Start the Week Folgen

On Start the Week Anne McElvoy explores the state of feminism today. It's fifty years since Betty Friedan's landmark book, The Feminine Mystique, questioned the role of women in society. Anne McElvoy discusses that role today with the Living Dolls author, Natasha Walter, the proponent of erotic capital Catherine Hakim, the radical feminist Finn Mackay and the journalist and academic Shereen El Feki who has been looking at the changing sexual attitudes and behaviour in the Arab world.This programme will be followed by a phone-in edition of Woman's Hour on feminism. If you would like to take part in the programme you can email now via the Woman's Hour website or phone from 0800 on Monday 4th March on 03700 100 444.Producer: Katy Hickman.

On Start the Week Bridget Kendall discusses the role and future of the Commonwealth. As its Secretary-General at the turn of the century, Sir Don McKinnon reveals its inner workings. But the journalist Frances Harrison is critical of the organisation for failing to challenge human rights abuses. The MP Kwasi Kwarteng questions whether the Commonwealth can ever shed the baggage of Empire, and Sir Ronald Sanders asks if it can survive the rise of China. Producer: Katy Hickman.

On Start the Week Lisa Jardine discusses how complex maths has broken free of the laboratory and now influences every aspect of our lives. James Owen Weatherall applauds the take-over of the financial world by physicists, Marcus du Sautoy revels in the numbers and Kenneth Cukier explores how big data will change everything from disease control to bargain buys. But the cultural commentator Tiffany Jenkins sounds a note of caution about a world where everything is measurable.Producer: Katy Hickman.