logo
episode-header-image
Apr 2021
12m 48s

The women who reclaimed the night

Bbc World Service
About this episode

How women in the North of England took to the streets in the late 1970s to protest against a serial killer dubbed the Yorkshire Ripper. Police advised them to stay indoors to avoid being attacked but the feminist protestors wanted greater protection for women and girls. Rebecca Kesby has been hearing from Al Garthwaite one of the organisers of Britain's first "Reclaim the Night" march.

Photo: women taking part in a Reclaim the Night march. Credit: BBC

Up next
Apr 2025
The Cu Chi tunnels of the Vietnam War
During the Vietnam War, North Vietnamese VietCong guerrillas built a vast network of tunnels in the south of the country as part of the insurgency against the South Vietnamese government and their American allies. The tunnel network was a key base and shelter for the North Vietna ... Show More
9m 43s
Aug 28
The hijacking of Pan Am Flight 73
On the 5 September 1986, hijackers took over a Pan-American Airways flight during a stop-over at Karachi Airport in Pakistan. The armed Palestinian terrorists wanted to fly the plane to Cyprus and Israel, to free members of their organisation who were jailed there. But, after the ... Show More
10m 45s
Apr 2026
The world's first perfume archive
On 26 April 1990, the world's first perfume archive opened in Versailles, France.The idea behind L'Osmothèque was to create a collection of scents and preserve their memory.Perfumer Jean Claude Ellena was one of the team who created it.He speaks to Jen Dale about how L'Osmothèque ... Show More
10m 6s
Recommended Episodes
Apr 2021
The women who reclaimed the night
<p>We hear from the women who started "Reclaim the Night" marches in the north of England in 1977 - a time when a serial killer nicknamed the Yorkshire Ripper was murdering women. The women felt police were policing their behaviour rather than that of men by instructing them to s ... Show More
49m 45s
Jun 2014
The Women of the Arab Spring: Part Two
Mona Eltahawey visits her home country of Egypt where women, who stood side-by-side with men during the protests, now fear to walk the streets without being assaulted. Mona hears from the women who are taking matters into their own hands, standing up to sexual harassers and sayin ... Show More
27m 3s
Apr 2024
The Lady Doth Protest Too Much *TEASER*
The ladies discuss the campus Palestine protests, the second guy to self-immolate, right wing women, Harvey Weinstein's overturned conviction, and the Will Stancil phenomenon. 
2m 5s
Oct 2022
Women taking a stand
<p>A collection of Witness History episodes, this week focusing on global events where women have taken a stand for equality from Sudan to Iran and Australia. In Iran in 1979, Islamic rules about how women dressed were just one of the issues women objected to during the Iranian ... Show More
51m 25s
Jan 2020
Everybody Knows Somebody
In the mid-1980's a woman who didn't consider herself a feminist was asked to solve perhaps the biggest problem women face. How she and a small group of people seized on that rare moment and fought back in the hopes that something could finally be done.See pcm.adswizz.com for inf ... Show More
57m 34s
Jan 2021
Outside/In: Everybody Knows Somebody
In the mid-1980's a woman who didn't consider herself a feminist was asked to solve perhaps the biggest problem women face. How she and a small group of people seized on that rare moment and fought back in the hopes that something could finally be done.See pcm.adswizz.com for inf ... Show More
57m 55s
Oct 2021
The Greenham Common women's peace camp
<p>The anti-nuclear weapons protest began in 1981 and lasted nineteen years. Also the first transgender priest in the Church of England, WW2 Polish refugees in Africa, plus why lesbian mothers caused such a stir in the 1970s and was the untimely death of Mozambique's President S ... Show More
50m 12s
Jan 2021
The Ripper
It was the late 1970s. A serial killer known as the Yorkshire Ripper cast a dark shadow over the lives of women across England. Over a span of five years, thirteen women were dead and the police seemed incapable of catching the murderer. No one felt safe – and every man was a sus ... Show More
42m 35s
Sep 2021
Weekend Woman's Hour: Greenham Common, 'Girlboss' & the magic of Mirrors
Forty years ago a campaign group called Women for Life on Earth marched from Cardiff to the Greenham Common RAF Base in Berkshire to protest against the British government allowing US nuclear missiles on British Soil. We hear from two women Rebecca Mordan, co-author of Out of the ... Show More
55m 16s
Jun 2014
The Women of the Arab Spring
Meet the women who are trying to be heard. Egyptian journalist Mona Eltahawy meets those who pushed through legislation enshrining gender equality in Tunisia - and asks what will it take to make the government repeal the law in Jordan that allows rapists to marry their victims. 
27m 1s