What happens
The Pacific Story presents a survey of women's changing place in Eastern nations after the Second World War. It follows Japanese women voting for the first time, with the campaign for equal suffrage that led to it and the leader Shizue Katō among those who fought for it. The program then moves to the Philippines, India and China, describing how women there pressed for political rights, faced tradition and resistance, and took on new roles during war. Each section ties their struggles to a wider theme of women gaining a greater voice in public life across Asia.
Japan, the Philippines, India and China, covering the early twentieth century through the years after the Second World War
Characters: Shizue Katō, Sarojini Naidu, Madam Chiang Kai-shek
Listen for: The contrast between the old traditions that confined women and the new voice women gain in each country's public life
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.