 50s.

And what's it like returning home - perhaps indefinitely - after graduating from university? What about the shattered peace of a previously empty nest? Jenni is joined by twenty something graduate and journalist Lucy Tobin, who went back to her mum and dad's after university, and by mother Celia Dodd, whose children returned after studying. She's also the author of The Empty Nest: How To Survive And Stay Close To Your Adult Child.

Presenter: Jenni Murray
Producer: Laura Northedge. Show less

Contributors

Presenter:
Jenni Murray
Interviewed Guest:
Sam Smethers
Interviewed Guest:
Helen Lewis
Interviewed Guest:
Lola Okolosie
Interviewed Guest:
Patricia Clarkson
Interviewed Guest:
Marina Benjamin
Interviewed Guest:
Lucy Tobin
Interviewed Guest:
Celia Dodd

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