In Conversation - Episode Guide

In just ten years Alek Wek went from dodging bullets in the south of Sudan to becoming one of the world's most sought after models. As a teenager she made the perilous journey to London, seeking asylum, and before long broke into the fashion industry at a time when dark-skinned models were rare. She now campaigns for victims of war as one of UNHCR's goodwill ambassadors. She tells Anne Soy her remarkable story.

Bobbi Brown began her career at a time when the blonde, Scandinavian look was in vogue. Fed up with the lack of make-up being marketed towards women who looked like her, she created her own products targeted at women of all shades. She launched her eponymous brand in 1990 with a small collection of lipsticks which quickly sold out in stores. With a career spanning over three decades, Bobbi Brown has become synonymous with the clean, polished look coveted by women around the world. Nomsa Maseko talks to her about building a successful business and encouraging inclusiveness in an exclusive industry.

Sania Mirza is one of India's most iconic sports stars, who has helped to raise the profile of tennis in a country obsessed with cricket. She is currently world number 1 in the women's doubles rankings, the first Indian to achieve the feat. She has a huge fan following in India and has also been a very vocal champion of women's rights in the country, having been targeted by critics for her gender, religion and even whom she chose to marry. Yogita Limaye talks to Mirza about her journey and the many controversies she has had to face along the way.

 Hilary Swank is a two time Oscar-winning actor who has taken on some of Hollywood's grittiest roles. She comes from humble beginnings - she grew up in a trailer park and lived in a car until she got her big break. Now she is as much an advocate as she is an actor with her campaigns for transgender rights as well as working with military families. Rajini Vaidyanathan talks to her about her rise to the top and being a woman in Hollywood.

The International Criminal Court in The Hague is a rare international institution because it's headed by a woman. The ICC's critics say it is slow and expensive. It's also controversial because so far all its cases have come from Africa. The ICC's prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, is a lawyer from Gambia. Zeinab Badawi talks to her about justice, gender, race and leading an institution that is rarely out of the news.

She started writing music at 15 years old, and her first album won a record five Grammy Awards. Alicia Keys is now one of the biggest selling R&B performers of her generation and widely recognised to be one of the best soul singers of all time.

For the BBC's 100 Women season, Babita Sharma speaks to Alicia Keys.

Born in Uganda into a wealthy family, Shriti Vadera was exiled to India following Idi Amin's expulsion of all of Uganda's Asians. At 15, she asked to go to boarding school in the UK in order to avoid an arranged marriage. She has stayed in the UK and built a reputation as a formidable economist.

Now the chairwoman of Santander UK, Shriti Vadera is one of Europe's leading bankers. For this special edition of the BBC's 100 Women season, Shriti Vadera speaks in depth to Laura Kuennsberg.

She has been called the greatest gymnast of all time, a sporting superstar who stunned audiences at the Rio Olympics. But at 19 and with four new gold medals to her name, Simone Biles is ready to reflect on what the future now holds. Adopted by her grandparents, as her biological mother struggled with addictions, Simone achieved sporting excellence against the odds. For this special edition of the BBC's 100 Women season, Rajini Vaidyanathan speaks at length to Simone Biles.

Born into an impoverished French/Moroccan Muslim family, the rise of Rachida Dati to high office has been remarkable. A former French minister of justice, she's now a member of the European Parliament. And yet Rachida Dati is never far from controversy. She's made a career of challenging the comfortable ways of the French establishment, and she remains a tough right-wing voice in politics. Single motherhood has kept this politician in the public eye and pitched her against the values of her family. For this special edition of the BBC's 100 Women season, Rachida Dati speaks in depth to Yalda Hakim.

She grew up in the spotlight that came with her grandfather's iconic status and enjoyed all the privilege that her family's fame had to offer her. And yet the life of Zoleka Mandela - granddaughter of the globally revered South African leader Nelson Mandela - has been anything but easy. She suffered abuse as a child and went on to struggle with alcohol and drug addiction. Now, as she finds happiness in her personal life, Zoleka Mandela has been diagnosed with an aggressive breast cancer and is, once again, in a fight for her life. For this special edition of the BBC's 100 Women season, Nomsa Maseko speaks to Zoleka Mandela about her extraordinary life.

As part of the BBC's 100 Women season, we look at a group of inspirational cheerleading grandmothers in Arizona who refuse to act their age.

Nuala McGovern heads to Silicon Valley in the United States to examine why so few women get a seat at the boardroom table.

Divya Arya is in Delhi to unravel the complex reasons why education in India is often regarded as more important for boys.

The 100 Women Challenge is in London and Nairobi, where rates of assaults on women using public transport are very high.

Julia Carneiro is in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro tackling the issue of sexism in sport.

In this 100 Women special interview Zeinab Badawi talks to deputy secretary general of the United Nations Amina Mohammed about what her gender, identity and past experiences bring to the job. A former politician with conservative roots in north east Nigeria, she is one of the most powerful women in global affairs. But she says she's an African first and will be heading back when her time at the United Nations is up.

Julia Gillard made history when she became Australia's first female prime minister in 2010. But her three years in office were overshadowed by misogynistic attacks from her opponents and dysfunction within her party. Since leaving politics, she has used her experience to help advance women and girls around the world through the promotion of education and leadership. In this special 100 Women interview, Yalda Hakim asks her to draw on her personal experiences and what advice would she give women who are struggling to break through their own glass ceilings.

In a special 100 Women interview, Samira Hussain talks to the president of the New York Stock Exchange. Stacey Cunningham is the first woman to occupy that post and is one of a few women in very senior positions in a very male-dominated industry. She talks about her rise from the trading floor to the top of the institution, society's expectations of women and if her industry is due its #MeToo moment.

Isabel Allende is one of the most acclaimed writers in the world. Her novels, which draw on her own eventful life in her fiction, telling stories of love, exile and loss, have sold more than 70 million copies and have been translated from Spanish into 42 languages. In this 100 Women interview the Chilean author talks to Kirsty Wark about the power of storytelling, her previous life as a refugee and her desire to live a passionate life.

Following a year that saw gender politics catapulted to the fore and many women across the world speaking out, the BBC 100 Women season spotlights the trailblazing women who have turned their feelings of anger and indignation into a moment of action. In the two-part series, Trailblazers, 100 Women hears from women as they reflect on the moment they decided to stand up - and the change they inspired. In this first episode 100 Women speaks to Shaparak Shajarizadeh, a woman from Iran who protested against compulsory hijabs, and Russian model Svetlana Alekseeva, who was severely scarred as a child and is now baring the marks on her skin to inspire body positivity.

One woman in El Salvador is trying to say enough is enough when it comes to femicides, as the country has the worst rate in the world. Graciela Sagastume Lopez is the newly appointed special prosecutor against femicides and BBC 100 Women follows her in action trying to put a halt to the wave of murders that has made the country infamous. The film also hears from families of victims, international lawyers fighting for justice and reformed men trying to address male issues of identity and machismo - exploring why El Salvador consistently ranks number one in the world for women murdered by their intimate partner and what is being done about it.

This is the surrogate mothers' club: women that volunteer to give birth to a stranger's child and receive only expenses in exchange. 100 Women speaks to the founder of Canadian Fertility Consulting and follows three altruistic surrogate mothers in Canada, as they navigate the emotional challenges of giving life to a baby that they will say goodbye to after birth. In a forward-thinking country that's seen a dramatic increase in surrogacy of an estimated 400% over the last decade, the programme meets the women behind the statistics to find out why they do it.

It was a year that saw gender politics catapulted to the fore and many women across the world speaking out. In the two-part series, Trailblazers, the BBC 100 Women season spotlights the trailblazing women who have turned their feelings of anger and indignation into a moment of action. In this second episode the programme interviews Vicky Phelan, an Irish mother who exposed a cervical cancer scandal, and Park Soo-yeon who took on South Korea's spy cams. Plus in Peru, BBC 100 Women speaks to Cindy Arlette Contreras Bautista, who became the face of a campaign against domestic violence when a video of her being attacked by her boyfriend went viral.

Following recent sexual abuse allegations against several high profile creatives, should we be pausing for thought before going to the cinema, the art gallery or the bookshop?

In the 1990s, Vienna did an urban revamp involving female architects. Now Barcelona is trying different ways to replicate this, via their mayor, local architects and organisations.

For thousands of years, the Inupiat people lived off the land. Nomadic hunters, chasing targets, depending on the seasons. Now those weather patterns have utterly and irreversibly shifted. Locals say that sea ice used to form in September. Now, it forms in October or as late as November. The Arctic is warming at least twice as fast as the rest of the globe, according to the Arctic Program Report Card. Climate change is threatening Inupiats' survival - both physically and mentally. Inupiat women are trying to hold their families together through it all. Life on Thin Ice follows three generations of Inupiat women - a grandmother, mother and daughter - to see what direct human impact climate change has had on the community. What else have they lost along with the ice?

In an exclusive interview in Kyiv, Ukraine's first lady Olena Zelenska speaks to BBC 100 Women.

There are over a billion Catholics around the world. Women have always played a significant role in the life of the Church, but they have been excluded from the Catholic hierarchy. A number of devotees feel called upon to serve God as priests, yet the Vatican has never allowed female ordination. Now, there's a growing movement to change this. Over 200 women have chosen to be ordained, despite knowing they will be excommunicated from the Church.

BBC 100 Women follows two women who have been ordained in the US and Colombia. Is there a future for women priests? And can this change happen in our lifetime?

BBC 100 Women meets US singer-songwriter Billie Eilish.

With the rise of K-pop music globally, there has also been a growing phenomenon of hyper-realistic avatars in girl bands. BBC 100 Women takes a look at the impact of these flawless fantasy artists.

Rita Moreno talks to BBC 100 Women about stereotypes and representation on the big screen, as well as life as a Latina icon today.

In an interview with BBC 100 Women's Yogita Limaye, Priyanka Chopra Jonas speaks about her experience with pay parity, body shaming and the pressure social media can bring.

Selma Blair made a name for herself in cult classics of the 1990s and 2000s, including Legally Blonde and Hellboy. And while the US actress once described herself as not being a 'world-famous bombshell', she's amassed millions of fans. She was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2018, and her honesty on the subject has made her an inspiration for many people living with chronic conditions.

In conversation with Sophie Long for BBC 100 Women, Blair talks about the impact her diagnosis has had on her career and the need for more inclusivity in the film industry.

Oscar-nominated actor Elliot Page speaks to the BBC's gender and identity correspondent Megha Mohan about his childhood, Hollywood, trans rights and his relationship with his body.

In Conversation is a collaboration between BBC Three and the BBC World Service.