On the bright side, Nuala McGovern isn’t Emma Barnett, she of the combative approach to broadcasting. The new presenter of Woman’s Hour is a bright, cheerful experienced broadcaster. She’s Irish, spent time in Italy and America, and has lived and worked in the UK for many years. She covered for Emma B when she was on maternity leave and did well. Mind you, I’ve been going out of my way to avoid Woman’s Hour for years now, with some success. The whole notion of a daily broadcast specially for the ladies seems downright odd, but since it’s now firmly embedded in the schedule, it’s not much use complaining.

All the energy and resources of the state are directed at those who want to farm out their children as early as possible to a childminder or nursery

There has been coverage of McGovern in the papers for saying that she feels there should be space on the programme for women like her who don’t have children. I can’t see the problem there. Most women do have children and some women don’t, though I do think that for a number of women, if not her, not having children is a problem and that should be talked about. About one in five women now doesn’t have a child by the age of 45 and for at least some, in my experience, it’s a matter of not being able to find a satisfactory father to settle down with. And, as McGovern herself says, it’s much more difficult raising children at a time when you can’t easily park a baby with your mother or your aunt to look after, because you live far, far away.

But the issue of diversity in the Woman’s Hour agenda goes beyond all this. Bluntly, the programme seems not always to take on board the perspective of those women – and some men – who would like to raise their own children. All the energy and resources of the state are directed at those who want to farm out their children as early as possible to a childminder or nursery – when the tot is nine months old, if you take up Rishi Sunak’s preferred option. Shouldn’t that be challenged?

For some women this works out fine; they want to return to work as soon as possible. But I shall never forget a conversation with a secretary I worked with who returned from London to her old home and gave up the job to bring up her two children. She was just so very happy spending time with her own daughters. Lots of parents would like to do that; they deserve attention and political space too.

Given we’re talking about half the population as the potential audience for this programme (plus quite a number of fascinated males) the diversity of approach should, I think, extend to notionally feminist subjects. There really wasn’t much doubt about where Emma Barnett stood on the vexed questions of abortion and IVF. How about including women who take a radically different approach? Just a thought.

Meanwhile, Today listeners are sucking their teeth at Emma Barnett’s feisty broadcasting style. In her first day or two she was already talking about putting a condom on a banana (her recollection of sex education). These are early days in a demanding post, but how about channelling, say, Sue MacGregor? Just a thought.