Award-winning screen director Tope Oshin celebrates a new generation of Nigerian women film-makers who are currently reinventing Nollywood, the largest and most prolific film industry in Africa. She explores their distinctive approach to telling screen stories that better represent women’s lives and aspirations in Nigeria today.

Brazil is the C-section capital of the world. In a country where caesareans account for over half of all births and 88% in the private sector. BBC correspondent Julia Carneiro investigates what some call the “C-section epidemic”.

Indonesia has just conducted its first ever national survey on domestic violence. It found that 41% of women had experienced some form of domestic abuse. We hear about the work of a pioneering crisis and counselling centre offering holistic support, the first organisation of its kind in Indonesia. In Behind Closed Doors Claire Bolderson reports from three different countries: Kenya, Peru and Indonesia. The issue that unites them all is domestic violence. It’s not that the problem is unique to these countries - the World Health Organisation estimates that one third of women worldwide suffer physical or sexual violence by a partner - but in each of the three countries, we hear about different and often inspiring solutions aimed at combating it. Image: Ibu Yanti at her roadside foodstall, Credit: Claire Bolderson

Rates of domestic violence in the Peruvian Andes are particularly high - nearly double the national average. The shocking case of violence against Arlette Contreras Bautista, was caught on hotel security cameras, led to calls for greater action against domestic violence. In August 2016, tens of thousands of people marched through the Peruvian capital, Lima to protest against the country’s shockingly high rates of violence against women. We hear how some inspiring women are working together to raise awareness about domestic violence and putting pressure on their government to act. In Behind Closed Doors Claire Bolderson reports from three different countries: Kenya, Indonesia and Peru. The issue that unites them all is domestic violence. It’s not that the problem is unique to these countries - the World Health Organisation estimates that one third of women worldwide suffer physical or sexual violence by a partner - but in each of the three countries, we hear about different and often inspiring solutions aimed at combating it. Image: Peruvian women of the Andes, Credit: BBC

Unity is a village without men set up by Samburu women in response to domestic abuse. Claire Bolderson reports from three different countries: Peru, Indonesia and Kenya. The issue that unites them all is domestic violence. It is not that the problem is unique to these countries - the World Health Organisation estimates that one third of women worldwide suffer physical or sexual violence by a partner - but in each of the three countries, we hear about different and often inspiring solutions aimed at combating it.

All over the world women hold families together, work hard all hours of the day and have little power to change their lives for the better. To make that happen they need to organise. In a small corner of the Buenos Aires district of Argentina one woman has achieved something remarkable by doing just that. Aymara Val has been working with her neighbours to change their living conditions for eight years.

Sun City is one of America's biggest retirement communities and home to the Poms, a group of amazing women aged between 55 and 85. We follow the Poms as they rehearse for one of their biggest parades of the year. They train hard, squeezing into unforgiving sequined leotards, doing the splits and balancing as human pyramids. Aside from being a funny journey, their story is also one of courage in the face of mortality and high-kicking against ageism.

Sun City is one of America's biggest retirement communities and home to the Poms, a group of amazing women aged between 55 and 85. We follow the Poms as they rehearse for one of their biggest parades of the year. Their story is one of courage in the face of mortality and a high-kick against ageism.

Among the women that history overlooked are Yelena Malyutina, Queen Muhumuza, Dame Janet Vaughan, Rosalind Franklin, Nazma Akter, Sizani Ngubane, Salika Amara, Mercedes Doretti and Morfydd Owen. This special edition of The History Hour explores the lives and achievements of women scientists, fighters, musicians and trade unionists. Yelena Malyutina served in the women's bomber regiment in the Soviet Airforce during World War II. She was hit by anti-aircraft fire but managed to land her plane and survive internal injuries. Queen Muhumuza was an anti-colonial rebel leader in modern-day Southern Uganda. She and her supporters fought the British, the Germans and the Belgians during the early 20th Century. Dame Janet Vaughan was a doctor and scientist, and expert in blood diseases who worked in London in the mid-20th Century. Rosalind Franklin was a chemist who contributed to the discovery of the DNA double-helix. Her colleagues James Watson and Francis Crick won the Nobel prize for medicine for this work after her death. Nazma Akter is a trade union organiser in the garments industry in Bangladesh. She remembers the terrible factory fire that first shocked her into union activism back in December 1990. Sizani Ngubane founded the Rural Women's Movement in South Africa 20 years ago to help protect women's access to vital farming land. Salika Amara is a French Algerian theatre director. She takes us back to the 1970s in Paris when she staged her first play about the lives of immigrant women. Mercedes Doretti is a forensic anthropologist who has dedicated her life to uncovering the evidence of human rights atrocities. Morfydd Owen was a young Welsh composer who died in 1918. Her compositions have been rediscovered and published, and performed for the first time. With guests Professor Jane Humphries of Oxford University and Dr Amrita Shodhan, from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University. Image: Group of women, Credit: Thinkstock

In 2004, Kenyan Wangari Maathai became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. She was an environmentalist and human rights activist who founded the Green Belt Movement in the 1970s. She focused on the planting of trees, conservation, and women's rights but repeatedly clashed with the government while trying to protect Kenya's forest and parks. Witness speaks to her daughter, Wanjira Mathai.

Why is feminism still regarded by many as a word to avoid? Despite an ongoing gender pay gap, and a lack of female business leaders, why does the word continue to raise an eyebrow? Why is empowerment proving to be a great marketing tool, but feminism is not? The BBC's Katy Watson hears from the self-styled 'factual feminist' Christina Hoff Sommers on why modern feminists may have gone too far. She speaks to Ana Flores of We All Grow Latina, who explains why many US Latinas prefer to brand themselves as feminine rather than feminist. Katy also meets the campaigners behind the iconic Ms Magazine, and the co-founder of Amy Poehler's Smart Girls, Meredith Walker, who explains why young girls need better role models.

Rachida Dati is a Member of the European Parliament and a Paris mayor. One of twelve children from a devout French/Moroccan Muslim family, her rise has been remarkable. A former Minister of Justice, Rachida Dati has never been far from controversy. She's made a career of challenging the comfortable ways of the French establishment; she rails against what she considers to be French anti-Muslim discrimination and blames it, in part, for the extremism behind the French terror attacks of the last two years. She's never afraid to challenge the elitism that she says restricts the lives of the poorest. Yalda Hakim talks to Rachida Dati for the BBC's 100 Women season.

Simone Biles is being called the greatest gymnast of all time, a sporting superstar who stunned audiences at the Rio Olympics. But now, at 19, she is ready to reflect on what lies ahead and to look back at the circumstances that have shaped who she is. Adopted by her grandparents as her biological mother struggled with drink and drug addiction, Simone Biles' life story is almost as remarkable as her leaps and tumbles.

Women from rural parts of India are bucking the trend and working in jobs traditionally done by men. In Rajasthan, Divya Arya drops in at the Barefoot College to meet ‘Solar Mamas’ learning solar engineering to take electricity to their remote villages and meets a widowed railway porter who has taken on the tough job her husband used to do, the women finding a voice in local radio, and those learning the traditionally male-dominated trades of boat building, masonry, carpentry and farm management in Kerala.

Chairwoman of Santander UK, Shriti Vadera is a leading voice in British business and as shining example of what can be achieved. Born in Uganda into a land-owning family, Shriti Vadera was exiled to India at the time of Idi Amin's expulsion of all of Uganda's Asians. At the age of only five, she insisted that her family find the money to pay the school fees of her carer, who couldn't afford them herself. At 14 she went on hunger strike demanding to be sent to school in England and it is in the UK that she has stayed, building a reputation as a formidable economist, with the wit of mind and the strength of argument to persuade both the British government and the banking sector that she is someone to have inside their tent.

The working life of Denmark's Tine Bryld, a radio personality, social worker and writer recently voted the country's most important woman in a century.

In 1996, England won the inaugural Home Nations championship in women's rugby. It was a major victory in the English players' fight for official recognition for their sport. Robert Nicholson talks to Gill Burns and Nicky Ponsford about how the women's game overcame entrenched sexism and official indifference.

Alicia Keys started writing music at 15 years of age and her first album, recorded when she was only 19, won a record five Grammy awards. She talks about growing up in New York's Hell Kitchen, her determination not to be pigeon-holed as a performer or as a woman and how choosing to wear no make-up - even on stage and on camera - has left her more free to be herself. Presented by Babita Sharma.

Two presidential speech writers reveal their top tips for crafting a really memorable speech. Sarada Peri is Special Assistant and Senior Speechwriter to President Obama. She says a good speech writer is like a ghost, and that her job is really to inhabit the President's mind on any given topic. When the first female President of the Republic of Kosovo came into office in 2011, it was Garentina Kraja who she turned to for her speech writing prowess, as well as her policy expertise.

From a Bolero concert to a cancer ward, and from the apartment of a guy who helps Cubans get foreign visas to an Afro-Cuban Santeria ceremony, reporter Deepa Fernandes finds out how ordinary Cuban women have lived, loved and invented their way through dwindling resources and political isolation.

Bouncer, mechanic, taxi driver and firefighter - just some of the jobs being done by women in India today. Divya Arya meets some of the women who are challenging gender stereotypes and breaking down social taboos in order to find work in areas traditionally the preserve of men.

In 2002, the French Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt became perhaps one of the best-known hostages in the world when she was kidnapped and held for over six years, deep in the Colombian jungle, by the Farc. Watching Ingrid's emotional release on TV in 2008, was a young Canadian journalist called Amanda Lindhout. A month later she herself was taken hostage at gun-point, on a work trip to Somalia. For the 460 days of Amanda's captivity, she thought about Ingrid nearly every day, inspired by the thought that she too could one day end her ordeal. This is the first time they have spoken to each other.

Akwasi Sarpong visits Uganda’s thriving coding scene, to find out if home-grown, technology-based solutions can help tackle some of the country’s big development challenges.

Bola Mosuro travels to Ghana to meet the women who are making their mark in the male dominated world of technology, and inspiring young girls to follow in their footsteps.

The Syrian province of Deir Ezzor was taken over by Islamic State militants a year ago. A former teacher explains how she's expected to behave under the control of militants.

American high school student, Delaney Osborne explains the pressure she feels to behave in a certain way. Delaney is 17 years old, pregnant, and living with her mother.

22-year-old Lubov Russkina from the nomadic Khanty tribe in western Siberia explains to Olga Ivshina from the BBC Russian service what it means to be a good girl in her community

Is a relationship more or less likely to fail when a woman is successful? When is it right to put career aspirations on the back burner - to bring up a family? Live debate.

Why aren't there more women in leadership roles - why do men still seem to be ahead, particularly in the corporate world? Are quotas the way to address the gender imbalance? Nuala McGovern chairs.

How important is image? Are beautiful woman more likely to succeed? What has led to so many turning to plastic surgery? Does self improvement come from within or without? Listen to the live debate.

Anu Anand speaks to three women in Delhi with very different experiences of life in this male-dominated country which hint at the big change in the gender balance. Anu Anand speaks to three women in Delhi with very different experiences of life in this male-dominated country. One cooks and cleans for her whole family, a second left home to set up her own designer clothing shop, while the third became the city's only female bus driver. Yet the stories of all three provide a hint at the big change in the gender balance slowly taking hold in this metropolis.

James Fletcher travels to one of America’s poorest cities to meet a passionate group of people working hard to get young, black women into technology and tech jobs.

Dr Comfort Momoh is a campaigner against the practice of female genital mutilation. She currently runs the African Well Woman’s clinic at Guys and St Thomas’ hospital in London, which she founded in 1997 to help women who have been subjected to the procedure.

A Nigerian journalist, Hauwa Yusuf, and student, Abigail Olaley, discuss their arrival and making a life in the UK. Marvina Babs-Apata says that she didn’t know she was black until she arrived in Britain 17 years ago. She was surprised to find that she was defined by her colour and that her new London classmates believed she had lived in a mud hut in her native Nigeria. In the fourth of a series of conversations between different generations of women who have created new lives for themselves in the UK, Marvina chats with 50 year old Hausa journalist Hauwa Yusuf and 21 year old student Abigail Olaley.

Meet Maria Bueno who left El Salvador as a teen and now runs five businesses and a working mother who heads up communications for one of the biggest public transport companies

Fatou Bensouda’s quest for justice began as a young girl in Gambia she was disturbed by the plight of a female relative who suffered domestic abuse. She joined the International Criminal Court – the word’s only permanent war crimes court - in 2004 as a Deputy Prosecutor and has served as Prosecutor since 2012. As Prosecutor, she has prioritised crimes against women and children but that hasn’t silenced critics who accuse the Court of being slow, expensive and only targeting African suspects. She talks to Zeinab Badawi about the allegations of racism and selective justice and whether her gender has been a help or hindrance.

At the age of 18 and speaking barely a word of English, Izabella Brodzinska arrived in Edinburgh in 1957 to live with the father she had never met. Having fought with the British during World War Two, he was unable to return to their home in Poland. In the third of a series of conversations featuring women who have created a new life in the UK and younger female members in their community, Izabella chats with 24-year-old student Magda Greszczuk and 56-year-old Violeta Ilendo who has spent many years working in local government in London and Scotland. Aasmah Mir hosts this intimate and revealing discussion in which the women talk about how the Polish community in Britain has grown and flourished and how the experiences of immigrants, such as Izabella, have influenced the lives of following generations. Young Polish pianist – Edyta Mydlowska – plays Chopin. (Photo: A factory worker checking freshly-made honey cakes on the production line at the Torun Confectionery Works, central Poland in 1976. Credit: Keystone/Getty Images)

Hilary Swank has won Best Actress Academy Awards for her roles in Boys Don’t Cry and Million Dollar Baby. Rajini Vaidyanathan discusses her background, influences and her work with the disadvantaged. Growing up in poverty in a trailer park success wasn’t automatic for her and she has said despite wanting to be an actor since she was 8 years old she never expected to excel in the industry. Now a red carpet regular, Hilary Swank dedicates a lot of time to animal rights, homelessness and cancer charities.

Sania Mirza started playing tennis at the age of 6 and has gone on to become one of the most prominent names in the women’s game. She is considered a national treasure in her native India. But her life off the court has won her fans as well as critics with some of her compatriots questioning her outspokenness on women’s rights and her marrying a man of Pakistani origin. Yogita Limaye talks to her about the ups and downs of celebrity, the objectification of women and encouraging female participation in sport.

The Japanese Prime Minister has promised that within five years, around a third of all Japanese executives will be women. How achievable is that? Mariko Oi reports from Tokyo.

Nomsa Maseko talks to make-up entrepreneur Bobbi Brown about starting out in 1980s New York and her three-decade career developing the clean, polished look she is famous for.

Alek Wek is a model who spent years of her life fleeing from civil war in South Sudan. She talks to Anne Soy about being a model, life as a refugee and her father's lessons.

Two nurses who care around the clock for the sick and dying in Uganda and Singapore, discuss their priorities and experiences. Hear from Rose Kiwanuka and Subadhra Devi Rai.

London’s midwives deliver babies born to mothers from around the world. Smitha Mundasad talks to those who provide care for mothers in one of the world’s most diverse cities.

How does the news serve and represent women? And why, in some countries, do women reject traditional news media for news on social media? A panel of experts on global news discuss

Aasmah Mir hosts an intimate and revealing discussion between three women from the Jamaican diaspora in Handworth, a suburb of Birmingham. Enid Weir arrived in a cold, damp, dark Britain in 1960 and instantly wanted to return to Jamaica. But, at the age of 77, she now calls the UK her home. Joining her is 45-year-old businesswoman Sharon Warmington and 22-year-old student Rheanna Russell. (Photo: A Caribbean woman and three children in London, UK, March 1963. Credit: Evening Standard/Getty Images)

Aasmah Mir hosts an intimate and revealing discussion between three women from the Bangladeshi diaspora in east London. Shaheen Choudhury Westcombe arrived in Britain in 1972 as civil war raged back home in Bangladesh. She was the first woman to train as an architect in Bangladesh but ended up helping her community in the UK through her work for local government. Joining her is 44-year-old Shamshia Ali, who works for a number of Bangladeshi women’s groups, and 27-year-old Shanaz Begum from the Mulberry School for Girls in Tower Hamlets. (Photo: A child in Brick Lane in the East End of London near Whitechapel, 1979. Credit: Evening Standard/Getty Images