As the conflict continues in Ukraine, we've seen footage of predominately women and children fleeing the country. But that is just one aspect of this conflict. There are also many women who have stayed in Ukraine and signed up to fight. Back in December, Ukraine's Ministry of Defence expanded the number of women who are eligible for mandatory service in the armed forces. They will be joining the 57,000 or so women, aged 18 to 60, already serving. But is there an appetite for more women to sign up? And what roles are they likely to play? Jessica Creighton hears from Lesia Vasylenko, a Ukrainian MP who describes her new reality of being trained to use an assault rifle to defend her family and her country and Dr. Olesya Khromeychuk, Director of the Ukrainian Institute, London.
President Joe Biden has nominated Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, calling her "one of the nation's brightest legal minds". She will be the first black woman to serve in the court's 232-year history if confirmed and would mean four women may sit together on the nine-member court for the first time. Kimberly Peeler-Allen the co-founder of Higher Heights, an organisation that builds the collective political power of Black women, discusses the significance of her nomination.
If the Mona Lisa could speak what would she say? A new novel by Natasha Solomons gives voice to the painting and lets her tell her own story. Natasha and the Da Vinci expert Professor Martin Kemp join Jessica.
What does it mean to be a “dangerous woman”? That is something Dr Jo Shaw of the University of Edinburgh has been studying and has led to a new book with fifty essays from different women reflecting on the topic from around the world. The idea that women are dangerous individually or collectively permeates many historical periods, cultures and areas of contemporary life. It has been used to describe the Labour MP and human rights activist Shami Chakrabarti, and Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who was labelled by the Daily Mail as “the most dangerous woman in the UK”. But what lies behind this label and what does it say about the power dynamics with which women live with today? Jessica speaks to Dr Jo Shaw of the University of Edinburgh and the journalist Bidisha, whose essay is part of the collection.