On TV & Radio: Women's History Month

KQED is proud to celebrate Women's History Month in March with a special TV and radio programming lineup. Premiere dates are listed below. Please click on each program for additional airdates and information.

KQED 88.5 FM

Wednesday, March 13
8pm Reporting Women (BBC)
Lyse Doucet hosts this hour-long exploration of how young women around the world perceive news coverage — and which stories they think the media is missing.

Thursday, March 21
8pm Witness: Women's History Month (BBC)
The BBC World Service presents this new edition of its Witness program to celebrate women’s lives and stories. Audiences will hear interviews with Eleanor Roosevelt’s granddaughter, a woman who ran a secret school for girls in Afghanistan under the Taliban and the astounding journey of one of Latin America’s most popular politicians.

Thursday, March 28
8pm The Women of War
Alongside the army of men on the front lines of conflict was an army of women in support roles. From the Red Cross volunteers who boosted morale to the nurses who treated injuries, women were a major part of soldiers' experience of the war. We hear the stories of some of these women, and how women's roles in Vietnam reflected the gender norms of the era.  

Women describe the toll it took remaining smiling and optimistic in the face of so much tragedy, and how PTSD is not limited to combat veterans. The war also upended the lives of millions of women at home, some of whom turned to activism in an effort to bring their husbands home. We tell the stories of war wives who allied with anti-war activists to bring about the return of POWs.

KQED 9

Saturday, 3/2
6pm Anne Morrow Lindbergh: You’ll Have the Sky
This film brings one of the 20th century’s best-loved writers out from the shadow of her controversial husband, Charles Lindbergh.

Sunday, 3/3
11:30pm Perfect 36: When Women Won The Vote
This documentary chronicles the dramatic vote to ratify the 19th Amendment, and the years of debate about women’s suffrage that preceded it.

Wednesday, 3/6
9pm Great Performances: Joni 75: A Birthday Celebration (NEW)
The songs of legendary singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell are among the most sublime musical landscapes of human emotion ever created. On the occasion of Mitchell's 75th birthday on November 7, 2018, an all-star line-up of performers gathered at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles to celebrate, including Brandi Carlile, Norah Jones, Graham Nash and more, performing Joni Mitchell songs from throughout the varied stylistic periods of her groundbreaking career.

Monday, 3/11
11pm Behind The Pearl Earrings: The Story of Dickey Chapelle Combat Photographer
This compelling documentary explores Chapelle's storytelling and her intriguing journey as a combat journalist, which paved the way for other female war correspondents.

Thursday, 3/21
11pm Anne Morgan's War (NEW)
This film chronicles how American heiress Anne Morgan poured both her own fortune and the fruits of intense fundraising into rebuilding Picardy, a region in northern France which had been devastated by the Great War.

Friday, 3/22

8pm Madame Mars: Women and the Quest for Worlds Beyond (NEW)
This film reframes the story of space exploration as a feminist issue, connecting the original space age that denied opportunities to women to current Mars initiatives that lack a full commitment to diversity. Space feminist Dr. Jan Millsapps spent four years finding and amplifying the stories of women who have worked in the shadows of more visible men — female engineers, scientists, doctors, technicians — and of aspiring Martians, women currently preparing to live and work on Mars.

8:30pm Hedy Lamarr: American Masters
Discover the story of the most beautiful woman in the world, who was also an ingenious inventor. Her pioneering work helped revolutionize modern communication, including WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth.

10pm Great Performances: Birgit Nilsson: A League of Her Own (NEW)
Celebrate the life of Swedish soprano Birgit Nilsson, the face of opera in the 1950s-70s. This performance-documentary showcases her greatest roles, including Elektra and The Ring Cycle, in rare footage.

Monday, 3/25
9pm Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg In Conversation (NEW)
Brooklyn-born Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is the second woman ever appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States. She sits down with NPR legal correspondent Nina Totenberg for a wide-ranging conversation about her quarter century on the nation's highest bench, her 2016 book My Own Words and her continuing commitment to principled dissent.

10pm Women, War & Peace: Wave Goodbye to Dinosaurs (NEW)
Discover the story of the Catholic and Protestant women who come together during Northern Ireland's bloody civil war and fight to ensure that human rights, equality and inclusion shape the historic Good Friday Agreement peace deal.

11pm Women, War & Peace: The Trials of Spring (NEW)
Follow three Egyptian women as they put their lives and bodies on the line fighting for justice and freedom. The film tells the story of Egypt's Arab Spring, the human rights abuses that came to define it and the women willing to risk everything.

Tuesday, 3/26

9pm Holly Near: American Masters (NEW)
Experience the power of song in the struggle for equality through the story of feminist singer and activist Holly Near, who for the last 40 years has worked on global social justice coalition-building in the women's and lesbian movements.

10pm Women, War & Peace: Naila and the Uprising (NEW)
Discover the story of a courageous, nonviolent women's movement that formed the heart of the Palestinian struggle for freedom during the 1987 uprising.

11pm Women, War & Peace: A Journey of a Thousand Miles: Peacekeepers (NEW)
Embark on a risky yearlong U.N. peacekeeping mission into earthquake-ravaged Haiti with an all-female Bangladeshi police unit.

Wednesday, 3/27
11pm Warrior Women (NEW)
Warrior Women is the untold story of American Indian Movement activists who fought for civil rights in the '70s, anchored by one of the Red Power Movement's most outspoken Lakota leaders, Madonna Thunder Hawk, and her daughter Marcy Gilbert.

Friday, 3/29
9pm Great Performances: Julius Caesar (NEW)
Experience Shakespeare as never before in an all-female production from the Donmar Warehouse set in prison.

Sunday, 3/31
7pm Suffragettes — How Women Really Won The Vote (NEW)
In this dramatised documentary, popular historian Lucy Worsley tells the story of a group of astonishing, young working-class suffragettes who decided to go against every rule and expectation that Edwardian society had about them.

KQED Plus

Friday, 3/1
6pm Makers: Women in Comedy
Track the rise of women in the world of comedy, from the "dangerous" comedy of 70s sitcoms like "Maude" to the groundbreaking women of the 1980s American comedy club boom to today's multi-faceted landscape.  

Thursday, 3/7
6pm In Their Own Words: Queen Elizabeth II
Follow Queen Elizabeth II's remarkable life, from her youth to her uncle's abdication, her father's coronation as King George VI, her experience during World War II, her sudden ascension to the throne and her eventful reign of more than 60 years.

Friday, 3/8
6pm Makers: Women in Hollywood
Follow the women of showbiz, from the earliest pioneers to present-day power players, as they influence the creation of one of the country's biggest commodities: entertainment. Hear from Shonda Rhimes, Glenn Close, Zoe Saldana and more.

Thursday, 3/14
11:30am Finding Refuge
The efforts of one dying woman to preserve her Native culture don't end when she passes, but prompt a renewal in finding pride in that culture. She confronts the violent event over two centuries ago that began with the destruction of her people and the shame that colonialism created.

Friday, 3/15
6pm Makers: Women in Space
Trace the history of women pioneers in the U.S. space program.

Thursday, 3/21
10pm Louisa May Alcott: American Masters
Hear the story behind Louisa May Alcott, who was actually a free thinker with democratic ideals and progressive values about women. Under the pseudonym A.M. Barnard, she led a literary double life, undiscovered until the 1940s.

Friday, 3/22
6pm Makers: Women in Politics
View profiles of women in public office who were “firsts” in their fields and explore the challenges confronting American women in politics.

Friday, 3/29
10am Portraits for the Home Front: The Story of Elizabeth Black
This program explores Elizabeth Black’s lost art career and her distinguished service during WWII in the American Red Cross.

6pm Makers: Women in Business
Hear about the exceptional women – past and present – who have taken the world of business by storm. Told by female business leaders themselves, this film is a candid exploration of what it takes to make it.

Saturday, 3/30
7pm Closing the Gap: 50 Years Seeking Equal Pay
On average, women still make 77 cents for every dollar earned by men. This program explores the factors contributing to the wage gap and strategizes on ways to attain equal pay.

Sunday, 3/31
7pm Women Outward Bound
This film profiles the first group of young women to participate in an Outward Bound survival school course in 1965 and chronicles their experiences in the wild with archival footage, family home videos, photos and stunning aerial footage.

10:30pm Penny: Champion of the Marginalized
Get to know Penny Cooper, a celebrated criminal defense attorney, art collector, supporter of female artists and protector of the underdog.

KQED WORLD

Friday, 3/1
4pm Independent Lens: Dolores
Meet Dolores Huerta, one of the most defiant and unheralded feminist activists of the 20th century.

Saturday, 3/2
4pm Finding Your Roots: The Long Way Home
Discover how actress Julianna Margulies, author Azar Nafisi and chef Lidia Bastianich are bound together by their ancestors' singular and deeply human desire to preserve their most cherished traditions.

6pm Keeper of the Beat: A Woman’s Journey into the Heart of Drumming
This award-winning documentary reveals the life and music of acclaimed drummer, composer and teacher, Barbara Borden.

Sunday, 3/3
7pm Doc World: Towards the North/Los Comandos
Los Comandos: El Salvador — where gang and police violence rule the country with the highest murder rate in the world. For 16-year-old Mimi and her friends, refuge from the bloodshed can be found in a group of volunteer paramedics called the Comandos de Salvamento. Towards the North gives an intimate look into the daily battles of asylum seekers on the run through the eyes of a mother and her daughter.

Monday, 3/4
4pm Mankiller
This documentary illuminates the legacy of Wilma Mankiller, the first woman elected Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation.

Tuesday, 3/5
3pm No Evidence of Disease
This film follows a unique rock band made up of six gynecologic oncology surgeons from across the country who are taking healing and the arts to a new level.

4pm Oceans of Pink
Oceans of Pink is an inspirational one-hour documentary that highlights the explosive growth of dragon boat racing among breast cancer survivors globally, and the growing participation in the sport among Hispanic women.

5pm America ReFramed: Finding Kukan
Filmmaker Robin Lung documents her 7-year journey to uncover the efforts of Li Ling-Ai, the visionary but uncredited producer of Kukan, a landmark film that showcased China's resistance to Japanese occupation during World War II.

6pm Reel South: First Lady of the Revolution
Henrietta Boggs, a reluctant Southern belle, finds her way to Central America in the 1940s, in search of freedom and adventure. Instead, she is swept up in political upheaval, when her new husband is elected president of Costa Rica.

Wednesday, 3/6
4pm P.O.V.: The War to Be Her
In the Taliban-controlled area of Waziristan in Pakistan, where women's sports are decried as un-Islamic and girls rarely leave their homes, young Maria Toorpakai defies the rules by disguising herself as a boy to compete freely.

5:30pm Independent Lens: Supergirl
Meet Naomi, a seemingly ordinary Orthodox Jewish preteen from New Jersey whose extraordinary talent — breaking world powerlifting records — turns her into an international phenomenon in this unique coming-of-age story.

Thursday, 3/7
3pm Medicine Woman
By and about women, this documentary interweaves the lives of Native American women healers of today with the story of America’s first Native doctor, Susan La Flesche Picotte.

Friday, 3/8
3pm Orchard House: Home of Little Women
Orchard House: Home of Little Women is a captivating new documentary that transports viewers to a 350-year-old home in Concord, Massachusetts with literary and historical significance unlike any other. It is here that the classic novel, Little Women, was written and set.

4pm Beyond the Powder: The Legacy of the First Women’s Cross-Country Air Race
This documentary follows the female pilots of the 2014 Air Race Classic racers as they make their way across the country and tells the story of the Powder Puff Derby, the first women’s cross-country air race of 1929.

5pm Breaking Through the Clouds: The First Women’s National Air Derby
Hear the story of the 20 women who raced in the first women’s national air derby in August of 1929.

Saturday, 3/9
5pm Loretta Lynn: American Masters
Explore Loretta Lynn's hard-fought road to stardom. From her Appalachian roots to the Oscar-winning biopic Coal Miner's Daughter,  Lynn struggled to balance family and her music career and is still going strong over 50 years later.

Sunday, 3/10
7pm Doc World: Las Sandinistas!
Doc World: Las Sandinistas! uncovers the disappearing stories of women who shattered barriers to lead combat and social reform during Nicaragua's 1979 Sandinista Revolution, as these same women continue to lead the struggle for justice today against their current government's suppression of women's rights and democracy.

Monday, 3/11
4pm Women of ’69, Unboxed
As they turn 65, a group of female college classmates, who were both electrified and pummeled by the turbulent 1960s, look back, then ahead.

5pm Heather Booth: Changing the World (NEW)
Heather Booth is the most influential person you never heard of. This empowering documentary is an inspiring look at how social change happens.

Tuesday, 3/12
3pm A Harpist’s Legacy: Ann Hobson Pilot and the Sound of Change
This compelling documentary follows Ann Hobson Pilot's trailblazing journey as the first black female principal player in a major symphony orchestra and also as an international soloist, teacher, mentor and driving force behind music-education programs for underserved minorities.

3:30pm Amazing Grace
This film explores the treatment of women in the legal industry from the late 1940's through today.

4pm Balancing the Scales
Balancing the Scales provides an insightful look at the story of female lawyers in America while exploring the persistent cultural bias that childcare is primarily a woman's role, and societal views about the value of caregiving vs. the value of professional careers.

5pm America ReFramed: Radical Grace
When the Vatican reprimands U.S. nuns, citing their "radical feminism," three U.S. Catholic activist nuns ponder what it means for them to be devoted to a historically male-driven institution like the Vatican.

Wednesday, 3/13
3pm Miriam Beerman: Expressing the Chaos
This film is the retrospective of a remarkable artist whose personal demons and empathy for human suffering colored a lifetime of her work.

4pm Jewish Film Showcase: Ahead of Time—The Extraordinary Journey of Ruth Gruber
For seven decades foreign correspondent and photojournalist Ruth Gruber didn't just report the news, she made it. Born in 1911 to Russian Jewish immigrants, Ruth Gruber became the youngest Ph.D. in the world before becoming an international journalist at age 24.

5:30pm P.O.V.: 93 Queen
Visit the Hasidic enclave of Borough Park, Brooklyn and meet a group of tenacious women who are smashing the patriarchy in their community by creating the first all-female volunteer ambulance corps in New York City.

Friday, 3/15
3pm P.O.V.: Still Tomorrow
A village woman without a high school diploma has become China's most famous poet. Meet the breakout writer Yu Xihua, a woman with cerebral palsy, poignantly weaving her personal story with that of an ascendant, urbanizing China.

4pm Maya Angelou: American Masters
Journey through the prolific life of the I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings author and activist who inspired generations with lyrical modern African-American thought. Features new interviews with Oprah Winfrey, Common, the Clintons, and others.

Saturday, 3/16
4pm Makers: Women in War
This film looks at American women’s increasing participation in war, featuring stories of military leaders who have broken through gender barriers, from Vietnam to the present.

5pm Janis Joplin: American Masters
Observe Janis Joplin's life through intimate letters and rare footage in the first in-depth celebration of the iconic rock singer.

Sunday, 3/17
7pm Doc World: Facing the Dragon (NEW)
This is the story of two unconventional Afghan women struggling to keep their livelihoods in a landscape of insecurity and violence, where conservative values threaten the lives of women every day.

8pm Reel South: Alabama Bound
Alabama Bound chronicles the roller-coaster ride for gay rights in the South, and a resilient community that lives with both frustration and hope in a place where the line between church and state is often blurred.

Monday, 3/18
4pm Lorraine Hansberry: American Masters
Explore the life and work of the A Raisin in the Sun playwright and activist who played a significant role in the civil rights movement.

Tuesday, 3/19
3pm Return: Native American Women Reclaim Foodways for Health & Spirit (NEW)
This is a film about empowering people to overcome their current circumstances through eating as their ancestors did — nutritiously and locally.

3:30pm Harper Lee: American Masters
Explore the mysterious life of the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of To Kill a Mockingbird. The documentary examines social changes the novel inspired, while interviewees reflect on the book's power, influence and popularity.

5pm America ReFramed: 100 Years — One Woman’s Fight for Justice
100 Years is the compelling story of Elouise Cobell, a little known hero whose relentless pursuit of justice led her to find remedy for over half a million American Indian account holders whose funds were held by the U.S. government in trust for a century.

Wednesday, 3/20
4pm Independent Lens: Ovarian Psycos
Meet the Ovarian Psycos Cycle Brigade, group of young women of color who cycle through the boulevards of Los Angeles’s Eastside confronting racism and violence, and demanding and creating safe spaces for women.

Friday, 3/22
3pm Shot in Mexico
Shot in Mexico is a documentary that tells the story of Brad Will, a young American activist-journalist killed in 2006 while filming a violent rebellion in Oaxaca, Mexico, and the tangled aftermath of his death.

Saturday, 3/23
4pm It’s All in the Game: The Leta Andrews Story
This film profiles Leta Andrews, the all-time winningest high school basketball coach in U.S. history.

5pm American Masters: Althea
Discover the story of Althea Gibson, who emerged as the unlikely queen of the segregated tennis world of the 1950s.

Sunday, 3/24
7pm Doc World: Daze of Justice (NEW)
Daze of Justice is the intimate story of trailblazing Cambodian-American women who break decades of silence, abandoning the security of their American homes on a journey back to resurrect the memory of their loved ones before the U.N. Special Tribunal prosecuting the Khmer Rouge.

Monday, 3/25
4pm War Zone/Comfort Zone
The Emmy-nominated documentary War Zone/Comfort Zone uncovers the plight of these veterans through the intense and personal stories of four women veterans coping with life after their military service.

5pm Soldier On: Life After Deployment
In this film, three women — Natasha Young, Amanda Tejada and Lyndsey Lyons — confront the challenges of readjusting to civilian life after their post-9/11 military service.

Tuesday, 3/26
3pm Highpointers
Two college-age women attempting to climb the highest peaks in 50 states meet their match in Wyoming.

5pm America ReFramed: In the Game
The ups and downs of a girls' soccer team reveal the very real obstacles that low-income students confront in their quest for higher education.

Wednesday, 3/27
3pm P.O.V.: Cameraperson
A boxing match in Brooklyn; life in postwar Bosnia; the daily routine of a Nigerian midwife. A work that combines documentary, autobiography and ethical inquiry, this film is a thoughtful examination of what it means to train a camera on the world.

4:30pm P.O.V.: The Apology
Meet three of the 200,000 former "comfort women" kidnapped and forced into military sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. Seventy years after their imprisonment, they give their first-hand accounts of the truth.

Thursday, 3/28
3pm Julia Robinson and Hilbert’s Tenth Problem
Narrated by actress Danica McKellar, this documentary presents the inspiring life story of the pioneering American mathematician Julia Robinson.

Friday, 3/29
4pm Wings for Maggie Ray
This film pays tribute to the remarkable life and legacy of Margaret "Maggie" Ringenberg (1921-2008), a U.S. Army Air Force WASP (Women's Air Service Pilot) and renowned long-distance aviation racer.

Sunday, 3/31

7pm Independent Lens: The Judge
Take a rare glimpse into Shari'a law (Islamic law), an often misunderstood legal framework for Muslims, told through the eyes of the first woman judge to be appointed to the Middle East's religious courts.

KQED 9 is available over the air on DT9.1, 54.2 and 25.1 and via most cable systems on Channel 9. It is on XFINITY cable from Comcast (Channels 9 SD and 709 HD) and on Wave (Channels 9 SD and 164 HD). It can also be found on DIRECTV and DISH satellite systems (Channels 9 SD and HD).

KQED Plus is available over the air on Channels 54, DT54.1, 9.2 and 25.2, and via many cable and satellite systems on either channel 10 or 54. It is on XFINITY cable from Comcast (Channels 10 SD, and 710 HD) and on DIRECTV (Channel 54 SD and HD) and DISH (Channel 54, SD only) satellite systems.

This schedule also lists programs airing on KQED World (XFINITY 190, Channel 9.3 & 54.5).