Woman's Hour - 03/02/2010

With Jenni Murray. Including: Four years ago the novelist Siri Hustvedt started shaking uncontrollably as she gave a speech at her father's memorial service. The trembling episode repeated itself, randomly, at other public events. Was this a kind of epilepsy? A panic attack? A delayed grief reaction? In her book, The Shaking Woman or A History of My Nerves, Siri attempts to discover what lies behind her curious symptoms. Forty years after the passing of the Equal Pay Act, the pay gap for women in full-time employment is over 16 per cent and the gap for part-time employment is even higher. Progress has proved painfully slow. So what needs to be done to close the gap? Nude pastels seem to be the next fashion palette, but there will be some women who will ignore that. Occasionally the uniform fashion scene of little black dresses is broken up by a splash of colour and pattern by a woman who is dressing against the tide. One such icon in the US is Iris Apfel, an 88-year-old fashion muse and self-described 'geriatric starlet'. A show of her outlandish outfits called Rare Bird of Fashion: The Irreverent Iris Apfel has been touring museums in the United States. We hear from Iris and the equally colourful Zandra Rhodes about how to embrace colour. Plus listener feedback on the older woman driver.