Girls, Girls, Girls – Hilda Matheson

You're listening to Girls, Girls, Girls, the podcast rewriting history one episode at a time. I'm Bea Duncan. Hello and welcome to Girls, Girls, Girls with me, Bea Duncan, here on women's radio station. If you are a regular of the show, you'll probably have noticed that I sound a little bit crisper, maybe a little bit clearer. That is because from now on, I am no longer recording under underneath the blanket in my sitting room. I am recording and broadcasting this podcast with women's radio station, as I mentioned. And so right now I'm in their lovely studios with actual proper mics, which I'm very happy about, I must say. They did have to stop me from trying to throw a blanket over myself. But, you know, it's all good now. I am Suns blanket for those of you who are new. Hello there, first of all, and welcome. I hope that you will stick around. Girls, Girls, Girls is basically just an attempt for me to try and rebalance the history books. There are so many women throughout history in so many different fields, across time periods, across different countries that I think should be household names for whatever reason that may be. I want to make a little bit of a disclaimer here. I am by no means a historian or anything like that. I just love learning about all the amazing women in history that I missed at school and that you probably also missed at school and then being able to pass that knowledge on to you guys. So essentially, every week on the show is a different woman from a different industry field, place, time, period. Really, really super vague. A lot of movement there. Lots of wiggle room. So without further ado, let's just get started. You'll get the hang of it very quickly, I am sure. So today on this program, we're going to be talking about the life of the fantastic Hilda Matheson, who was a broadcasting trailblazer, an absolute inspiration. But first, a little feature that I like to call the cell. Her bration. An incredible pun there, I must say. Thank you very much. This segment is basically an opportunity for me to shout out a woman that I think is doing great things in their community or their industry. And it's basically anyone who's inspired me in some way in the past week or so. So this week I want to celebrate Olivia Munn, who is an actor in the upcoming film the Predator. She caused a little bit of controversy recently. She attempted to get a scene cut from the film that she is working on because she found out that one of the other actors that was in this scene was actually a registered sex offender. And the actor in question was a friend of the director's, but he has issued a public ap. But Munn has basically said he has not contacted her directly at all. And she has been kind of ignored by the rest of her cast members, slightly shunned, ostracized, I guess, by the community for having spoken out about this. And it's a hard thing to speak out about things like this, no matter how famous you are, no matter what blockbusters you're in, anything like that, speaking out about other people and injustice that you see can be really scary. And as I said, Mun has found a lot of her fellow cast members not reaching out to her, not backing her. They've been leaving, backing out of scheduled interviews that they had together, all because she has spoken out and said that she doesn't think this is right. So, yes, I think that Mun is incredibly worthy of a huge celebration for doing what she thinks is the right thing, sticking to her guns, even though that did mean being kind of left out by her fellow cast members. Now, as this is my first show here on women's radio station, I thought I would honour it, as I've said, by covering a woman who was trailblazer in, you guessed it, radio. Now, just before I get into it, don't forget that you can contact the studio, womensradiostn on Twitter or you can contact me, gggpod, if you've got any comments, any questions, suggestions, anything, literally, please do. Feel free. I love hearing from listeners. I love getting recommendations of people that you guys think I should cover because I can always learn more as well, and I like doing that. So there's been quite a large backlash recently around women in radio, specifically the pay gap in radio. There's been a lot of conversations surrounding that. I didn't know this, but women make up just 20% of radio directors, which is ridiculous. And not only that, but when it comes to podcasts, which is obviously where this show was born from, only 33% of all podcast hosts are women. So even in audio radio, anything like that, there is a large discrepancy between the genders. So when you think about it like that, it's even more incredible when we think about Hilda Matheson, who basically created talk radio, and without her, who knows if I would even be doing this right now? So Hilda was born on June 7, 1888, in Putney in London. And after four years at a boarding school, she decided that she wanted to study history at Cambridge. But due to a change in her dad's health, the entire family uprooted and they moved to Europe. They went from France to Germany to Italy. And despite this slight inconvenience, it did mean that she ended up being fluent in all three of those languages. So that definitely would have been a help. They moved back to the UK in 1908 and her dad became the chaplain for Oxford University. And that meant that Hilda was kind of able to do what she'd always wanted to do at the Society of Oxford Home Students, which at the time was an all female college at Oxford, and It's since become St. Anne's College. But at that time, because women were not allowed to receive university degrees, while she did technically complete her university education in history, never actually got the piece of paper to prove it, so that is a massive shame. But she did technically complete her degree in history from Oxford, and when World War I hit, she actually ended up being recruited by the real life Lawrence of Arabia to be an MI5 operative. Which, you know, is an incredible story in and of itself and would be worthy of a discussion. But we've got to move on because there's a lot more to do with radio to come. Following this, she went on to be the political secretary for Lady Nancy Astor, who herself was a trailblazer in that she was the first British woman to ever be voted into Parliament. And this would turn out to be one of the best moves that Hilda could ever make. As you can imagine, she met so many different people through Lady Astor, one of whom being John Reith, who was the head of the BBC at that time. So she was headhunted by him 1926. And this was only about four years after the conception of the BBC, so it was very young, it had basically just been started and there was a lot of stuff that could be done with it. She started off at the Beebe as the assistant to J.C. stobar, who was at that time the head of the Education Department. And at this time, BBC radio was simply a deliverer of news. So Reuters would be written, would write the bulletins, and then newsreaders at the BBC would just read them out. There was no reporting, there was no kind of commentary to be had on it. That was literally it. And this was the status quo until 1928, which is quite amazing to imagine. By 1927, Hilda became the first ever director of talks at the BBC. Now, I want you to just let that sink in. It's 1927 and she is not just the first female director, the first director ever of talks at the BBC. So she headed up this department. And she was the first, and it was a really groundbreaking appointment. I mean, she was a woman, for one. She had no official university degree. She was very left leaning. She was a socialist sympathiser, a feminist. And on top of all of that, she was also a lesbian, which obviously she was keeping a secret. But it is still incredible that the kind of trailblazer in this department was all of those things combined. The requirement for the BBC to only read bulletins was lifted in 1928, as I said, and so they could finally kind of start reporting. And Hilda was a vital component in creating the standards for factual reporting for a variety of topics, many of which are kind of still adhered to today. So she was really important in that first time when they were starting to delve into the reporting side of things. Now, Reith was worried that the British public would not go for Matteson's kind of new style of broadcasting. So in his opinion, it was very Americanized and he basically wasn't quite convinced. So in order to sway him, she put together a list of really, really impressive guests to come through and to be on show, from George Bernard Shaw to H.G. wells to Virginia Woolf. And as a matter of fact, and this story is quite funny, Virginia Woolf was not actually Hilda's biggest fan. They were essentially competitors in love because Hilda was involved in an affair with the poet Vita Sackville west, who Virginia had also been involved with. So there was a little bit of a lover's quarrel between the two, which is, I think, quite amusing. Hilda was not just a talented broadcaster, but she was also very politically aware. And she found very, very good ways to kind of combine the two. So in 1918, the representation of the People's act was passed. And this was the act that gave women the right to vote. But some women, specifically those over the age of 21 and with property, et cetera, et cetera. But Hilda took it upon herself to create a new program called called Questions for Women Voters. And in the program she was essentially trying to educate the new voters in the upcoming elections who would have been vital, it would have been vital in making sure they felt included and kind of had their own informed choices about what they wanted to vote for. Just to let you guys know, if you want to listen to any programs again, including Girls, Girls, Girls, you can of course, visit www.womensradiostation.com WRS Women's Radio Station Voice of Women Worldwide. Sarah's Universal Soul Show. What does your soul or spirituality mean to you? Welcome to future Classical Woman Awards with me, Stefania Passamonte on Women's Radio Station. Welcome back. I'm Russ Cain. You're listening to in conversation with on Women's Radio Station. I'm Angie. 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Supporting women is our passion. We're currently welcoming donations to help towards our running to keep this important initiative alive. To donate, simply head to our website. Every little will help. You're listening to Girls, Girls Girls, the podcast rewriting history one episode at a time. I'm Bea Duncan. Welcome back to Girls, Girls Girls with me, Bea Duncan, here on Women's Radio Station. So today we are talking about Hilda Matheson. She was an incredible broadcaster and trailblazer at the BBC. And we're in the middle of discussing the incredible stuff that she did in terms of political enfranchising of women. So as well as the Questions for Women Voters program that she made, she also began a show called the Week in Westminster, which was specifically education by female MPs about kind of how Parliament worked. And it was another way that she could educate new voters and make them feel like they were basically more included, because there's probably nothing scarier than kind of getting the vote but not knowing what to do with it, really. So that was a really, really important program that she made. And incredibly, she was also the first person ever to organize a live debate between the leaders of the three main political parties which was broadcast out on the BBC, on BBC Radio. And it seems incredible that no one had ever thought to do that before. And I suppose that was to do with the regulations restrictions that were there at the BBC. But the fact that I never knew she was the first person to do this really speaks volumes, let's put it that way. So although Ruth had kind of been her ticket, I guess, into broadcasting, as the years went on, their differing opinions in politics and ways of working began to drive a wedge between them. And the final straw was when Matheson booked a Labour member and a miners strike supporter named Harold Nicholson to analyse Lady Shatterley's lover and Ulysses on air. And Ruth basically refused to allow him onto the show. He thought it would confuse the right wing listeners and himself probably as well. And so Matheson, infuriated by this censorship and already being at her wit's end with him, basically decided to leave the BBC in 1931. So this is when she, I guess, started her second half, her second least life and of her career, which included a lot more chopping and changing around and trying out lots of different places and careers. So by the January of the next year after she left the BBC, she was working as the radio critic at the Observer. So, you know, just a little thing, just something small. And with her relationship with Evita over, she now began a long term relationship with Dorothy Wellesley, who was none other than the Duchess of Wellington. She sure knows how to pick them, I'll give her that. So she moved to East Sussex onto her estate and the two of them lived there in a long term relationship. And by 1933 she had been asked to write a book called Quite Simply Broadcasting, which I like, I like the simplicity and I like the vagueness as well. It was essentially just about radio technology and the Changing landscape of broadcasting, which Hilda had been a massive part of, especially having been at the BBC kind of in its early years. Shortly after the book was published, she began then working as a secretary for Malcolm Hayley for what was known as the African Survey. She ended up being more of a manager of the project than a secretary, especially as he kind of had ailing health. And she basically took over. And the report contained nearly 2,000 pages of data and it was published in November of 1938. For her efforts, Matheson was awarded an OBE in the following year. So it was all worth it. A lot, A lot, A lot of work went into that and she basically ran most of it. So it's good that she got recognition for that. In 1939, she began working as the director of the Joint Broadcasting Committee. Now, what these guys were trying to do was essentially counteract German propaganda. So they would broadcast British opinion programs onto radio stations in other places. So they would specifically target neutral European countries, Latin American countries, but as well as kind of trying to sneak these programs into Germany and into Italy. And it was really just a way of trying to neutralize out the propaganda, I guess, with more propaganda. But, you know, but it was very important and the fact that she was given that job says a lot about the people in her field and how much they respected her. Sadly, through all of this time, Hilda was battling something called Graves disease, and it was after a very serious surgery on her thyroid in October of 1940 that she eventually did die in a nursing home in Surrey. So the fact she'd done all of this while being quite, quite unwell and obviously worrying about her health is again, amazing. And she really did live an absolutely amazing, inspirational life. I mean, especially for someone like me who is involved in broadcasting myself. So I'm very, very glad to have been able to kind of share this story of Hilda Matteson to you. For my first ever episode here on women's radio station, radio and audio is still very much a man's game, I would say, even though it is getting better slowly. And so for her to have been able to achieve so much at that time is simply awe inspiring. And I hope that you would agree as well. So, yeah, you have been listening to Girls, Girls, Girls with me, Bea Duncan, here on Women's Radio Station. And if you wanted to listen again or catch up on any previous programs, you can head to the presenters page on womensradiostation.com now, as always, don't forget to head to womensradiostn on Twitter or GGGPod as well, as I said earlier, I do love it when people give me recommendations of women to go and discover, because there are so many women out there, so. So many who have yet to be uncovered. So if you have anyone who would be great, then please do let me know. And if you still haven't quite got enough of Hilda, I'm going to leave you with a couple of examples of the types of programming that she would have been producing on the BBC. So I will see you guys next week and enjoy. Sample. Hello? Hello? Exchange, supervision, operations, aberrations. Hello? Hello. Who is that? Engineers. You again? Well, now, what's gone wrong? Engineers, I say. No, no. Who's gone? What's gone wrong? Why are you tinkling my bell every two minutes? Two hours ago you told me I was in working order. I've been as dead as mutton ever since. I mean, you say this sort of thing can't go on, you know, first you put me right, then you put me up of order again. What's the idea? Here I am trying to pluck a duck in the pantry, down up to my eyes, feathers in my hat, my hair. And every two minutes I have to rush in here because my bell's being tickled. I mean to say, you're. You're tickling it to death. You. You're testing the line. Well, stop testing it. It's not worth testing. Give it up. Throw it away. There's no hope for it. It's been an invalid for years. And another thing. Why. Yeah, why? Why is that man of yours still up the pole outside my bathroom window? What, that? Yes, but he must have been all there all night. Isn't he ever coming down? Doesn't he want to eat? Doesn't he? Hasn't he got a mother? That's all very well, you know, but I haven't been able to have a bath for two days. Mr. Feather doesn't like it at all. Besides, I've told you, the seat of the trouble isn't up there. As long as my wires are draped over Colonel Knox's cox's pipin trees. And while he's busy pruning them, we'll be in a pickle. They're just too old to stand the racket, that's all. I say, the root of the trouble is Cox's noxes. Knox's coxes. Until he's pruned, his pippins will be pickled. What? Now, look here, I. I don't wish to jest with you. All I want is to get my duck plucked and to have a bath. And I can't have it as long as this man is up as far up the pole. What was he doing up there anyway? He's in the observer corpse. Well, let him go and observe someone else's corpse. He started talking to himself. Now I can see him from here. I'm sure he's got a loose crew somewhere. What's he waiting for to come down? Waiting for me to have a bath. I've never. I've never heard of such. I've never heard of such. A. Report this at once. I'll report you to engineer. What's your name? Who are you? What's your number? Your number's up. You're the man I'm talking to the man of the pole. Oh, I. I've never. I've never been so insulted. I, I Exchange. Exchange quick. I want supervisor. I've been overlooked. Up the pole. I've been watched by a pole. I'm being supervised in my butt. I say. I want to be supervised. Hello? Hello? Nothing's gone wrong again. Would you believe it? Oh, and my cat's got my duck. Help. Help, someone. This is London calling. Here is the last news bulletin for today. The time through which we are now passing is of exceptional character. And the present strike is of a nature quite unlike the many others which have preceded it. There is no moral justification for a general strike of this character. It is a direct challenge to a lawfully constituted authority and inflicts without adequate reason immense discomfort and injury on military of our fellow countrymen. It is therefore a sin against the obedience which we owe to God who is the source of that authority and against the charity and brotherly love which we owe to our brethren. A drunken man, a rowdy man is your enemy and mine. We need clear heads in this struggle. The decontrol of London's milk tomorrow, Wednesday and the cessation of the milk pool in Hyde park are inevitably causing disorganization in the trade. This disorganization will be greatly intensified after decontrol by the non return of milk churns to their proper channels of distribution. You've been listening to Girls, Girls, Girls with Bea Duncan. On women's radio station. Welcome to women's radio station. The voice of women worldwide. Hungry. An average woman eats about 2 to 3 kilos of lemon lipstick in her lifetime. Women's radio station, we want to hear from you. This is women's radio station. You're listening to Avril Price with Kitchen Sink Spirituality. It's Anna Kennedy talking all things autism and My guest today is Karen Nunn. I listen to women's radio station Women. The possibilities are endless. That's what makes us different. I'm Isabelle Manavy, an executive coach. Do you want to change a negative into a positive? We can do this by coaching you to rewire your brain using simple visualization techniques. In 20 years of practice, I've seen this transform lives. For more information, look on Women's Radio website. Call me on 079-844-22171. I'm listening. Let me tell you about Jermyn Street Theatre. This is a secret theatre in the heart of the West End. Once found, never forgotten, this is where careers ignite, where playwrights take risks, where great actors perform just feet away from the audience. This is where magic happens. We would love you to join our mailing list or become a sponsor or just buy a ticket to one of our shows. The website is www.germanstreettheatre.co.uk. i'm Angie. And I'm Patsy and we're open to share our own personal stories dealing with life events. Staying positive through the tough times. Share your stories too. What worked, what didn't? Join us each week for Open. We know you're gonna love it. 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