Six Episode Recommendations for A Feminist Future this International Women’s Day

Mar 07th

Content is Queen is a women-led business. Uplifting women-led shows and initiatives in podcasting and audio is our day-to-day, but every year we like to mark International Women’s Day…

This year, International Women’s Day lands on Saturday, 8th March. This year’s theme set by the United Nations (UN) is “For ALL women and girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment”, aiming for a feminist future where no one is left behind.

This year also marks the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a document that was created at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing that ensured that women’s rights included legal protection, access to services, youth engagement, and more.

So for this year’s International Women’s Day, I wanted to suggest some listening based around three topics that are crucial to consider if we truly want a feminist future where no one is left behind.

Find Out About the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action

It’s one of the pivotal documents in the global fight for women’s and girls rights, and yet I had never heard of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action until I started researching for this article. I can maybe be forgiven as I also found it very difficult to find anyone talking about it – there were very few podcasts that came up when I searched, but what I found was fascinating:

  • You can start by listening to this very short episode from a podcast by the European Parliament that explains what the Declaration and Platform for Action is. In less than five minutes, it gives an overview of how it commits countries to work towards gender equality and empowering all women and girls around the globe.
  • For a more in-depth conversation that looks at how the Declaration’s goals fit into our world today and in the future, I found an episode from 2020 on Parenting for the Future by Petel Modeste. Petel speaks to Chidiogo Akunyili, who is the founder of She ROARs which is working to fulfil the promises of the Beijing Declaration with a focus on pan-Africanism. It’s a beautiful conversation that spans motherhood, how colonialism is tied into sexism and much more.

Finally, whilst it’s not a podcast, I found this explainer about the Declaration from the UN Women website useful as well.

Learn More About UK Foreign Aid

Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer recently announced that the government will be halving its foreign aid budget in order to increase the defense budget. When there are multiple domestic issues and crises, foreign aid spending can often be put at risk (we last saw foreign aid cut during COVID). However, foreign aid often goes into supporting initiatives such as sexual health programmes, keeping children in education, and specific issues like stopping female genital mutilation. Cuts to such initiatives will affect women and girls on a far greater scale and so it is important to understand more about the need for foreign aid.

Unsurprisingly, many news commentary podcasts have been talking about Keir Starmer’s announcement. With the speed of the news cycle, commentary podcasts such as this date fairly quickly but I’ve still found these episodes as a good introduction:

  • In the episode of the PoliticsJOE Podcast, ‘Starmer Cuts Foreign Aid’, hosts Ava and Laura react to the announcement. It’s a short episode, where they share what they think of the cuts with a focus on the moral argument and a bit of context.
  • Over on one of our favourite shows, Pod Save The UK, journalist Zoë Grünewald joined Coco Khan for the episode ‘Dear Donald: Can Starmer Tame Trump?‘ where part of the discussion focused on the foreign aid cuts. There’s some really important comments on how foreign aid should be seen as part of the UK’s defence because it helps with things such as vaccinations (viruses don’t stop at borders after all).
  • Lastly, in one of our favourite Women-Led Politics Podcasts, Over The Top Under The Radar, co-host Gary Younge chose the increase of defence spending as his ‘Over The Top’ news story last week, and it led onto a conversation around the cuts to foreign aid and how that ties into immigration, reparations and more.

Empower the Next Generation

One of the things that the UN is emphasizing in this year’s International Women’s Day is that empowering the next generation is “central to this vision” of a feminist future. My final recommendations are a few podcasts that might be especially useful for those who are bringing up the next generation:

  • As well as covering the Declaration and Platform for Action, Petel Modeste speaks to many incredible people in Parenting for the Future. In her recent episode, she speaks to Claudia Santi F. Fernandes from the Born This Way Foundation (the non-profit founded by Lady Gaga and her mother, Cynthia Germanotta.) The conversation covers aspects such as the public health approach to mental wellness for young people, the importance of youth advisory boards and more.
  • For a UK-based podcast about parenting, Teenagers Untangled won the Parenting category in the 2024 Independent Podcast Awards. It describes itself as a “huge audio hug” for parents of teens and tweens. It’s a great mix of personal stories from the hosts and others, alongside professional insight and research. There are episodes on specific circumstances, such as parenting ADHD teens, but also general family relationships that could be useful to anyone in proximity with young people.
  • Finally, a recommendation of a podcast for young people to listen to is The Mix Six, a podcast from the young people support service, The Mix. It is aimed at people aged 11-25 years old, and talks about a range of topics including LGBTQI+ rights, relationships, drugs, discrimination and sex through six questions asked to their guests each episode.

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