Woman's Hour - 04/02/2010

With Jenni Murray. What does it mean to be a grandmother? Even though women today are having their children later, their own mothers are living longer, and are more likely to be around to have a meaningful relationship with their grandchildren. That's the territory explored by the distinguished novelist Margaret Forster in her latest book, Isa and May. As a young woman negotiates between her two grandmothers, their secrets and squabbles begin to have an impact on her own life and on who she thinks she is. Jenni meets Margaret Forster at her home to find out more. Society sells women an airbrushed, highly sexualised and narrow vision of femininity, according to the feminist Natasha Walter. In her new book, Living Dolls, she has interviewed sex workers, lap dancers and glamour models and now believes that women are facing a dangerous situation with pornography and the sex industry having moved to a culturally central position. If so many young girls' dreams stop at fame, glamour and endorsement by men, how much can this be called sexual liberation? How did the watchwords of feminism - 'choice', 'empowerment' and 'liberation' - become so quickly distorted? What price will women pay in the long term? Natasha discusses her thoughts with Jenni. Natasha Walter stays on in the studio to discuss another topic. It is one of the last social faux pas: eating out alone, the cinema for one, or going to the theatre or a concert on your own. Yet flouting it is becoming more common. It is not unusual to find people enjoying a solitary drink or meal, or even escaping on holiday with just themselves for company. But is a lone woman viewed differently to a lone man? Journalist Katharine Whitehorn and writer Natasha Walter talks to Jenni about their solitary pleasures, what women are comfortable doing on their own and the importance of choice. Recent local elections in India have for the first time reserved half of the seats for women. Jenni speaks to Baroness Shirley Williams and Neelima Khetan, chief executive of Seva Mandir, to find out how this level of representation has developed and what kind of impact it will have.