Woman's Hour

[MollieS]

Does anybody out there want to share opinions on woman's hour? I've just started listening to it and am keen to know what other women think of it.

The concept of it is interesting and they seem to have some really relevant discussions (recently they had one about pregnancy and alcohol) but I've not been listening long enough to really get to the heart of what woman's hour is all about. Do you think it is perverse to have an hour dedicated to 'female topics' ? Should they be included in the mainstream media more, such that dedicating an hour to them wouldn't be necessary? How would you improve the program or what would you change...and what do you like about it?

None of my friends listen to it. Tell me what you think!

I quite like it, men listen to it too! don;t often catch it now as it's on when I work

Woman's Hour is an oasis of calm and rational discussion in the R4 schedule. It is polite, non-shouty, engaging and interesting.

I am lead to believe that it has a lot of male listeners who appreciate it's wonderfulness.

I doubt whether some of the topics would fare very well if compressed into a 30 second news bite in some the more 'mainstream' programmes.

Did you hear the balloon debate? It was fab and I can't think where else it might fit.

I totally agree with piprabbit.

I work in a male-dominated field and was delighted to hear other women in my job (although higher up the ladder) discuss the eternal problems of work with young families etc. and less than sympathetic male colleagues.

I hope the show continues to run.

I enjoy Woman's Hour when I get chance to hear it because the topics chosen go way beyond the stereotype 'female interest subjects'. As long as there's a woman in the middle of it somewhere, it's a valid topic. And Jenni Murray is priceless, of course

"But what about 'Man's Hour'?" is the usual riposte. "Where's the equality!!?" That's easy, it's called "Radio Five Live" and it goes on for far longer than an hour.

LOL about Five Live - far too much damn sport on there in my view (I prefer Snooker over cricket, football, golf and tennis! Yet they manage to fill hours with the rubbish, and as for big athletics or international sports events {eg Olympics} - time for me to switch to Jazz FM or 1Xtra !!)

Tom Robinson did do some sort of "man's hour" show which was short-lived, on R4. (Actually they probably only managed 30 minutes before they lost the will to live.)

A 'local' station (City Talk, Liverpool) used to have 'Bloke Talk' followed by 'Kim and friends' at the weekends, and both were generally interesting. BT had a presenter (Duncan Barkes, from Sussex, but living in the area from station launch until earlier this year when station [because of low audiences] changed format from 24h Talk to 18h Music + 6h Talk (my estimates on proportions!).

Meanwhile Kim of Kim and friends seemed to be welcoming various guests {mostly self-employed, 4 holdays a year, and some artsy hairdresser guys who shared some gossip about celebrities etc}. Kim also wangled food tastings {they did some promo with top restaurants in the area, with the station giving publicity and selling 'meal for 2' vouchers at 25 pounds rather than 50 to 75 pounds that it might cost}. Kim then had a series of different cocktail samplings, then went on to try lots of wine with a specialist bring about 3 bottles in each week, but sadly she had to cut that out after a bit... as she went off to have a baby almost a year ago. She was doing the breakfast show on weekdays, too - a really good presenter, involved with charities, and friendly too.

As for WH, "non-shouty" isn't always the case as they now and then get some idiot man on (or loud woman, to be fair).

Have listened off and on for 10 years, but sometimes sleep late or have Five Live on instead - depends on topics being discussed.

Saturday 4pm is perhaps ideal 'best bits' for anyone who is out during the week, just to hear a few interviews and interesting or thought provoking topics, too.

Love Woman's Hour. Listen to it always. Dh listens too.

But, I think that it would be fascinating if there was a 'man's hour' that discussed basically similar issues.... domestic violence from a male perspective (as victims and perpetrators... not least ebcause there is a taboo for men to admit if/when they have been abused); child care issues etc and all the other stuff that women's hour discusses. Pregnancy and alcohol also.... what do men feel about it, do they feel obligated to stop drinking in support. I really DO want some of these issues mainstreamed and not seen as 'women's issues'. I think earlier in the year they had a week of discussing issues from a male perspective, and i found those were some of the best episodes yet. (Have to say... I have no idea if these issues are discussed on other radio stations from a male perspective as I do not listen to anything else.)

I actually wrote once to Radio 4 [cue no life emoticon] and suggested that they do a mirror image.. women's hour and men's hour with the exact same topics discussed.

Just twigged this is in 'In the News' rather than 'radio_addicts' and was a tiny bit puzzled.

Was there something specific that led the OP to comment here (or just unaware of radio_addicts, perhaps ) ?

(not 'getting at you' just curious, like)

MollieS - on re-reading your post I saw the "How would you improve the program or what would you change...and what do you like about it?" and instantly thought 'a BBC plant' trying to do undercover research.

Apologies, I assume that is not the case, but they might well have considered asking the questions...

Just that the BBC MessageBoards used to have one dedicated to WH, which was, apparently, very popular. So popular, in fact, that they closed it down.

They cited too much cost (for BBC moderation) because the topics sometimes got heated. It apparently (closed before I looked into the BBC MessageBoards) included lots of feedback on their programmes, and suggestions for future ones, yet the web team (or someone) decided to close it.

The Archers, by comparison, has several very busy boards, and no hint in the past of them being closed.

I resisted using the BBC boards for years, because they had daft policies like only being open for a number of hours (not 24x7) and (because they employed staff to monitor) had strict rules which some staff applied more strictly than others... unlike 99% of discussion boards where a small number of (usually) voluntary moderators act to remove hate posts, spam, and so on (and consult before banning anyone).

The moderators are often active participants (whereas on MN, apart from a few threads, one sees hardly any posts from MNHQ even if they do read a proportion of what's going on each day).

Oh yes, the other thing is the BBC messageboards had very clunky software and (perhaps because of potential number of users) seemed to have no plans to change. Then they moved to having blogs in parallel, and the impression given was that the MBs were 'old hat' and Blogs (rather like Twitter and FaceBook) would be the way they were going.

Pretty typical of media mentality, partly driven by ego (so 'friend count' on FB or 'followers' on Twitter are being used as a judgement on popularity - I bet the figures will be included in CVs for new radio jobs in future!)

I love it and my dds listen as well. The balloon debate was brilliant.

They did try to do a 'Man's Hour' several years ago. It was called something like 'In the Locker Room' and it was dire and achingly trying-too-hard.

Woman's Hour works so brilliantly because it has developed organically from its origins years ago in knitting and hoovering. Really good synthesis of female and non-gendered stuff and a haven of female-dominated journalism. The dick-swinging interview styles of the Today Programme actually make that one of dozens of Man's Hours.

Just panicked when saw this in the news topic that it was being axed.

I love it and listen most days if possible and always to the catch-up on a saturday.

But you see, that is my point about wanting a Man's Hour, Eleison. I hate the Today Programme, and hate Humphries because of the dick swinging and the fact he mistakes aggression for insight. Humphries in my opinion makes everything about HIM. I hate that the interviewers on the Today show all to often shout down their interviewees, and rarely listen... it is like they are just waiting for the interviewee to stop so they can talk themselves.

What I want to know about is what men really feel about lots of so-called women's issues. I want to hear from a man who has been a victim of rape/domestic violence about how hard it is to get treated sympathetically by the police/justice system. I want to know about how men feel about paternity leave, and how it REALLY works for them in the workplace. So, for example, pregnancy. There is alot of discussion about how pregant women become public property. (Alcohol/smoking./ even how people touch pg women) How do men feel about that? Do men feel isolated and left out when their wives are pg? Do they feel like it is all about the mother, and they have no right to express fears etc. That is the kind of stuff I would be interested in in a parallel radio programme, if you see what I mean. I feel like WH discusses so many things in a really reflective, thoughtful way, yet there is still a failure to include men and male experiences in these conversations. That does men a disservice, I think.

Oh, I never heard In the Locker room- did they try and do what I am talking about, or was it all too cliched, like the title suggests?

I think it ran for about 4 years in the early 90s. I remember listening, it wasn't too cliched - I think Tom Robinson has a slightly different perspective of things. However, I never really felt it spoke to me in the way WH does...but then again I'm not a man.

I listen to it, I think they have much more interesting topics than a lot of the mainstream media.

God I bought a copy of Cosmopolitan in desperation for something to read the other day - drawn in by free book with it - I concur with Prolesworth - women's magazines are shitorama. Even when I was young and fab and single I did not think about cocks every five minutes.

I listen to the Woman's Hour repeats at the weekend and they are good. Not like the celeb obsessed/grab it, shag it print media.

Interesting piece by Martha Kearney from its 60th anniversary - apparently cooking with whalemeat featured in the early days. I love the way it's evolved - from helping the little housewife to feminist debate to an all round great show. I adore it.

It's wonderful. It's one of the markers in my day and was a Godsend when overseas and I could listen again.

looks like Radio 5 is lauching a Men's Hour