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Woman's Hour: Why do Conservatives elect female leaders?

Why do Conservatives elect female leaders?

BBC Radio 4 - Woman's Hour, Why do Conservatives elect female leaders?

The Conservative Party and female leaders and a midwife on board a search and rescue ship.

Female leaders in the Conservative Party, a midwife on board a search and rescue ship in the Mediterranean, and social media reaction to Leonardo DiCaprio's latest break-up.

As the Conservative Party looks set to elect its third female leader and prime minister, it has left observers and women in other political parties wondering about the secret of their success. The Labour Party have yet to elect a female leader despite having introduced all women shortlists for the 1997 election which returned a record 101 female  Labour MPs to the House of Commons, one of whom was Fiona Mactaggart  the MP for Slough. She joins Emma Barnett alongside former cabinet minister and MP for Chipping Barnet Theresa Villiers.

This year, there have been increasing reports of refugees attempting to travel into Europe by sea, with some travelling by dinghy across the Mediterranean and across the channel into the UK. Last week, the Ocean Viking search & rescue ship rescued 466 women, children and men in 10 rescue operations within 60 hours in the Mediterranean, including two heavily pregnant women and a 3-week-old baby.  Emma is joined by Rebecca, a British midwife and medical lead on board the Ocean Viking.

Leonardo DiCaprio has been called out for only publicly dating women under the age of 25. It comes as the 47-year-old actor broke things off with his girlfriend Camila Morrone who was 22 years his junior. We discuss why women are responding to the news online with so much humour and mockery with the digital culture commentator Hannah Van-de-peer. Emma also speaks to the relationship psychologist Emma Kenny.

Helen Fields is a criminal barrister turned bestselling author. Her latest novel The Last Girl to Die follows private investigator Sadie Levesque as she investigates murder on the Isle of Mull, far off the coast of Scotland.

Presenter: Emma Barnett
Producer: Lucinda Montefiore

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