The Humber's only woman MP hosts 'What Women Want' event

Diana Johnson, the only woman MP in East Yorkshire and the Humber, today (Friday 7 March) holds a special listening event with women shop-workers ahead of International Women's Day.

The Hull North MP will meet with women workers from the USDAW shop-workers' union at the Tesco in Hall Road, Hull North, at 11.30am to listen to local women talk candidly about some of the challenges they face.

The aim of the event is to hear about some of the issues they care about most and it will give the women the chance to be as honest, open and frank as they want. Women who don't often come into contact with politics will be able to tell their MP the only woman MP in Humberside - exactly what women in Hull want.

The event has been called as part of a national day of action organised by Labour to celebrate International Women's Day and ensure women's voices are heard with events scheduled to take place up and down the country.

Diana Johnson will be asking women for their views on everything from what they think about politics, childcare and family pressures; the way the cost of living crisis is hitting them; the way that women are treated in the media and popular culture and the impact this has on young women's aspirations.

The Hull North MP's job at the event will be mainly to listen rather than to talk.

International Women's Day takes place this year on Saturday 8 March. For more information see http://www.internationalwomensday.com/.

Diana Johnson MP said: "On the annual International Women's Day this weekend we celebrate all the great women in our history whose bravery and sacrifice has taken the position of women in society to where it is today and contributed so much to humanity's progress generally.

"It's also an excellent time to take stock of the position of women today and our aspirations for future progress. There's clearly so much still to do.

"It will be important and useful to hear from Hull women shop-workers about how the cost of living crisis is hitting them and much else. It's clear that working women in the North have been hit the hardest in the past few years."