LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM — A woman in London says she was told to wear shoes with a "two inch to four inch heel" when she arrived at finance company, PricewaterhouseCoopers in December.
"I just turned up. I'd been sent to a new site in Embankment and was told to meet a supervisor there. She gave me a uniform to wear, a dress and a jacket. And I was wearing smart flat shoes. She said 'You can't wear those. You need to wear heels'. I said, 'Well I don't have any with me and I don't think it's right that you would be expecting me to work a nine hour shift on my feet, escorting clients around the building'. She said 'Fine. You can go and buy a pair and I'll let you work or you're going to be sent home,'" recalls Nicola Thorpe
Thorp says when she refused to wear heels, they really did send her home.
So Thorp set up an
[ online petition calling for a change in the law. ]
"Now my point is, I think by wearing women wear high heels you're acting favorably towards men because their footwear doesn't affect their posture or ability to move. It doesn't create long-term health problems. This isn't necessarily a health issue, it's a sex issue," says Thorpe.
"I pointed to a male colleague at the time and said 'He's wearing flat shoes. Smart flat shoes. I'm wearing smart flat shoes. What's the difference here?' And I was laughed at because I was making a sexist issue which is what I believe it is. But she said 'Of course men aren't expected to wear high heels.' And I tried to point out to her, so why are women expected to? She said to me 'Because women have always worn heels. It's what you're brought up to wear.' But I was never brought up to wear high heels. That's not what I was doing when boys were playing football [laughs]. I don't know what they think we were up to."
The Portico employment agency said Wednesday night that the firm had changed its policy to allow workers to wear flat shoes if they prefer.
Thorp's petition had attracted more than 54,000 signatures before the company's policy was changed.