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The History Hour
Women making a mark
The History Hour
Dec 7, 2024

In partnership with the BBC 100 Women list, we have a selection of stories about inspiring and influential women from around the world.

Scientist Katalin Karikó, who won the Nobel Prize and helped save millions of lives in the Covid 19 pandemic, Julia Gillard, the former Australian prime minister who took a stand against misogyny in politics, and Indian artist Nalini Malani whose instillation got people thinking about the consequences of nuclear conflict.

We also hear from the founder of Ms Magazine, the feminist campaigner Gloria Steinem who in 1972, co-founded the first magazine in the US which was owned, run and written by women.

And the story of Portugal's "Three Marias" whose book ‘Novas Cartas Portuguesas’, was banned after it was published.

Contributors:

Maria Teresa Horta - one of the "Three Marias".

Dr Katalin Karikó - Nobel Prize winning scientist.

Valeria Perasso - Team leader at the BBC's 100 Women project.

Julia Gillard - Former Australian Prime Minister.

Nalini Malani - Indian artist.

Gloria Steinem - Co-founder of Ms Magazine.

(Photo: Nalini Malani. Credit: Ritesh Uttamchandani/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)

More Episodes


Aug 15, 2026
The Mau Mau uprising and man-eating lions

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes focussing on Kenya.

We hear about Muthoni Kirima, one of the last Mau Mau fighters to come out of hiding and lay down her arms.

Caroline Elkins, Professor of History at Harvard University, discusses the brutality of the conflict between Kenya’s Land and Freedom Army, the British and Kenyan loyalists.

Next, when Princess Elizabeth became queen while staying at the Treetops Hotel, a lodge in the Aberdare National Park.

In 1997, scientists travelled to Kenya, in search of a cave believed to have been the den of the man-eating lions that terrorised railway workers in 1898.

Plus, we hear how Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and his rival Raila Odinga signed an unprecedented power-sharing deal to end a wave of violence that left more than 1,200 people dead.

And the heartwarming story of the friendship between a baby hippo and a 130-year-old giant tortoise.

Finally for our Sporting Witness story, we head to the first Ultimate Frisbee World Championship in Gothenburg, Sweden in 1983.

Contributors: Caroline Elkins - Professor of History at Harvard University, and author of Britain's Gulag: The Brutal End of Empire in Kenya. Muthoni Kirima - Field Marshall in the Kenya Land and Freedom Army. Frank Gillard - BBC correspondent. Thomas Gnoske - Scientist. Alan Patterson - British Lieutenant Colonel John Henry Patterson's grandson. Maina Kiai - Chair of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights in 2008. Maini Schildt - Swedish Ultimate Frisbee player.

(Photo: Mau Mau suspects are rounded up by police outside the camp in Manyani, Kenya, 1955. Credit: Getty Images/Authenticated News)


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Women making a mark

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