Winter Olympics; Ashling Murphy; Gender roles and parenting; Investing in female-founded companies;
Georgina Harland, Britain’s first female chef de mission & Lizzy Yarnold, Britain’s most successful Winter Olympian discuss the Winter Olympics. Who might the medal prospects be?The Winter Olympics begin on 4th February in Beijing and Team GB will be sending around 50 athletes with the hopes of bringing back a clutch of medals.
On Wednesday afternoon, 23-year-old school teacher Ashling Murphy was murdered while jogging along the banks of the Grand Canal in Tullamore, Ireland. It is believed that she was assaulted and killed by a man acting alone. The case has shocked the nation and revived concerns about women’s safety in public spaces in Ireland and the UK. We speak to Irish Times reporter Jade Wilson and veteran activist Ailbhe Smyth, who spoke at a vigil for Ashling outside Irish parliament.
In a recent interview on Woman’s Hour one guest talked about the limits having a child has placed on her and said she’d “make a better father than mother”. We explore what motherhood and fatherhood mean and the gender roles parents take on in society today. Lawyer Lucy McGrath is the biological mother of a six year old. She’s also her family’s main bread winner and known as mum. Her wife is mummy and the full time care giver.
£29.4 billion was invested into UK tech companies in 2021. A record amount. Yet female founded companies only saw 1.1% of it. Down from 2.4% in 2020. Why are female run businesses finding it so hard to get investment funding? Debbie Wasskow OBE, entrepreneur and founder of Allbright, and Samira Ann Qassim, founder of Pink Salt Ventures, explain some of the problems women founders face when starting-up businesses - including finding funding.