What would Beth Ditto do?

Beth Ditto: With thirty quid and a smidge of vision, you can entertain with the best of them. Here are four of my favourite ideas for good, cheap fun this summer.

‘Ask me anything!’

She's a feminist, a maverick and the coolest woman in rock - and from now on Beth Ditto will be helping women's page readers with their dilemmas every fortnight. Here she explains why she feels well qualified to offer advice.

What would Beth Ditto do?

The truth is, there are so many pressures on the outside that push us to stay in the closet, and so many pressures on the inside that push us to come out.

Second class delivery

A controversial study in 2000 recommended caesareans for breech births. But is the move to surgical intervention really best for mothers, asks Viv Groskop.

Time to speak up

It's 39 years since abortion was legalised in this country, yet these days it's rarely discussed without mention of 'shame', 'mental trauma' or 'viability'. With pro-lifers dominating the debate, and even leftwingers describing abortion as a 'necessary evil', women's hard-won rights could soon be under threat. In an introduction to an eight-page special, Zoe Williams asks: are we just going to roll over?

All hail the goddesses

Each year 500 women converge on Glastonbury to 'reconnect with the Earth'. But is the Goddess conference about empowerment - or just middle-class navel gazing? By Katie Toms.

Don’t go mad in north London

Michele Hanson: Mavis has been terribly poorly with depression for months. What a ghastly illness. And the treatment on offer isn't very impressive: "Keep taking the pills." But they didn't work.

Is it all right to sunbathe when you’re pregnant?

Laura Barton: Sunbathing is foolish for anyone. For pregnant women, who have a higher body temperature, it is perhaps a smidgen more foolish: the sun will increase the core temperature of the mother, which will in turn increase the temperature of the foetus.