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Woman's Hour: International Women in Engineering Day

21/06/2019

International Women in Engineering Day

BBC Radio 4 - Woman's Hour, International Women in Engineering Day

Women in engineering, baby boomer wealth gap,  friendship expectations and summer poetry.

International Women in Engineering Day: June 23; baby boomer wealth gap for older women; expectations of friendship today; and Radio 4's Four Seasons poetry: Summer.

Sunday 23rd June is International Women in Engineering Day. We hear from three female engineers about their routes into the industry. Why despite various campaigns to attract women is it still such a male-dominated trade?  

The Resolution Foundation Think Tank studied changes in pay, housing, taxes and benefits to see if it was still true that newer generations are better off than their predecessors were. It found under-30s are spending less than that age group did 18 years ago. Over-65s' spending has risen by 37%. But they also found a huge gender wealth gap for baby boomers. While men and women have similar amounts of individual net wealth until their 50s, a huge divide opens up after that. The report finds that women in their late 60s have just over half the wealth of their male counterparts. Jenni speaks to Laura Gardiner, Research Director for The Resolution Foundation, to find out why.

Friendship in modern times: longing for closer ties in the digital age, forging close friends as family, and idealised female friendship in the media – is social media making us lonely, and do we have perhaps ever higher expectations of those real life friends we do have? How important are our friends and what expectations should we realistically have? The author Jessica Francis Kane, whose character in new book, Rules For Visiting, longs for closer ties and has high expectations of her few and distant friends; is joined by Natalie Lue of the Baggage Reclaim blog and podcast; and by friendship expert Kate Leaver, author of The Friendship Cure: Reconnecting in the Modern World and friendship columnist for Metro.

As part of Radio 4’s Four Seasons poetry we celebrate the summer solstice with the poet and academic Elizabeth-Jane Burnett. She reads ‘Preface’ from her poetry collection Swims. 

Presenter: Jenni Murray
Producer: Kirsty Starkey

Interviewed Guest: Laura Gardiner
Interviewed Guest: Naomi Climer
Interviewed Guest: Michelle Hicks
Interviewed Guest: Olivia Sweeney
Interviewed Guest: Jessica Francis Kane
Interviewed Guest: Natalie Lue
Interviewed Guest: Kate Leaver
Interviewed Guest: Elizabeth-Jane Burnett

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