Woman's Hour - 10/12/2010

Presented by Jenni Murray. Fresh from the Jungle, Gillian McKeith will talk to Jenni about her experience! Why are so many straight women gay icons? Martin Shingler of the University of Sunderland and Freya Jarman Ivens from the University of Liverpool share their insights. Last week, Ségolène Royal, the French Socialist Party's candidate in the 2007 Presidential election, announced her intention to stand again to be the Party's presidential candidate in 2012, and in so doing is said to have broken the Party's unity pact. But why has she chosen to declare her intention to stand now? And how ready is France for a woman in the Elysée Palace? Jenni is joined by with Bénédicte Paviot, UK correspondent of France 24, and academic Dr Rainbow Murray from Queen Mary, University of London. And the lodger is back - according to research, not since the Sixties, have so many households taken in a lodger as a means of helping to make ends meet. Equally, the structure of the housing market means the demand and price to rent is fetching the highest prices for years. But is getting a lodger always a smooth solution to straitened times? And what are the rules for peaceful co-existence under the same roof? Jenni is joined by actor John Bramwell who has lived in digs all over the country and by poet, Linda Chase, who is also a landlady.