Tracey Neville, Deep fakes and schools, Pensions

Woman's Hour explores a range of urgent and personal issues affecting women today, from groundbreaking medical innovation in childbirth to the challenges of women's financial futures and digital safety. The episode opens with a powerful story about the Odon Assist, a revolutionary new device designed to reduce trauma during assisted births, developed after a decade of collaboration between clinicians, engineers, and women who volunteered for trials. Dr. Emily Houghton and Charlie Fuller from Maternal Newborn Health Innovations share how the device—inspired by an Argentinian mechanic—has already been deployed in eight NHS trusts and is showing promise globally, especially in low-resource settings like Ethiopia. The conversation then shifts to Tracey Neville, former England netball coach, who has made a bold career pivot to become managing director of Stockport County Women’s Football Club. She discusses the challenges of transforming a community club into a competitive force, the cultural differences between netball and football, and her personal journey through IVF and motherhood. The episode also highlights the growing mental health crisis in football, following the tragic death of manager Matt Beard, and calls for mandatory mental health checks for coaches. Financially, research from AJ Bell reveals that age 28 is a critical turning point for women’s pension savings, with men increasingly prioritizing retirement planning while women focus on family and short-term goals. Finally, Carol Osborne shares her app, ADOS, designed to protect children’s identities by replacing real faces in school photos with AI-generated ones, addressing the alarming rise of AI-generated child sexual abuse material. The episode closes with a moving performance by Mina, an Iranian refugee and singer, whose voice carries the stories of silenced women in her homeland.