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A study from Dementia UK has found that women, more often than men, are the ones to seek support for a person living with dementia. Overall, it is most likely to be daughters who take on care responsibilities. The charity is also increasing its helpline hours to cope with the demand for dementia care advice. Since 2013, the number of calls has risen by 78%. Hilda Hayo, the CEO of Dementia UK, joins Jenni to discuss the research and what effect it is having on female careers.  

The number of women becoming Catholic nuns has trebled in the past five years, from 15 in 2009 to 45 last year - the highest number since 1990.  Fourteen of the women who entered convents in 2014 were aged 30 or under.  Theodora Hawksley is 29, and was a theology student when earlier this year she decided to enter a convent in London.  She joins Jenni to explain why, and to describe her experiences so far. 

Memphis Minnie is considered by many to be the greatest female blues singer of all time. Hugely influential, her recording career lasted forty years. She’s just one of the iconic black women singers celebrated by the record label, Document Records. In the first of a series on these women, Judi Herman talks to Gill and Gary Atkinson, a husband and wife team who produce the compilations. 

Ziba Mir-Hosseini  is the author of ‘Men in Charge? Rethinking Authority in Muslim Legal Tradition’ which challenges gender discrimination and male authority from within Islamic legal tradition. She argues that a feminist reading of the Qur’an is long overdue and necessary to challenge the patriarchy within Islam. Zara  Faris is a Muslim researcher and speaker who feels that focusing on gender issues in Islam is unhelpful and that no re-reading of the Qur’an is necessary.

Laura Lippman is an multi-award winning American Crime writer whose latest novel starring her much loved private executive Tess Monaghan is about the shocking case of a Mother killing her own baby. Jenni talks to her about post-partum psychosis, writing and being married to the creator of Baltimore’s most famous export The Wire.