I remember talking about the Nicola Thorp case at the time Amber, and how disappointed/confused/astounded I was that the need to wear heels was placed above Nicola's skills and experience as a Receptionist as a measure of suitability for that role. I said at the time that there is no logical or ethical reason for any woman to be required to wear heels while at work. Safety shoes... absolutely! But a pair of high heels? No sorry, just don't understand that... 


If wearing heels is a necessary requisite for being a Receptionist then perhaps male Receptionists should be wearing heels too? ? ?

This is a symptom of the objectification of women in a patriarchal society than values the need for a person to look "appealing" to the other workers and customers than to the health and well-being of the employee.  I don't see why it should matter if a persons calves look longer in heels as a dress code consideration.  Its about as outdated as the idea it's OK to slap a woman on the tush as she walks past.

From my perspective it beggars belief that the objectification of women is still an issue in 1st World countries like the UK and Japan.  Let the men that don’t see this be required to wear high heels and speedos and we might see some change.  Thoroughly reprehensible attitudes.



Edwin

I completely agree with the need for a 'Dress Code' in a working environment and I agree that footwear should be 'appropriate' for the environment i.e. no flip flops or open toed sandals if you're working in an environment where you need to protect your feet or be smartly dressed in a customer facing role. However, as I've said before, I find it really difficult to comprehend why the height of someones heels needs to be a factor in that? 


I couldn't tell you which of the female colleagues I've come into contact with today were wearing heels or not as it's not something that I particularly paid attention to! In fact I don't think I could even tell you what they were wearing as my attention is more on the work we're doing than their chosen attire for the day. 


However, I notice in the media over the last few days the obsession with the outfits that the Queen, the Duchess of Cambridge and the First Lady had chosen for the President's visit. Not one mention of what the men were wearing though...

With the exception of some in modelling and performing arts, I can't think of any job that might require someone to wear heels, but many where you would want to stop people wearing heels.  I've worn them for a few hours at a time, to performances of the Rocky Horror Show, and am in awe of women who somehow manage to wear them all day, get around and not be screaming in agony!

Since I can't walk in most high heels my views are probably biased.


I can't imagine why anyone would want to wear (or expect anyone to wear) high heels in a physics or chemistry lab, an engineering workshop or on a building site.

I worked in a chemistry lab for four years and lived every day in jeans and trainers. That said, I would not have attended an interview wearing those "work" clothes, as although they were appropriate for the job, they aren't appropriate for making a good impression at interview. I only owned one pair of "smart" shoes at the time, and these did have a heel (although I could not tell you how high as it has never occurred to me to measure my shoe height in the same way that some of the airlines mentioned above have mandated!).


My point is that although it wasn't necessary to wear them in the job and wasn't compulsory for the interview (and it certainly had nothing to do with wanting to be "eye-candy" or anything like that!), I still wore heels because at that time, I associated heels with looking professional and employable (even though I don't like wearing them). Does this make me part of the problem? Sadly, probably yes (NB. I'm NOT saying that everyone who wears heels is problematic, just that as I personally don't like wearing heels, I probably should have had the strength of character to wear something different. Obviously some women (and men) love a heel and good luck to them, but it would be hypocritical for me to say "Why do women feel the need to wear impractical, uncomfortable shoes for work?" when it is something I know I have done myself, so I wanted to think about my own experience and some of the factors that influenced my decision).


So, this was 15 or so years ago and my first job out of uni and with student debt etc I didn't have money to spend on "smart" shoes I would probably never wear again! My "smart" shoes were a pair that my parents had bought me for my work experience placement when I was in the 4th year of secondary school. These are still my smart shoes today (20 years later!) and they still look like new as I only wear then for interviews, occasional external business meetings and funerals! Another factor I am now considering is that of the media - being new to the working world, I had not been exposed to a wide range of successful women at that time and so tv, film and newspapers were a big part of how I learned what a "professional" woman looked like. There are very few women depicted in powerful or successful roles and those that do get shown as successful tend to be well-coiffed, high-heeled, tall, thin, with a full face of make-up. Being neither tall, nor thin, heels help create an illusion of this. I read once that in every US presidential election, the tallest candidate has won - so perhaps this is another reason why one might lean towards favouring heels for interview situations?


I think that overly prescriptive dress codes pervade into wider society and are accepted by and reflected in the mass media. This can then mean that things like a requirement for wearing heels or make-up can be adopted by those in other companies because they have a certain subconscious view of what "success" looks like or how they should be dressing to be seen as professional. This all contributes to the stereotype that there is only one cookie-cutter version of what a successful, professional woman looks like and if you don't fit that then you aren't professional. Scrapping rules on heels and make-up etc will enable more people to be themselves at work and this will provide a wider range of what success can look like. And the media definitely needs to reflect this and show more diversity in terms of how "success" or "professionalism" are represented. Let's see real people with warts and all that got to where they are not because of their shoes but because they knew where they were going in them.

I've been watching and reading this thread with interest.  In my opinion, high heels are not "necessary and appropriate" in a workplace and Amber's most recent post captures it when she said about how the media portray professional women.  My dad was an engineer who worked in an office and wore a suit and tie every day so I was always brought up to think that to be seen as professional you needed to dress appropriately which was smart attire (dress/skirt and top) and shoes which meant shoes with heels (height undefined).  I also thought that makeup was the norm but I quickly stopped using that when I found that it was not compatible with cycling to/from work!  Since then, there has been a significant change with trousers, smart flat shoes and dress down codes becoming the norm (noting that I've worked in an office environment all my life and only had to wear hard hat, high vis jacket and steel toecaps 4 times and that was because I went to site once and had 3 tours round Savoy Place while it was being refurbished).  Personally I still think that dressing professionally when representing your work/company is really important but how that is defined has changed.


For me, I enjoy wearing high heels as they have become part of my personality and they are part of my wardrobe like my clothes and earrings.  However, I've had more trouble with wearing a skirt/dress and then finding that I have to crawl under/on top of desks to connect a PC or piece of equipment up or after a meeting being offered a trip round a helicopter in refit.  In those cases, high heels are the lesser of my problem!