Beth Mead, Women and choral music, Eating disorders

Woman's Hour

Over half of female footballers book pitches, only to find they’ve been reallocated to men. With twice as many women as men considering quitting the sport because of this, Arsenal forward and England Lioness Beth Mead tells Nuala McGovern about her concerns.

A BBC investigation published today has highlighted the concerns of parents of vulnerable children sent hours away from home for urgent eating disorder treatment. They say there isn’t enough specialist mental health hospital care available locally on the NHS and they want an end to the postcode lottery. We hear from Donna whose daughter Annie had to be based far from her family and BBC Yorkshire investigations journalist Louise Fewster also joins Nuala.

Mexican author and academic Cristina Rivera Garza has just won a Pulitzer Prize for her book about her sister, who was murdered in 1990. It’s called Liliana’s Invincible Summer: A Sister’s Search for Justice. Cristina joins Nuala to explain why she feels she wrote it with, not about, her sister, whose name and image are now carried at demonstrations against gender violence.

How has the role of women in choral music changed? With girls as well as boys now singing in cathedral choirs and more music by female composers being commissioned and performed, women’s voices are becoming increasingly prominent. Composer Cecilia McDowell and singer Carris Jones talk about championing and celebrating women in this traditionally male world.