Woman’s Hour Jane: Listeners complain we do too much on the trans debate

WHEN Woman’s Hour was first broadcast in October 1946, its content – including items on ‘mother’s midday meal’ and ‘how to hang your husband’s suit’ – earned criticism from listeners.

Now Jane Garvey, a regular presenter of the BBC Radio 4 programme, has revealed its modern audience has grown weary of the amount of airtime devoted to transgender issues.

Describing the backlash against Sex And Gender, a mini-series within the programme which has included an examination of the challenges faced by trans women, the 54-year-old broadcaster said: ‘I’ve mainly been featuring conversations about sex and gender and the current debate over trans issues.

‘This is something that really transfixes and – absolutely no pun intended because, trust me, you don’t make jokes in this area – it transfixes a chunk of our audience, though I don’t think the majority of our audience. There were complaints from people saying, “Can you please revert to topics of more relevance, such as the very real challenge of running a home?” So maybe it’s time to do a long conversation about “should I scrub my step ahead of Santa’s arrival”.’

When Ms Garvey, above, joined Woman’s Hour in 2007, she said its content had become stale.

‘I would like to have fewer middle-class ladies talking about cookery,’ she said. ‘Although there is nothing wrong with cookery, I think there is a massively middle-class bent to every programme on Radio 4.’

But speaking on Fortunately, her Radio 4 podcast, she also admitted the rapidly changing language around trans issues provided challenges – even for her. ‘I enjoy the interviews as I find it a real challenge to try and be fair and listen to both sides of every argument… [but] I get locked out of some conversations as I don’t know the jargon,’ she said.