21/08/2009

Synopsis

With Jenni Murray.

Why do people choose to become celibate? Some men and women may go through periods of being alone because they haven't met someone they are attracted to, but what of those who deliberately choose to eschew sex? Jenni Murray discusses the politics of celibacy with the journalist Hephzibah Anderson, who was celibate for a year, and to Dr Lesley Hall, the senior archivist at the Wellcome Library in London.

Woman's Hour talks to Dr Richard Pankhurst, whose mother Sylvia, aunt Christabel and grandmother, Emmeline, galvanised millions of women in the campaign for the vote. Jenni asks him about the famous women in his family and about the political split between his mother and his grandmother.

One of the world's most unusual orchestras is taking to the stage at the BBC Proms. The West Eastern Divan was founded a decade ago by the Israeli conductor Daniel Berenboim and the Palestinian intellectual Edward Said. It is made up of Jews and Muslims, Arabs and Israelis. Jenni is joined in the studio by Elena Cheah, who has written a book to celebrate its tenth anniversary, and Mariam Said, who now helps to run the orchestra.

Employment is falling for everyone except for women over the age of fifty. Official employment figures show that an extra eighty-six thousand women are in work - up by nearly four per cent - compared to the same period last year. Every other group shows a fall. Professor Marilyn Davidson from Manchester Business School and Keith Frost from The Age and Employment Network, talk to Jenni about why older women are bucking the trend.