The Woman's Hour Debate, radio review: Why labelling porn as a woman's issue is a turn-off

The Radio 4 panellists examined the dehumanising effects of online porn and whether it can ever, really, be good for women

Host Jane Garvey revealed how she'd 'spent an informative hour or two watching porn at work' (Getty Images)

"I look forward to when we don't need one day for 50 per cent of the population," said St Vincent, aka the musician Annie Clark, on 6Music's Mary Anne Hobbs on Sunday. Amen to that, though right now International Women's Day is a sad necessity – a fact that is as clear on mainstream radio as it is anywhere else.

This time last year Radio 1 hosted a 39-hour female takeover, in the process making a powerful statement about how, in the 21st century, all-woman workforces are the exception and male ones frequently the rule. This year, however, the station's sisterhood-supporting principles were a distant memory as male presenters were at the helm from the 4am slot on Sunday morning all the way until 4am on Monday, when Gemma Cairney was graciously allowed on air. That's a whole 24 hours of male presenters on International Women's Day. Way to go, Radio 1.

On Radio 3 the gender balance was better with the network given over to highlighting music by women through the ages, though of course it raised the inevitable question as to why female composers don't get a higher billing as a matter of course.

Still, on The Early Music Show we had Lucie Skeaping looking at the life and music of Barbara Strozzi, while on The Choir, along with Hildegard of Bingen's Symphonia and Ethel Smyth's The March of the Women, there was a raucous live performance of "Army of Birds" from the all-girl punk choir Gaggle.

On Radio 4, The Woman's Hour Debate brought a polite yet impassioned Sunday afternoon discussion about the empowering nature (or not) of porn from London's Southbank Centre.

There was a stern relish in the host Jane Garvey's warning: "If you don't want to hear a wide-ranging and frank conversation about pornography, then turn off." In the event, there was precious little trauma or titillation to be had as panellists – among them the businesswoman Sam Roddick, the psychotherapist Susie Orbach and the producer of feminist porn Pandora Blake – examined the dehumanising effects of online porn and whether it can ever, really, be good for women.

Garvey, who remarked that her own sexual proclivities were probably "vanilla", revealed how she'd "spent an informative hour or two watching porn at work". It was, clearly, a dispiriting experience. "I don't want to watch women in pain," she said.

While there was broad agreement when it came to particular notions – that it's the porn industry that is damaging women, not the concept of porn; that shaming users is neither helpful nor fair – others, such as if porn actresses can be happy in their work and whether feminist porn can transform the industry, proved more divisive.

If the 40-minute time slot seemed meagre for such a huge and emotive topic, this was still a smart, passionate and much-needed discussion. That it should be aired in honour of International Women's Day, and not because, y'know, internet porn is a huge and newsworthy issue that affects us all is, of course, absurd.

When these so-called "women's issues" stop being seen as women's issues and when such discussions are aired without fear or self-congratulatory fanfare, that's when radio will be doing its job properly and giving women the respect that they are due.

Twitter: @FionaSturges