Woman's Hour - 24/08/2009

With Jane Garvey. Jane talks to author Amanda Craig and the Founder of Netmums Siobhan Freegard about why boredom in children may not be such a bad thing, and whether unsupervised play is actually good for them. The England Women's Football team are due to play Italy in their first match of the UEFA European Women's Championship 2009, being held in Finland. Jane is joined by England's captain Faye White and goalkeeper Rachel Brown to discuss the team's chances and how the women's game has developed in recent years. In India, there have long been warnings that the country faces a demographic crisis because of the practice of aborting female foetuses. It was made illegal in 1994, but studies since then have consistently shown that far fewer girls are born in the country than boys. Now, research endorsed by the local government in Delhi has announced that in 2008, more girls were born in the city than boys. The government has attributed the change to a new scheme whereby parents are given a cash bonus for every female child. Jane discusses the issues and finds out whether this new scheme is proving successful. At the age of 44, and the mother of two young children, Sarah Gabriel was diagnosed with breast cancer. She has inherited a genetic mutation from her mother, who herself died of cancer. Sarah joins Jane in the studio to talk about her experience of the disease. From the Women of the Qu'ran series: listener feedback on the issue of whether men should wear tight or loose swimming shorts.