Rachel Stevens of S Club, The motherhood penalty, Interracial marriage in the United States, Sexual assault during therapy

Woman's Hour

Rachel Stevens was one of the founding members of S Club 7, the pop band that took the world by storm in the early 2000s. She joins Anita to talk about her memoir Finding my voice: A story of strength, belief and S Club, which covers her time in the hit-making band, her solo career and what it's been like being in the public eye.

Anita is joined by Ella Janneh who has won a civil case against her former therapist, over claims he raped her during a therapy session at his clinic in London. She has been awarded more than £200,000 in damages. A day after the incident in 2016, she went to the Metropolitan Police, but the case was dropped two years later. Ella explains why she decided to pursue a civil case and how she’s been affected.

Two new studies from Scandinavia suggest that having children doesn’t harm women’s pay, at least not in the long run. Christian Odendahl, the European economics editor at The Economist, talks Anita through the findings of the new research into the “motherhood penalty.”

For over a century, many Americans believed that interracial marriage was illegitimate and until the late 1960s, the American legal system supported that belief. Wedding Band: A Love/Hate Story in Black and White is a play written in the 1960s that explores the impact of these laws. Anita is joined by Monique Touko, the director of a new production of the play, and American historian Dr Leni Sorensen who had a black father and white mother in 1940s California.

Presenter: Anita Rani Producer: Olivia Skinner