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BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

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Woman's Hour

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Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.

BBC Radio 4 LW

Jenni Murray

Joanna Moorhead

Alison Phillips

Jessica Swale

Shaleem Grant

Anne-Marie Imafidon

Emma LE Rees

Rebecca Wood

Woman's Hour: Women in Science; Jessica Swale; Vatican PR

Factual

Women in Science; Jessica Swale; Vatican PR

29/08/2013

BBC Radio 4 - Woman's Hour, Women in Science; Jessica Swale; Vatican PR

Getting women into science, and the latest from the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan.

Encouraging women to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and maths; the signficance of the appointment of a female PR to a Vatican commission. Jenni Murray presents.

Only 13% of all jobs in Science Technology Engineering and Maths (STEM) in the UK are occupied by women. As many students across the country take in their exam results and head to university we talk to Shaleem Grant, soon-to-be student and Anne-Marie Imafidon founder of 'Stemettes' an organisation trying to encourage women to pursue careers in the sciences.

With international, military intervention into Syria looking more and more likely by the hour Jenni speaks to Alison Phillips, editor of the Sunday Mirror, currently in Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan, home to 130,000 Syrian refugees, half of them under 18 years old.

We look at how throughout our cultural history, women's sexual organs have often been demonised and rendered obscene. So what does this mean for women's identities and how is this issue addressed in literature and culture?

Why the appointment of a 30 year old woman PR consultant to a high profile Vatican commission is causing quite a stir in Rome. So how significant is her appointment and are attitudes to women changing under Pope Francis?

And Jessica Swale makes her play-writing debut at the Globe with Blue Stockings. Set in and around Girton College, Cambridge in the 1890s - it's the story of four young women fighting to be allowed to graduate along with their male counterparts. She joins Jenni to discuss her inspiration for the play and why she thinks the issues it raises are as relevant today as they were when it was first produced.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

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