Witness History: Women's History Month special
The Documentary Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 2.6K Ratings
🗓️ 9 March 2025
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Extraordinary stories from global women's history, as told by the people who were there. We hear about the Jewish feminists who demanded to pray as freely as men, the fight for transgender women rights in Indonesia, and the career of legendary American painter Georgia O'Keeffe.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the documentary from the BBC World Service. I'm Natasha Fernandis. |
| 0:05.6 | From Witness History, this is a special episode to mark Women's History Month. |
| 0:09.7 | We've brought together some of the highlights from our show, looking back at the challenges and victories in global women's history. |
| 0:16.0 | Our nine-minute stories from history featured on weekdays on the BBC World Service, are told by the people |
| 0:21.7 | who were there. Make sure you subscribe to witness history wherever you get your BBC podcasts, |
| 0:27.1 | so you never miss an episode. We've got amazing stories about World War II and countries |
| 0:32.4 | gaining independence, and so much more. A warning. Some of the stories in this podcast contain depictions of violence |
| 0:39.1 | that may be upsetting. Let's begin in the summer of 1943, when the first and only professional |
| 0:46.4 | women's baseball league was launched in the US. It was set up to ensure the sports survival |
| 0:52.2 | during World War II, when so many male major league players were being drafted. |
| 0:58.0 | Rebecca Kesby reports on this opportunity for the women at the time, |
| 1:01.6 | featuring an archive interview with Mary Pratt, who began her professional baseball career playing pitcher. |
| 1:07.1 | Music picture. |
| 1:21.3 | It's the summer of 1943, and American men are being sent off to war. |
| 1:27.1 | Women are required to take over the jobs they leave behind, on the farms, in the factories, and on the baseball parks. |
| 1:29.3 | See what happens, don't you, where they're no gentleman about? |
| 1:32.3 | These feminine phnomes play in the All-American Girls Baseball League. |
| 1:36.3 | Look close, folks. This is not softball, but real Major League-type baseball. |
| 1:41.3 | And managed by former Major League stars. As many of the male Major League players baseball and managed by former Major League stars. |
| 1:51.2 | As many of the male Major League players were drafted into the front line, a new professional women's league was created. It was the brainchild of entrepreneur, Chicago Cubs owner and |
| 1:57.4 | chewing gum magnate, Philip K. Rigley, partly to keep the ballparks open to the |
| 2:03.1 | paying public through the war, and partly to boost national morale. But for the women |
... |
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