Women and Equalities Committee says women should not be forced to wear high heels at work
Last year we wrote blog post on the High Heels Petition which was started after a woman named Nicola Thorp was sent home from her job for refusing to wear “2 inch to 4 heels”.
There was an outcry against sexist dress code practices and a petition was started which gained over 152,000 signatures.
Now the government’s Women and Equalities Committee has published a report on this.
In it they call for the government to take urgent action to improve the effectiveness of the Equality Act and recommends the Government introduce guidance and awareness campaigns to improve understanding of the law and workers’ rights.
They state that: “Dress codes which require women to wear high heels for extended periods of time are damaging to their health and wellbeing in both the short and the long term.”
[bctt tweet=”Dress codes requiring women to wear high heels are damaging to their health”]
They also say: “The Equality Act is clear in principle in setting out what constitutes discrimination in law. Nevertheless, discriminatory dress codes remain commonplace in some sectors of the economy.”
[bctt tweet=”Discriminatory dress codes remain commonplace in some sectors of the economy”]
The Chair of the Petitions Committee, Helen Jones MP, said: “It’s not enough for the law to be clear in principle—it must also work in practice. […] The Government must now accept that it has a responsibility to ensure that the law works in practice as well as in theory.”
Nicola Thorp, whose experience started this whole matter stated: “It is crucial that the law is amended so that gender neutral dress codes become the norm, so that they do not exacerbate discrimination against the LGBTQ communities and those who do not conform to gender stereotypes.”
We at Affordable Leather products entirely agree with the Committee and with Nicola Thorp, whilst it is reasonable for a business to require a certain standard of dress from their employees which is appropriate for their workplace, it should not be the case that one part of their workforce is required to wear attire which could be detrimental to their long-term health.
We also feel that it is not right for them to be required to be “eye candy” and to be pleasing to the male viewpoint in addition to their usual responsibilities.
Have you been told you have to wear High Heels at work?
Does your workplace enforce different dress code standards at work? Do men just get told to wear “smart shoes” whereas women are told to wear heels?
Do you find it uncomfortable having to wear heels or feel that you’re being treated as eye candy for male employees or customers?
Tell us about your experiences in the comments.