On 7 October 1947, Woman’s Hour celebrated its first birthday. One of the invited guests was the Countess of Albemarle, Chairman of the National Federation of Women's Institutes. Offering her congratulations to the programme she spoke about how a steadily increasing number of her were getting the ‘two o’clock’ habit (until 1991, Woman’s Hour was broadcast at 2pm). ‘It makes a welcome pause in the busy day of a countrywoman’ she explained. ‘By then, she’s done anything up to six hours of manual labour, soon there will be chickens to feed, the children to fetch from school, the evening meal to prepare, but from two to three she can relax a bit; and if she’s wise, she’ll put her legs up, turn on her wireless and listen in’.
Woman’s Hour loves to commemorate its birthdays and with seventy-five years’ worth of celebrations under its belt, these anniversary broadcasts can offer a fascinating insight into how the programme - and women’s lives - have changed.
In its early existence, each ing year was commemorated. How fascinating it would be to be able to hear the 1949 programme which imagined how a broadcast in 1849 might have sounded. The first major celebration, however, came in April 1950 when a big splash was made for the 1000th edition.
Lighter Touch
A small extract of this programme does exist, a clip of ‘Four Brave Husbands’ in conversation with Evelyn Gibbs, who was then the editor of Woman’s Hour. Their comments may be unsavoury to us today but, at the time, to hear men engaging with personal and domestic issues was a rarity.
The interview also shows how the programme, which majored on matters that affected women in the home such as health, bringing up children, citizenship and household efficiency, could also have a lighter touch.
By the tenth anniversary, the celebrations lasted for a week - Woman’s Hour’s birthdays have always been a time to draw attention to the programme. The actual anniversary fell on a Sunday, the day that the weekend edition, Home for the Day, was broadcast (Home for the Day had been introduced in 1953 as a way of enabling working women to listen.)
On this particular Sunday, as part of the birthday commemorations, listeners would have been treated to a candid interview given by Nancy Astor MP about her political life. With its impressive audience of around 4 million at this time, Woman’s Hour was well placed to tempt female grandees to the airwaves.
Grandees
On this particular Sunday, as part of the birthday commemorations, listeners would have been treated to a candid interview given by Nancy Astor MP about her political life. With its impressive audience of around 4 million at this time, Woman’s Hour was well placed to tempt female grandees to the airwaves. The interview was repeated on the programme in 2000.
Whilst the twentieth anniversary was a low-key affair, in 1967, twenty-one years was marked with a ‘Birthday Fortnight’, again a chance to gain maximum publicity and perhaps to entice new, younger listeners to tune in. There were items on choosing to marry – or not, whether the age of majority should be lowered from eighteen to twenty-one and a discussion on the war in Vietnam.
These were all discussions that would have presented the programme as modern and forward looking, attempting to dispel the stuffy, old-fashioned image it often had.
Young Ideas
Anniversaries often stimulate novel ideas and on its twenty-fifth birthday in 1971, Woman’s Hour took the opportunity to celebrate young people who were aged twenty-five and under. Although the actual broadcast was somewhat different to what is shown here, (for instance the young celebrities interviewed were the actor, Jenny Agutter; the Chairman of the Young Liberals, Peter Hain and the novelist Nik Cohn) this internal document gives an insight into the planning stage of the programme.
A similar age-related theme ran through the thirtieth birthday edition in 1976. As Radio Times put it, ‘considering the age of thirty’, was it ‘one of life's landmarks? the end of youth? the age when a girl becomes a woman? There was also a strong listener presence in the programme.
Listeners
Woman’s Hour has always had an incredibly close relationship with its audience and to mark thirty years, listeners were encouraged to write in with their memories of early broadcasts (which were then read out by of the programme team) as well as being invited to speak (as pre-recorded extracts) about the many ways in which the show had impacted on their lives.
Looking Back
It wasn’t just listeners who reminisced.
A frequent aspect of Woman’s Hour’s birthday shows was hearing from those who had long associations with the programme. So, for example, the 1967 anniversary programmes, as well as broadcasting a range of topical items, also invited the four previous presenters of the programme: Joan Griffiths, Jean Metcalfe, Olive Shapley and Alan Ivimey (yes, the first presenter was a man), to reflect on their experiences of the role and how it had changed.
This was also a key feature of the 1986 birthday programme with Sue McGregor looking back over four decades with guests who included Olive Shapley.
Golden Anniversary
For the fiftieth anniversary, the commemorations hit new heights. In 1996, only a handful of BBC programmes had reached this milestone, so it was fitting that the focus was on a larger scale.
One of the initiatives was the Department of Health-ed ‘Best of Health Bus’, which toured the UK; there was a listener vote on the top fifty ‘Woman’s Hour Men’; there was a Woman’s Hour pack of cards that celebrated women from history.
The birthday programme itself came ‘live’ from the Radio Theatre at Broadcasting House, where an audience of specially invited listeners were entertained by a Fiftieth Anniversary Quiz, hosted by Jenni Murray.
The two teams were made up of individuals then in the public eye, and who were themselves fifty years old: the MPs Edwina Currie and Clare Short, the actor Diana Quick, the broadcaster Janet Street-Porter, the writer Marina Warner and the Director of the National Theatre Genista Mcintosh.
Helen Mirren, also then aged fifty, posed for the cover of Radio Times.
Social Survey
Similarly, in 2006, for the actual sixtieth birthday broadcast there was a glamorous show of stars but alongside celebrity, Woman’s Hour used this anniversary year as an opportunity to commission a survey into the lives of British women – and men – with questions on sex and relationships, work, parenting and caring, and living arrangements.
One of the revelations presented during the birthday week was that most respondents showed a desire to settle down in their twenties, to have families before they reached thirty and to remain committed to one partner for life, sentiments that could easily have been expressed sixty years earlier.
Business as Usual
The seventieth anniversary was less ostentatious. There was a nod to Woman’s Hour’s past with a delve into the archives as well as the launch of a specially curated playlist of 70 tracks by 70 women artists, but otherwise the programme reflected topics of the day: a discrimination case brought against an airline who had refused to let two female cabin crew work shorter shifts while breastfeeding; an actor on her new play; a ballet company for dancers of black and Asian descent.
Message from the Queen
And now Woman’s Hour is seventy-five, an occasion marked at the start of this year with a message from the Queen:
As you celebrate your 75th year, it is with great pleasure that I send my best wishes to the listeners and all those associated with Woman's Hour. During this time, you have witnessed and played a significant part in the evolving role of women across society, both here and around the world. In this notable anniversary year, I wish you continued success in your important work as a friend, guide and advocate to women everywhere.
In true Woman’s Hour style, a special programme is planned for the anniversary day including interviews with Baroness Hale and Di Gayford who, aged 104, was one of the programme’s first producers.
This wealth of birthday broadcasts, then, shows how the issues and interests that affect women have both changed immeasurably and remained the same. And one thing that certainly has not changed is the desire to celebrate.
Written by Dr. Kate Murphy, Visiting Fellow at Bournemouth University. She is a historian of women and the BBC and is a former producer of Woman’s Hour.
Share your Memories
What has Doctor Who meant to you over the years? Has the programme been exciting and entertaining, or maybe a constant friend? Which episodes or Doctors do you most? What would you like to see more or less of in the coming series?
Your memories
I being 12 and listening to the radio with my dad. Women's Hour were discussing sex toys, particularly ones that vibrate. My father was visibly struggling with the decision to turn it off out of embarrassment, or to keep it on, so as to his little feminist daughter.
Please talk about issues facing our trans sisters, without the unnecessary input of "concerned" cis feminists. Some cis feminists like myself are completely and unflinchingly pro trans rights.
Please get Shon Faye on the show to speak about her new book, The Transgender Issue.
Anna Lambert, Farnborough Hampshire.
Have women done so well? I wrote a letter (hard copy with an envelope) to Woman's Hour in 1983 following an iterm on the new design of the disposable nappy. As a of the same 12 towelling nappies on my 2nd child after my first in 1977 I was shocked, standing in my local (Boots) store to realise that there was a whole aisle devoted to those "modern" disposable items. My lightbulb moment was that this was just one aisle in one town, in one country. My letter highlighted the awfulness of the monstrous "malodourous piles of plastic and paper" that the disposable nappy trend was causing and that we are leaving this problem to be dealt with by these very dear babies we are using them on. So my comment is that I am depressed that we women have "demanded" an item to make our lives easier and thus created horrendous landfill hills for our indulgence because we couldn't be bothered to rinse and sluice and hang on the line an utterly recyclable terry nappy. So Woman's Hour heard my comment and broadcasted it 38 yrs ago but it had no impact at all. Women today - need to get our heads around acknowledging and fixing this awful blind-spot we have with regards the landfill issue we cause. (I had 3 children and worked part and full time throughout. I am proud that I would taker 4 nappies on holidays and these were brought home ... to be used as dusters and mops for 20 years after my 3rd became potty trained)
Theresa Hughes, Perthshire, Scotland.
To answer Theresa Hughes' comment above - by 'women' did you mean 'parents'? Or in your view is the malodorous issues of nappies (recyclable or not) purely a woman's problem?.... :-)
Catherine Blain, Baildon, West Yorkshire
BBC and conditions
We aim to read all of your emails but due to the numbers we receive each day it is not always possible to reply to everyone individually.
In some cases your images or audio may be used on BBC output.
If we use your material on BBC programmes or online we will publish your name as you provide it (unless you ask us not to) but we will never publish your email address.
If you are happy to be ed by a BBC journalist please leave a telephone number that we can you on. In some cases a selection of your comments will be published, displaying your name as you provide it and location, unless you state otherwise. Your details will never be published. When sending us pictures, video or eyewitness s at no time should you endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe any laws.
Please ensure you have read the and conditions.
