Woman's Hour - 10/02/2026

Episode Date: February 10, 2026

Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.

Hello, this is Neu La McGovern, and you're listening to The Woman's Hour podcast. Hello and welcome. Data published by a charity in England says that millions of women only have access to one round of IVF on the NHS instead of the recommended three. We're going to hear what they found. Also, it was heart-stopping stuff to watch the British snowboarder Mia Brooks last night. Some are dubbing yesterday, tragic Monday for Team GB. but Mia was nothing short of superb coming in fourth. If she had succeeded with her most audacious trick that she had never attempted before on snow,

she would have won gold. Now that didn't happen, but it hasn't stuffed the accolades and the excitement for her future. And I'm wondering if you have a story to share about something you missed out on, but in fact it was the making of you, a promotion, a relationship, a certain education, what would have been your gold medal?

And what happened when you didn't get it? Well, you can text the program, the number is 844-844 on social media where at BBC Women's Hour, or you can email us through our website. For a WhatsApp message or a voice note, the number is 0-3-700-100-444. I'm very excited to say. I'm going to be speaking to me as mum Vicky in just a moment. Also, sex for the over-50s. Age UK wants to get people talking about sex as we age, so we're going to and we're going to hear why that is important this hour. And did you know that half of the samurai class were women? That is just one of the fascinating facts I learned at a new exhibit

on at the British Museum in London right now. We're going to learn more about their key role in Japan. But, you know, I heard this line yesterday while watching the Winter Olympics and it said, she's wielding that snowboard like a samurai warrior. Well, with that, let us turn to Team GV's Mia Brooks, an amazing performance, as I mentioned. Fourth in the women's snowboard, big air final. You know, that really doesn't describe her fearlessness

or her athleticism. She's 19 years old. She was hoping to become Gritten's first gold medalist on snow. She went for, if you're with us yesterday, you'll be a bit more o'fay with these terms. A backside 1620 trick, so featuring four and a half rotations. And she landed before she had slightly over-rotated,

just her heel edge caught in the snow. Let's bring in Vicky Brooks, who must be so incredibly proud as she speaks to us from her camper van in Lavinio, which is close to the Olympic venue. Vicki, good to have you with us. Good morning. How are you? How are you? Yeah, tired. And excuse me if my voice is croaky from all the screaming and excitement last night. I think that's allowed.

I mean, while I was watching your daughter spinning through the air, like a catapult, I was wondering, I wonder how. a mum would feel. So tell me, what was it like? Terrifying. It was amazing. Yeah, I've just been out here watching her, you know, cheering her on. It was incredible. The atmosphere was unbelievable and real.

It was just amazing for myself and my husband, me as Dad, Nigel, to be stood there, seeing all the crowds going mad. And I'm sure the biggest crowd was for GB, the flags. And it was, I just didn't know what to film, what to look at. It was just incredible. And you also have to think, Fickey, of people like me up and down the country that were also clutching onto their chests while watching her. I mean, we're in a bubble here at the moment, so we're not seen any news.

Obviously, we're in the motorhome, so our Wi-Fi is limited. We're not seeing the newslines. We're not seeing anything on the TV. But people just keep messaging, obviously, and there's pictures here and there's videos here. And yeah, we're just in this bubble and not actually realizing what's going on, I don't think. I think it's going to be so exciting when you do break through that bubble

and see that wave of love for her. Did you have any idea that she was going to go for it? This 16, as we're calling it, a much more difficult maneuver. Really, I suppose, that she didn't know how it might go. Yeah, I mean, the jump here, to people that don't really understand, the jump here actually isn't that big.

It's huge. but in comparison to some of the jumps that they've been hitting with World Cups and things, it wasn't allowing people. Even the lads a few days ago weren't doing their biggest tricks, you know, the 21s and things. So we had a feeling that the girls weren't going to be able to push more than a 14, which Meera obviously had. And she came down after run two and we were like, go again, go again, and maybe polish up the 14 or, you know, and Dad shouted, maybe try the 16.

And she just went, no, there was glimpses. There's just something in her eyes. and I said she's going to go for her. I just have a feeling. And she has such good rotation and rip on her spins. It was like if anyone was going to have a swing at it, it was going to be mere. And she did.

It was unreal. I also was reading this morning, because you know, you try and put yourself, because you know you're never going to be, in their shoes, in their boots, so to speak. But I was reading that she, you know,

has the music blaring in her headphones as she is heading down that slope. You are a snowboarder, I know, as well as is Dad Nigel. What does it feel like? It's just incredible. I mean, she just loves snowboarding. She loves music. The music's the big thing.

She's mad on rock bands, heavy metal. If the music's right, if she's feeling good, who knows what's going to happen. But we just love snowboarding as a family. and the fact that we're here now is just the icing on the top. But the main thing is that we just go snowboarding and have fun and see what happens in the future. I mean, part of her fearlessness that I mentioned there as well,

there's a real risk, right? At times she is upside down with the snow closer to her head, shall we say, than her feet. Do you talk about risk or how is that part of the conversation? I'm just talking about as a family of snowboarders? no we never really talk about that we try you know we try not to obviously we all know it's there and she's had a you know a few moments in a time but it's something we don't discuss we just want to put that negativity there and you know that upset there or she's just so good

and she knows what her limits are she's not you know she doesn't just throw things she knows if she's doing something she's pretty confident she's 99% sure that it's going to come to her feet so we trust that now we can see that in her and her. her so it's not just a hook and hope, it's calculated and we know that if she's going to go for something, she's confident that it's going to land. How lovely, that feeling of trust in her body. That's incredible. But I believe that obviously you don't become so close gold medalist overnight, that this has been

really something that you've been doing with me since she was a little girl. You're in your camper van now, probably a different camper van 10, 15 years ago. yeah we've obviously we've been on this journey since she was well because it's our passion also so from a baby we've we introduced her to snowboarding and we've always obviously to be able to do that we've always travelled in our motor home I've obviously travelled with me her since since a baby until turning 18 last year and so we've just always been involved in such a huge amount of her journey this year's been a little more challenging she turned 18 and then went on this other you know on our own program, so to speak.

But we're always there. We're always in the background. And yeah, it's just amazing to be here and to share this experience with this last few weeks. And what an experience? You know, watching as well, the camaraderie between the women

was really heartwarming as well. You know, they were right there. Even if they knew they had just been beaten, for example, by somebody, by another woman, they would be the first to go forward and congratulate them. Can you explain that? But it's not actually, according to me as well, about the medal, but sometimes about how far you can push yourself and further the sport.

For sure. I mean, over the years, when they're younger and, you know, they're trying to get to this point of the career, it's a little, it's not as pleasant. You know, you get the soccer parents and things. We've experienced all of that. But once they get to this level, it's just beautiful. The girls are so, they're obviously doing such crazy things up there. you know, the big tricks,

they're just so supportive of one another and they're understanding each other and what they're all putting themselves through. So if somebody lands something new or bigger or whatever the result, they're all, as you could see with Mia last night, they're just so happy for one another. And obviously disappointed themselves,

but they never let that show. And if they do, it doesn't matter. Have a cry, have a hug, move on to the next and just support one another. It's incredible. What's it like being a girl? or a woman within a snowboarding world? It's fine now.

I think obviously I've been riding for nearly 30 years. I was probably one of every hundred blokes. There was just never any women snowboarding in the 90s, really. But I'd say there's 50-50 now. Really? I'd think, yeah, I'd say so, yeah, definitely. And the boys are just so, well, the guys are just so lovely to the ladies and, yeah, so supportive.

and the gap's closing. It's so excited. The lady's now pushing to what the lads have got, maybe a rotation or two less. And the rails and things that they do are, they're unreal, unbelievable. I was wondering that because, of course, we are often physically smaller, not always, but can be.

But I was wondering what our physicality means for the sport. For example, on a rotation, doesn't make a difference if you've got hips and the butt, for example, compared to a guy. Yeah, I don't think that really, I think as long as they're doing the gym work, their acro and things like that, and a lot of its mindset, I'm 100%

I'm convinced if they believe, if they believe and the people around them believe and put that in them and say, you know, this is possible, you've got this, they've got it, anything's achievable, and we can see it in me, we can see from whether we're at the top of a course, whether over the years,

or whether we see it on a TV screen now, you see it in her eyes, you see it in her body language and you're just like, she's on. You know it's going to happen. I saw that last night. I saw the hesitation on Run 3 as she stood there and you're like, is she going to drop normal or is she going to drop Cab, you know, the opposite direction? And we were all like, the fact that she hesitated, we were like, she's on.

She's going to do it. How totally exciting. It's all in the mind. It's all in the mind. All in the mind. But, you know, she's 19 and she has this incredible, resilient mindset. some of her other competitors there in their mid-30s, for example. It's incredible.

You know, she has, she's going to have hopefully this most fantastic, long a career ahead of her and we don't know what she might achieve. How does that feel? Yeah, and we've never pushed competition. It doesn't have to be everything now. I mean, you know, some sports, you've got to be competitive to succeed. It's not like that within snow sports, within exercise. within extreme sports.

There's other opportunities. There's travelling with sponsors to film, to do projects. Yeah, the results are great and having the medals are great. But it's not everything. And Mia knows that. And she's got so much more to offer outside of competition with the brands that she's got around and now supporting her. It's really exciting.

It is really exciting. Will you thank Mia from all of us for giving us an incredibly exciting 630pm evening in the UK? and best of luck with the rest of the Olympics. Have an absolute ball. We'll go again next week, hopefully. Absolutely. Vicki Brooks, thank you very much for joining us.

No worries. Thanks a lot. If you want to get in touch, it's 84844. Sex after 50. Let me see. Surprised and saddened that this needs to be a topic of discussion. I myself only really began a proper sex life in my 50s and had the best orgasms in my early 60s. Life goes on.

Here's another talking about what did you miss out on. I have fantastic as Vicky with her daughter, Mia. Jasmine here. I missed down on my offer to study at Cambridge for my undergraduate degree. I could never finish exams with my then-undiagnosed ADHD. At Edinburgh, my second choice, I fell in love with the city and my partner, Leo. Now we've been together for six years and both ended up in Cambridge for our PhDs. So I'm taking calls on all of those.

Listener messages, get in touch. 84844 or of course at BBC Woman's Hour is another way to get in touch. I want to move next, however, to a story that has some explicit details. A musician who sent lewd images of himself to two women he had never met has been given a 12-month suspended sentence for cyber flashing. 46-year-old Mangunnery, who has toured the world throughout his career, targeted his victims sending them unsolicited images of his genitals and videos of him masturbating.

Now, the scale of his offending has been revealed by a BBC investigation. Let us hear more from the BBC's Midlands investigation. Senior Reporter, Nicola Goodwin. Thank you, Nicola for coming back to us on Women's Hour. You've been following the case of Ben Gunnery for some time. Can you explain this latest court case and what happened at the sentencing yesterday? Yeah, so this is the third sentencing he's had in four years

and it was for sending those images that you described to two women, one of which is Eliza Carthy, very well-known folk musician, the doion of folk music in the UK, and the other is a woman from Scotland, and another musician that we're calling Kate. And they both came forward and reported to their respective police forces after seeing a BBC investigation that I did last year with another musician, a woman called Anna from the Midlands,

who's also waived her right to anonymity. And the similarities between the cases were so many. Ben Gunnery targeted them all on social media. He was sending them messages, videos, photos via the messenger app. And in the case of Eliza, he also sent her video. of him engaged in sexual activity with other women. Now, he was sentenced yesterday, as you said. He was given six months for the crime against Eliza,

six months for the crime against Kate. That was suspended for two years. And he was also put on the sex offenders register for 10 years. And this is crucial. He was given a sexual harm prevention order, and it's the first time I've known this happen. And that is that he can only have one mobile phone and another computer device capable of going on the internet.

He cannot delete any history, and he has to hand those devices to police. at any time that he's requested to do so. That sexual harm prevention order will last for five years. Right. Let's talk about it as a criminal offence, cyber flashing. This is in England and Wales. It became a criminal offence in 2024.

What penalties can they face? You talk about some of the specifics with this case. They can go to prison. So this is a suspended prison sentence. And you could go up to prison if the judge decided to sentence you to that, to up to two years, but it's a new crime, and that's crucial. As you say, it's only been a crime since January of 2024. And the reason that it was made a specific crime, before then, if you did do this,

the victim survivors would have to prove that sending the images had had an impact on them. And it was under the Sex Offenders Act and also under the Online Safety Act. But this new crime is the person sending the images, and the keyword is unrequested. That is the change in law. And what academics and police were asking for was it to be made a specific crime so they could look at the data? And the data is quite stark. Since Jan 2024, 4,708 offences have been reported to the police, 334 prosecutions and as of yesterday, 180 convictions. And out today is the biggest study ever done intersexual exposure in the UK.

It's been done by Professor Vera Gray, Professor Claire McGlynn, and the College of Police. and the stats in there are quite stark. 30% of women in their lifetime will receive such images. For young women, age 25 and under, 50% of them so far have received such images. And so with this case, with Mr. Gunnery, it's not the first time he's been in court over it. You mentioned the victim Anna Downs and also Eliza, the other woman involved in this case, but never met him. Can you tell us a little bit more?

Yes, so Anna had met Ben Gunnery once. All the women are musicians and they've been playing next to each other in a gig. Once they'd met, they then communicated afterwards and before the gig about, you know, the arrangement for playing and afterwards about when they were going to get paid. And then as Anna describes so well, and you can read all this in the news online article,

then the messages started to change. And they were images of himself from the waist up without a shirt on and she thought oh crikey then late at night she woke up to find a stream of deleted messages that happened repeatedly and then one morning early hours she couldn't sleep and unfortunately

she saw the images she blocked him reported it to the police exactly the same for Eliza Carthy in Eliza's case he sent to more than 100 images and the case of the woman were calling Kate exactly the same they were communicating on a purely professional basis Eliza and Kate have never met

Ben Gunnery. My investigation I've also spoken to another six women that have had exactly the same scenario that he has sent them these unrequested images. And the first woman I spoke to in terms of a timeline dated back to 2017. In 2018, as a French music festival and school, another person reported the same. They banned him from the festival and advised that woman to go to the French police. So we can show that this has been happening to multiple women for more than 10 years. Wow. And you talk as well about some of those numbers that have come out.

Nicola, but what about the name itself, cyber flashing, instead of, for example, indecent exposure, as the term is, if it's happening in a public place. Do we know where the name is different for a digital space, or is there any conversation around that? Mainly because it's exactly what happens. And this is quite new to me. This is a really new crime, perhaps the crime of our digital age. And like everything, I think the Police Force College of policing, the Crime Prosecution Service

is sort of rushing to catch up with the new crime. But we know what flashing is. I'm sad to say that most of the people listening have probably experienced that in their lifetime. This is the image of the genitals, and it is men's genitals, being sent digitally. And what the new reports and the data that Professor McGlynn and Professor Vera Gray have done

shows that quite often this is sent on public transport, on air drop. So you might be sharing photos of documents with a colleague or perhaps sending them from your phone to your computer on a train. I did the same myself last night. And in that time, somebody elsewhere on the carriage decides to send you these pictures. Their study says it is about sexual gratification, but it's also about power.

As flashing, the crime that's been around for many decades, is also seen its misogyny, it's power, its aggression, and it's bullying. And sadly, it's becoming really common. The laws have changed, the most recent law to change in January last month, was to put emphasis on the social platforms, like meta. The ones that we might use every day, WhatsApp, Facebook. The laws now say that they must take efforts to blur any naked images that are being sent. But as I say, it's a new crime for our new age. As Professor McGlynn says, it's gone from the street to the screen and the figures are quite staggering.

You know, campaigners warn basically if online or offline, if flashing or indecent exposure is dismissed as trivial at times. And they say, you know, if it isn't taken seriously, it could be a precursor to more serious offences. Is there evidence for that? In the Angiolini report, yes, which was obviously requested and studied and then came out into the death of Sarah Everard, the murder of Sarah Everard by Wayne Cousins.

Now, what that shows was that he had been flashing, people on digital devices but also in person at drive-through restaurants and he wasn't dealt with robustly and he went on to murder as we know Sarah Everard so is what Professor Angelini describes as Dame Angelini describes as a gateway offence and that is what is worrying many people that if this goes unreported that if the consequences are not harsh enough and not robust enough is it a gateway offence to other more severe offences just for my own. and personal experience. I'm 50 plus, like many of your listeners,

and I've been a reporter dealing with things most of my life. The day after I filmed with Eliza Carthy, I was flashed out in a swimming pool. I have also received images. And just in my friends, my family, people of all ages, every woman I've spoken to is in some way, shape or form receiving these images that they haven't requested. And that is the key.

If it's fine between people in a relationship or not, absolutely fine. Zero judgment, but this is unrequested from people most of the time you've never met. And let us come back to the women, of course, at the centre involved in this case. What has their right reaction been to that sentencing? Mixed. Anna Downs, who waved her right to Anna Nibsie last year, and when he was sentenced for the crime against her in July of last year, the different judge then said at Croydon Magistrates Court, it's on the cusp of custody, and if you do it again, you will go to prison. And he did within weeks. He sent the images to both Eliza and Kate, and he hasn't gone to prison.

And Anna feels very strongly about that. In her own words this morning, she said that she feels that it was pointless her going through all the pain of going to court and reporting in the influence that it's had on her life. She feels that she's been dismissed. In terms of Kate and Eliza, because he is a suspended sentence, but because they feel that the guidelines that have been set in place, to get him some help, are very robust. They feel that they feel. that it was what they wanted when they came forward but most importantly and we've been communicating as you can imagine through all of last night they feel validated they feel understood and they feel listened to and in the words

of Kate that for her is the most important thing because there have been people saying to them or you're just attention grabbing you're just doing this for yourself just get on with it but she felt totally validated in the sentencing and the judge's remarks and they are all three working musicians Eliza's about to go on tour. Kate's on tour at the moment. They feel unsafe, but they hope by speaking out they've encouraged more people in the music industry to report such crimes. And has Ben Gunnery responded? He has not. I have asked him on many occasions. Is he going to apologize to the women he's done this to his victim survivors? And as I asked him yesterday, what will it

take to stop you doing this? And as yet, he has not responded. And may I ask, you mentioned messenger there that the case has happened via Facebook have you had a response from META? Yeah, so META as you know, I'm responsible for the social apps they say they've got a range of tools to help people prevent themselves from wanting content

the most simple one is to block that person and report them they've also launched a women's safety campaign specifically they're working with lots of groups to see how they can make their platforms safer for women and they are blurring images and they said in June 2025, 40% of the images which were blurred, stayed blurred. So this is what I said about the law changing,

that images should be blurred, and it is your choice as the person who's got the phone and is receiving them, whether you want to unblur them or not. But it is a crime for our age, and I think things are changing almost on a daily basis. And I guess, Nicola, a conversation for another time of whether a blurred image really is stopping the intent of, that unsolicited message that has been sent.

Nicola Goodwin, senior reporter for BBC Midlands investigation. Thank you so much for joining us. And if you have been affected by any of the issues we've been discussing, please do go to BBC Action Line website where you'll find links of support. Now, I want to turn to a new exhibition at the British Museum that I was lucky enough to go and see last week. It's aiming to challenge everything we think we know about Japan's samurai class, including the fact that half of them were women,

a vital part of the elite order. The exhibition called Samurai traces the evolution of iconic figures over the past thousand years. It's the first to explore how the samurai image, myth and legend were created. And we have a couple of people to speak with us about this and also the role of women in Japanese history, what the samurai class tell us about that. I'm joined by the exhibition's creator, Dr. Rosina Buchlan.

Good morning. Good morning. And Jennifer Coates, Professor in Japanese Studies at Sheffield University. Good morning. Good morning. Okay, Rosina, you put this exhibit together. Packed when I went to see it the other day. We kind of bandy around the word samurai, but what does it mean? Samurai is a useful term to use in the West, but it's not actually used that much historically in Japan.

So it's interesting to unpack. It started, it originates from the verb Saburau, which simply means to serve. so it has something of a lower class, sometimes pejorative meaning subordinate, servant. But in the West, it's become so recognisable. We have this iconic figure that people are very familiar with, so it was useful to have us the theme for the exhibition, but it opens up the opportunity to explore that rich history that you mentioned just now. And you mentioned history. Jennifer, what period are we talking about exactly?

I think one of the fantastic things about the exhibition is it takes us through a range, of really different periods that are usually kind of discussed in exhibitions very separately. So this is a nice central theme. We're basically talking about sort of of 1190 when the Bakufu or warrior government gets established all the way through really to 1868, which is the end of the Edo period

in Japan, beginning of Western influence and modern Japanese society as we know it. And through to the present day, we do continue the story right up till now. Well, there's all as well how it's managed to infiltrate so much of the images and media that we see in the Western world. But I have to say samurai class women, as opposed to samurai women, some have said. And samurai class men, I think, equally. Yes. So tell me why that is.

Because I think it's fair to say that you often think of a samurai as a man who is wielding a sword as a warrior. but that's not the picture, the full picture. That's what the exhibition is trying to explain that we use this term as a shorthand for warrior, but actually if you examine it more closely, historically, there are many things going on over the centuries. They start as mercenaries, and it is the men who are doing the fighting

through the early centuries from 900s where the imperial court need proxy warriors. They're fighting, they're factional battles, but they get these male fighters in. and as was just said in the 1180s 1190 a new government has formed the samurai or these male warriors managed to establish their own government they rest power away from the imperial court and it remains fluid for the centuries after that there is this elite and obviously they have women folk within that class as well who are running the households organizing the staff raising the children and they also have power behind the throne sometimes there's an idea of A regent role when the male head of the household is away fighting. The woman might be defending the stronghold, defending the fortress, commanding troops. And a lot of those, the women who played those roles historically are featured in later centuries.

They are idealised. So some of the items that I loved, the firefighters' outfit. Do you want to describe that, Rosina? Sure. Well, we're into the second section of the exhibition where there's a lot of the exhibition where there's long period of peace from 1615 onwards. And again, it's the samurai now is established as a social class. There are four classes within society. Officially they are the ruling elite and half of them are women. There are samurai households. Society is organized around these households.

And within the palace of the Shogun, Eddo Castle, which is now the Tokyo Imperial Palace, there were women's quarters. So within those men were not allowed. They had no admittance. So fires were a huge risk within Edo, today's Tokyo, because most of the buildings were built of wood. And so the women had to do their own firefighting. And there were companies of these women. And it was a huge responsibility. The head of the company would have high status. And there's this beautiful jacket and hood that are made of red felt with gorgeous embroidery, gold wrapped thread and couch stitches for these tassels that are flying off. grappling hooks. You have to

pull down buildings to create fire breaks. So we have golden grappling hooks surging water, which is helpful for extinguishing fires. It is the thing of beauty. I'm just actually took a photograph off that I'm having a quick look at now as well. So

ornate. But it is interesting some of the other aspects that we begin to get an idea of as well. For example, teeth blackening. There was these, what would I say,

kind of, I suppose, beautifying objects and accessories that are also on show. Yes, we have a robe, a beautiful blue silk embroidered robe just to suggest what these high status women would have worn. There's a dressing set that possibly was part of a

bridal trousseau. You would have a compliment of luxurious goods when you went into a marriage. There were a lot of political marriages, alliances, alliances being formed through these marriages, so that was a role that women played. And tooth blackening or teeth blackening

was not so much about beautification, but dental protection. You put this layer over your teeth to protect the enamel. Did I read correctly that it was married women? Yes. So it became a visual status marker. So interesting.

Jennifer, why do you think the role of samurai class women isn't, until now, more widely known outside of Japan? I mean, I think documentation is a huge challenge. To be honest, right in those kind of early decades of the establishment of the samurai class that we were just talking about, it is actually possible to see archival evidence of more prominent woman within the samurai class, and that's because they had land rights.

They could inherit and they could own their own land. Into the middle of the 14th century, those land rights get walked back, so they become less visible. And then unfortunately, this is a bit of a parallel with your earlier story. But when we come into the period after 1603, this peacetime period that Rosina was talking about, there's a new mode of governance that requires representatives of the samurai households to travel to the capital. And when women try and do that, they report that they're increasingly subject to harassment at the checkpoints along the way. So they stop travelling and they stop being quite. so visible in that sort of participatory governing culture.

So they disappear from the records a little bit. They disappear from public life a little bit. And they're much more sort of confined to those inner quarters that Rosina was talking about. There were some, however, Jennifer, that were warrior women. Yes, yes. Some of the most famous would be a warrior known as Tomoe. His activities are recorded in the Hekei Monogatari, the Tale of Hekei. She fought in the Gempai War, which is the wars just before 1190.

And it's actually women's bravery in those wars that lead to them being awarded these land packages that give them that sort of position of power at that early period. So, yeah, those women are sort of written about, depicted in woodblock prints and Okioa. And they're sort of the intestines then all the way into sort of film culture, for example, representing female samurai and female swords people. Rosina, I'd be curious for your thoughts. You will have seen some complaining about modern sensibilities, for example, representation of women within this exhibit that the majority of samurai warriors, for example, were men.

What would you respond? Well, the exhibition isn't about the samurai warriors. That's the point that we're trying to look at a broader, more holistic, we're trying to present a broader, more holistic examination of the history of this class. And yes, they start as warriors. and so the first section focuses on the activities of those men, the weapons that they were using. But it's also about the culture,

and women very early come into that stage. Culture is equally important to fighting. You have to legitimise your hold on power. You've gained power through force, but you have to legitimise it through your cultural accomplishments. And that continues in Section 2, and we have female artists of the samurai class. Yeah, they were beautiful, yeah.

So there's a painting of a cat, very sweet little cat, sleeping under a peony bush, and some research revealed that that was painted by the wife of a lord of Fukui province in the north of Japan, but she was the youngest sister of the senior counsellor of the realm, so very high status and again a political marriage. There was another aspect of the exhibit that stood out to me, the Dolls Festival in spring, an occasion to celebrate daughters. Yes, there were two festivals.

There was the Boys Festival in the fifth months and the Dolls Festival in the third month. So we have a miniaturized dressing set and picked. set that would have been put out on tiered shelves, a display that still continues to this day. What role, Jennifer, did marriage play? Because they talk about girls. They express, you know, they want them to be healthy, but they also want them to make a good marriage. And I suppose if you're within a certain class, you're thinking what alliances might be made. Again, a lot of parallels here with other societies, including our own, particularly in the first half of the period that we're talking about. Marriage is really a tool of a lion, safeguarding property, keeping property

within particular family lines. Early on, actually, women kept their own property and their own name when they got married. So in the 1890s and thereabouts, women would be very much sort of independent actors, even within a marriage. And the marriage was about sort of producing heirs and raising children. Later on, of course, you start to get a more standardized version of the upper class sort of wife and mother that actually carries on sort of beyond the period even and that's a lot more sort of cultural, I guess, thinking about sort of what are high class values,

what are high class modes of behaving and it becomes quite religious as well at certain points. Very briefly. First year, Resina, what do you think the legacy of the female samurai class is in modern Japan? People know how important they were within, society within the household. And with this second period

of the exhibition, the period of peace, the women are pretty much held hostage within Edo because they're so important. You have to control the wife, you have to control the air, so the Shogun won't let them out of his sight. And women are still, these samurai class women of historical periods are still the subject

of the TV costume dramas. So there's a lot of attention. And the Shogun, kind of the governor, would that be a fair way of describing it? Or a... The Shogun, yeah, he's the head of the realm, yeah. Jennifer, legacy. Absolutely. You see it all the way into the present day,

not just in film and television, but anime as well. Oh, yeah. The badass grannies with their traditional weapons that often resolve conflicts at the end of anime series. So definitely still a live conversation. Thank you both for joining us.

So fascinating. Rosina Buckland, Dr. Brer Zina Buckland and Professor Jennifer Coutts. Samurai is the exhibit that's on at the British Museum at the... the moment. Thanks for all your messages. 8444.844 if you'd like to get in touch. I'll read a few in a few moments. But first, I want to turn to new research because it suggests that almost

70% of NHS areas in England now offer only one cycle of IVF for women under 40, despite official guidance saying three full cycles should be offered. A fertility charity says the situation is having a devastating impact on people struggling to conceive. Shortly, just before we came on air, I spoke to Sarah Norcross. She's director of the Progress Educational Trust, which is a fertility charity. Every month, the Progress Educational Trust checks the policies on Integrated Careboards websites to see if any changes have been made to their fertility policies. And we've been doing this now for a couple of years.

Integrated care boards are the regional bodies that decide what to spend the NHS budget on in their area. And so they made decisions about how much fertility treatment people can access. So tell me what you found. First of all, there are 42 ICBs. And of those, around 70%, so that's 29 of them, are only offering one cycle of fertility treatment. And only two of the 42 integrated care boards. are offering three full cycles of fertility treatment, which means they're the only two that comply with the nice guideline for what should patients should receive. And this is to be specific for women under 40

that have been trying for at least two years and fit any eligibility criteria? Absolutely. There are all sorts of eligibility criteria. And what I've noticed over the years is that these care boards or their pretext, predecessors were always very good at implementing all the access criteria that restrict people getting treatment, but they were never very good at actually complying with the amount of treatment that

people should receive. And you talk about complying. Complying with what exactly? So there has been a nice guideline since 2004. So over 20 years, we've had this guideline and it has never been implemented in England across the whole of the country. Whereas Scotland, which isn't bound by Nice, they have had three full cycles of treatment available to people who live there for nine years. So Nice, that is the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. They give guidance to the NHS, but it's not legally binding, Sarah. Yes, that is the problem that the guideline is not legally binding and so each integrated

care board can make their own decision and that is why we have a postcode lottery. So really I would urge and PEP would urge the government to centrally commission fertility treatment like they have done in Scotland where they took, you know, they worked out the finances, they had a phased implementation, they didn't leap in at three, they had two, they had two, two for many years and then went up to three to make sure that they didn't end up with big rating lists. But they find that actually not so many women need three cycles. You're not, 100% of the people needing facility treatment won't need three cycles. I think it's estimated around 10% will. But so those women shouldn't be penalised for that. And so there's a clear

model that England could follow. Tell me just a little bit more on the centrally commissioning. Like how would that work? So it would mean that there is one policy across the whole of the country, which is what all the devolved nations have. Are you talking about... We're an outlier. Forgive me for stepping on you. Would you mean legally binding? Yes, it would then be legally binding.

But we do know, as we talk many times on this programme and elsewhere, that the NHS is cash strapped. And I suppose the big question is about what is made a priority? What say you on that particular point? The government needs to make this a priority. We're in a situation where we have a declining population, a declining fertility rate. Look what happened in France yesterday, where all women age 29 are going to be written to, to give them information about fertility. And those women can all have their eggs frozen by the state.

If France can afford to do this and make this a priority and see the importance of it, Why can't we in the UK? I mean, that is a whole other conversation. Fascinating. Some of the details sent them out to 29-year-old women and men, in a way to remind them to have babies. When you talk about it being a postcode lottery, do you think anyone is moving to potentially access treatment?

Anecdotally, I hear about people considering this. But moving house, suddenly who's done that recently, well, is not cheap. and so I suppose you have to weigh up the financial situation. And often you have to have lived in an area before you can qualify for treatment there anyway. And obviously, depending on the woman's age, you may not want to wait because your chances may be reduced because of the decline in fertility. So there are revised nice guidelines expected this spring. what do you think that will do or not do when it comes to cases like this?

Unfortunately, I don't think that the updated nice guideline will see any change in the situation here because we've just seen two large integrated care boards reduce their offering in Manchester and Liverpool areas. and everybody knows what's coming in the new guideline because we've seen the draft of it and they're maintaining three full cycles and in fact in that draft they were going a little bit further and saying that in some cases a further three cycles should be offered which would be a total of six

so unfortunately I can't really see that this updated nice guideline is going to make any impact on this but it could be somewhere in England that a woman with a partner under 40 may be offered six cycles? One would hope that that could happen and that some areas may go further and fully implement the new guideline as and when it comes out. But I think it is unlikely.

The view there of Sarah Norcross from the Progress Educational Trust. Thanks very much to her. We did go to the Department of Health and Social Care and received a statement which said Nice provides clear clinical guidelines and we expect integrated care boards, ICBs, to commission treatment in line with these. Updated Nice fertility guidelines are expected this spring.

We will continue to support NHS England to make sure the guidance is fully considered in local commissioning decisions. Also from the NHS England, we got this from a spokesperson who said These clinical services are commissioned by integrated care boards for their area based on the needs of the local population and prioritisation of resources available. All ICBs have a responsibility to ensure services are provided fairly and are accessible by different population groups. Now, I want to turn to Send in the Spotlight, our podcast. I'm wondering whether you had a chance to listen to our new episode.

This week, it's all about transport. such a contentious issue with a hugely increasing cost to local authorities and there are disagreements over which children should be eligible. We meet Raman Deep, a mum who has battled to get transport for her son. So he's always had transport. He goes to a specialist school, has done since the age of four, was eligible for transport because his school was over three miles away.

I've got two other sons. He's got an older and a younger brother, so I had them all in different schools. and actually people often mistakenly think that once you've got that transport in place you know life's quite easy you just pop them on the bus and off you go but because you're relying on a route

and depending at which point your child is going to be picked up on that route I literally would have something like 10 minutes to get my other two into school so I would be that mum who is frantically just parking her car anywhere and just dashing into school So now to get him to 6th Form

as I understand it, it's costing you nearly £200 a week. Can you explain that? Yes. So we were refused transport. I applied twice. We won the first time round because they said, oh, actually the midi bus is going past the house. We have a seat.

We'll put him in there. I thought, well, that makes sense. But then they changed the policy, at which point I was told, no, we're not offering any transport. You can have a personal transport budget, which I accepted. I had to contribute towards it,

but they give me a mileage allowance, which is 45 pence per mile. School is 10 miles away, so it's a 20-mile round trip. I accepted the budget because the transport option was not there anymore, and I now pay a private taxi firm. The driver's DBS checked. We have a permanent driver who picks him up and takes him to school, and it's costing me.

well, it's painful, let's say. Yes, I'm sure. I mean, I just was struck there by the fact that you said the minibus still goes by your house. Yes, we see a number of minibuses going past the house and I know that they have got spaces on them and it just doesn't make any sense to me that this is a young person who has a legal entitlement,

a legal right to access education and they're not willing to put him on the bus. What reason? I don't think they actually gave me a reason. They just said he's not eligible. You can find the full podcast on BBC Sounds. Just search for send in the spotlight. While you're there, why not subscribe for free

so that you never miss an episode? Now, to something apparently most feel is important, but they don't feel comfortable talking about it. That is sex for the over 50s. Age UK is trying to change all that. They've been speaking to over 2,000 people who are 50 plus, Let us hear what they have found. To discuss it, we have Dr. Liz Bolton, who is the Health and Care Policy Manager at Age UK

and behavioural psychologist Joe Hemings. Good morning to both of you. Liz, talk us through the main findings of the survey. What picture emerges? Good morning. Thanks very so much for having me on. So, yeah, we find that quite a lot of people think that sex is still important to them as they get older. Shock horror.

Yeah, but also that as they get older, they find that it's harder to have those conversations about sex and about how their bodies are changing and also harder to access the information as well. So we've got almost a quarter of the people who were involved in the polling, which is representative of the population, saying that they wish there was more information out there about sex in later. life and nearly 40% of them saying that they feel uncomfortable discussing it. Well, you know, I threw it out to our listeners this morning and here's one. You just talk about body there. Liz, for example, it's anonymous says, I'm really struggling with myself image as my body is aging as I get closer to 60. I've always been a young, whatever age I am, but my body is betraying me now and I can't ignore the changing shape and tone of everything. as I've stopped fancying myself

I know I've withdrawn from my husband who is younger than me we're also not sleeping in the same bed anymore because we both want a good night's sleep we both snore so we wake each other up it seems like a perfect recipe for divorce we do love each other but I'm not sure that will be enough

Joe let me bring you in here and that is anonymous because also there is this stigma talking about things yes there's a real stigma about it as Liz says you know people do do feel uncomfortable You know, there's 10 million people feeling uncomfortable about talking about these things.

And I think, you know, it goes back to the sort of yuck stigma. Oh, you know, sex is for young people. And when we get older, we should probably hold hands or cuddle on the sofa. But nobody really wants to think about the fact that, you know, people over 50, 60 are still having active, enjoyable, enjoyable sex lives. So I think part of it is because they grew up in a generation where sex. education was quite coy, or it was about procreation only. This is how you make babies. No one ever talked about the pleasure or why people might do it just for the sake of the loveliness

of doing it. And so there's this awkwardness that sort of set in culturally that makes them feel, oh, well, if we are having sex, then I can't go and talk to somebody about it. You know, I'm having difficulties. I'm going through the menopause. My husband's got erectile dysfunction. What do I do? help and so they just feel stigmatised because advertising, marketing, information is not targeted at their age group. So it's a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy in that way. I mean, Liz, what is it you'd like to see? I know you talk about like that people won't talk about it in a GP setting or a clinical setting, for example. But I suppose they're not seeing the media representations as Joe talks about there as well. What are you calling for?

So we're calling to really kind of normalise the conversation in very much. the same way that talking about menopause has been much more normalized over the last few years. It's part of our wider mission, really, to transform attitudes to aging so that we can have a more age-friendly society and people don't feel forced to live in some kind of stereotype, as one of the respondents said, an old fogie. Yeah, here's another. I still have a high sex drive, says this listener, but my husband has lost his almost entirely. I know he's embarrassed by it and I also know that all experts say we should

talk about it, but we simply can't. I love him dearly, but if I tried to speak to him about it, I know it would just make him feel very upset. So we've just both accepted that our sexual relationship has come to an end. Joe, like on that or the body image, what would you recommend? I mean, it's such a shame,

isn't it? Because you can feel the yearning there to just they could open that conversation. They could move on. And of course, men are particularly on comfortable about talking about it. They feel there's something physiologically wrong with them, but actually it's just part of the ageing process and can be overcome. And same for the lady who wrote in about her body image. Yes, of course our bodies change. We're not the 20-year-olds we

were. But none of that really matters in the pleasure of sex. You don't have to be an Olympic athlete. You know, you just have to have the intimacy and the joy that comes from that. And really, I think opening the conversation in a really sort of gentle way, either with physical touch or a bit of really kind, compassionate conversation, can just open up a whole world that a lot of couples have sort of closed down because they just feel too awkward talking about it. But it's their relationship. They want it to be part of their relationship. It's a really key part of it. And if they don't begin to have those gently guided conversations, they're missing out on really one of the the greatest aspects of any intimate relationship we can have.

Like this couple, for example, my wife and I are both in our early 60s, and sex continues to be great. We've adapted to being older, and non-penetrative sex is fun and something we just got used to. We both continue to have good orgasms and enjoy sex into our 60s. Sex isn't the be-all and end-all,

but it is important to still have fun and be intimate a few times a month to continue to cement a relationship that's nearly 40 years old. Liz? Yeah, actually that chimes. really perfectly with one of the findings that we had that 11 million of over 50s find sex just as enjoyable now as they did when they were younger, if not more so. One of the other things I wanted to come back to was about this intimacy and the difficulty

in discussing it. That's why we're writing this guide. There's information in here about finding intimacy in other ways, where you can go to for help, things that you can do to address this. the mental health and physical health things that are stopping you from being able to have that sexual relationship. So, yeah, we really want to arm people with the tools to have these conversations. You mightn't be able to answer this one. It's like, hi, Nula.

I would love to have sex in my 50s. I'm nearly 58, but I cannot find a man. Dating apps are awful. I have many examples of terrible dates in my 40s and 50s. Please help. I'm afraid I cannot help with that one. But there we go. looking to have an intimate relationship

but some of the, I don't know, what will we call them, societal barriers that are standing in the way. But I did think about, just in our last few seconds, I did think about the representation. I could remember good luck to you, Leo Grande, which had Emma Thompson, being older with a younger man who was an escort, and there's loads of,

with older guys, with younger women, but not enough older women on screen, I think, as well, or perhaps in the media. I want to thank my guests. for bringing us some of that information. Age UK is where you can find more on it. Dr Liz Bolton, Health and Care Policy Manager at Age UK and behavioural psychologist Joe Hemings. Thanks for your messages. Here's one. I loved watching the snowboarding and Mia was fantastic.

Also the commentary provided was very entertaining. Had me hooked. Had me hooked too. Wonderful to speak to Mia's mum, Vicky. Today, we'll be back with you again with Woman's Hour tomorrow. That's all for today's Woman's Hour. Join us again next time. Radio 4, Wolf Valley. Thor Mottinson? Hello, Tor! Tor!

Are you home? Four people have died over the last five years, all within the same organization. Hello! Tor! We're in three different countries. No fault accidents, seen individually, but...

I'm going to open. One, two, three. Shit! Listen to Wolf Valley. first on BBC Sounds.