Last week to mark International Women’s Day, I hosted a local street stall along with local councillor Ruth Cadbury to listen to the voices of women about what was going on in their lives right now. 

This was followed up by a discussion in ASDA with shoppers with our Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper who visited Feltham. Politics is too often about “telling”, and if we want to change the relationship between politics and citizens, how we engage in dialogue is a big part of that.

What came back from the discussions and our survey was quite a strong message, that while women are ambitious for themselves and their families, that there is a need for Government to do more to help to bridge that gap and deliver what women need. The cost of living crisis that we so often hear about is still hitting women’s lives very hard, and some of the stories we heard were quite heartbreaking – not being able to afford toys or presents for children, not being able to afford a double buggy to take both children out at the same time, and not knowing who to turn to for help to find a job after two years of unemployment.

It is also true that people are on average £1,600 a year worse off since George Osborne and David Cameron came to office, and research suggests that most working people are not feeling any recovery at all.

The top issues raised in our street survey in addition to the cost of living were access to work, the cost of childcare, flexibility of work and tackling domestic violence. We heard that the costs of going to work are holding back levels of employment, and we know that this in turn is holding back women’s economic and social power in our society. A survey by ASDA of mothers found that 70% of stay at home mums said they would be worse off in the current climate if they worked because of the cost of childcare – a staggering statistic and an illustration of why the cost of childcare is rising as an issue on the political agenda.

At International Women’s Day, the economic and social well being of women needs to be a priority, and our thinking renewed about how to tackle this in the UK as well as across the world. It is unacceptable that women’s unemployment in the UK is at its highest level for a generation. Over 1.01 million women in the UK are unemployed, with unemployment for non-white women being twice as high as the national average, and when you have been out of work for a while, getting back into work can be so much harder.

Labour has been putting forward ideas of what could make a difference, whether that is giving every working family 25 hours of free childcare for three and four year olds for 38 weeks a year, paid for by an £800m rise in the bank levy. Also Labour would back more women to start their own businesses through business rate cuts in 2015.

As the country comes out of recession after the last few years, one of the most important things I have heard from local people is that they want to feel the recovery too. The forthcoming budget will be a further part of that story, so that we spread prosperity and well being to all, and reaching women, and not see a recovery benefiting the top of society the most.

To stay focused as a country on the goal of higher living standards for all, which in so many ways is driven through the economic and social progress of women, will reap enormous dividends. It will lead, I hope, to some of the issues raised this year no longer being problems in future years for our local families.