Woman's Hour - 24/04/2009

Presented by Jenni Murray. Many a girl growing up in the 1970s wanted to be The Bionic Woman. Jamie Somers, aka Lindsay Wagner, survived Bigfoot, a raging army of Fem-bots and swamps of quicksand using her bionic power and specially enhanced hearing. The show made her an international star at just 22 and she went on to become “Queen of the television movies” during the 1980s. The powers Lindsay Wagner now uses are therapeutic and she’s in Britain to lead a series of workshops for her self-help therapy, "Quiet the Mind & Open the Heart", which promotes spirituality and meditation. Who should take on the job of preventing teenage pregnancy – boys or girls? We might say both – but isn’t it still true that the one left holding the baby, is the one who has to take on the bulk of the responsibility? Is it fair to expect girls to take the lead on contraception and how do we engage young men? Jenni is joined by author Daisy Goodwin and by Sheffield GP, Mark Houghton to discuss the issues. This weekend, Gina Little will be running her 26th London Marathon. At the age of 64, you might think that she would find it something of a challenge but as Gina usually runs at least one marathon every week, she’s fairly confident that it will only take her four hours – a good time for any amateur runner, let alone someone on the verge of collecting their pension. Gina joins Jenni to talk about her passion for running and why she particularly enjoys tackling ultra-marathons like the 56 mile Comrades Marathon in South Africa. A hundred years ago the campaign to secure women the vote took a new and dangerous turn. In 1909 the imprisoned suffragette, Marion Dunlop, refused to eat. Soon afterwards other jailed women did the same – the great suffrage hunger strikes had begun. The authorities decided to intervene and the picture of women being held down and force fed became a powerful image of the campaign. One of those who took part was Alice Hawkins, a shoe machinist from Leicestershire. Her family have one of the best collections of suffrage memorabilia in Britain. They know a great deal about what she did - if a woman was imprisoned, her political activities are far easier to trace. Nicola Swords visited the Women’s Library to find out how you might track down a radical relative, and spoke to Alice’s descendents including Pat Malone and Joan Nelson. Including drama: Lady Audley's Secret.