麻豆社

On Saturday 29th March the first same sex marriage ceremonies will take place in England & Wales. For the first time, gay and lesbian people who choose to get married will have the same rights as heterosexual married couples, including the right to legally refer to their spouse as 鈥渉usband鈥� or 鈥渨ife鈥�. But, given the history of patriarchy connected with marriage, when in the past many wives were in fact seen as the property of their husbands, how comfortable will lesbians feel using the term 鈥渨ife鈥� to refer both to their partner and to themselves? Many heterosexual married couples prefer alternative terms like 鈥渙ther half鈥� or 鈥渟ignificant other鈥� 鈥� but are these terms appropriate for lesbians, or should they insist on using 鈥渨ife鈥� in order to mark the social milestone that is their marriage? Jenni speaks to former 麻豆社 Radio 4 newsreader Alice Arnold, who is currently in a civil partnership with the broadcaster Clare Balding and plans to marry in the future, and Sue Wilkinson, who married her partner Celia Kitzinger in Canada in 2003 and subsequently fought to have their marriage legally recognised in the UK.

Deborah Ellis is a Canadian author who, as a peace activist, has spent time in refugee camps in Pakistan talking to women and children who have fled the Taliban and she has turned those experiences into novels for children.聽 Her latest book, My Name is Parvana, tells the story of a young girl in post-Taliban Afghanistan and聽her struggles to survive and get an education.聽

and theatre critic Sally Stott has read thousands of scripts in a search for new talent.聽 In many of the scripts, she says,聽the female characters are badly described & characterised,聽frequently derogatory or聽incongruous and聽focus heavily on physical appearance. To discuss why it seems so hard to write a decent female character Sally Stott joins Jenni in the studio along with Farah Abushwesha, writer & film producer, founder of the .

As part of Radio 4鈥檚 聽which takes place this Saturday 29th March, five writers talk about which of their own creations is their favourite.聽Helen Fielding talks about Bridget Jones, the lead character in her bestselling novels. She explains how she wrote the character and why she (and so many readers) have such great affection for Bridget.

In 1942, the Government formed the Women鈥檚 Timber Corps. And during the war some 9,000 British women were recruited to work in forestry. They were known, unsurprisingly, as 鈥楲umberjills鈥�, and they replaced the men who鈥檇 gone to the front. Their job was to fell trees, load lorries and mill timber all over England and Scotland. Caz Graham met a former Lumberjill, Edna Holland, and Sarah Bell who now works as a forester.