At the risk of opening a can of worms, the time has come to ask why. Why do women wear high heels?

Ask any woman on the street and she’ll give you an answer that will probably be similar to the following – to be taller, and to make your legs and butt look better. And that’s true – heels do. Then there are the other benefits women claim – that heels give confidence, a sense of elegance, beauty and even power. All in all, it boils down to attitude, posture, confidence and femininity. And in the corporate world, wearing high heels is simply something women do – have to, it seems.

Of course, there are feminist scholars who sit in glass towers and know the purportedly ‘real’ reasons – according to Sheila Jeffreys, wearing high heels “fufils the dictates of male dominant culture and gives satisfaction to men…Women are immediately recognizable as they walk with difficulty on their toes in public places. Thus high heels enable women to complement the male sex role of masculinity, in which men look sturdy and have both feet on the ground, with clear evidence of female fragility.”

Academics generally agree that women, as they teeter around on these stilt-like shoes, are making themselves look vulnerable. So, just like in the movies, women need the male hero to save them, as they can’t run from danger or protect themselves. Heels also send a signal to men that women care enough about male sexual satisfaction to wear them.

I think most women would deny that they wear heels to attract men (at least as the main reason). They would say they wear them ‘because they want to’…that it’s their choice, and that heels make them feel more confident and beautiful in themselves. Nothing to do with a man.

So then it becomes not what men have forced on women, but what women do to themselves. There could very well be that undercurrent of subordination/ sexuality working there, but it’s become so embedded in gender roles and society that women just don’t recognise it anymore. The enslaved become their own captors.

Of course there are plenty of women who dislike heels, and refuse to wear them. But ask these same women if they ever wear heels, and they’ll admit that they bring them out for special occasions; when they want to dress up.

Down on the practical level, it’s what’s available in the shops, too. Are there really many ‘dress me up’ flats for the average Janes out there? But, of course, that’s a circular argument…women decide what they want and the manufacturers are just giving it to them… or are women just buying what fashion designers tell us we have to have, and what manufacturers make? If there’s no alternative, what are women supposed to do? Wear running shoes with ball gowns? And then of course, there’s the  ‘everyone else is doing it…’, and in a corporate environment, you might find that glass ceiling’s lower than you thought if you insist on being a flat shoe wearing, (and, perhaps pant-wearing, non-shaving) woman…

Backing up a little now, let’s look at one of the other main reasons women claim to wear heels – beauty. From that I would assume that some women wear heels to appear more attractive to men. OK, so, what do men think? I’d hazard a guess that most men would agree that heels look better – yes, a contracted calf is, on the face of it, more attractive – muscle definition and so on. But do men like the impracticality of it, the fact that their partner can only walk very slowly, and not on cobbles, or uneven streets, and not for very far….most men I know are pretty practical blokes who just roll their eyes at such ridiculousness. A practical, ‘functional’ woman who can keep up with them would be a far more attractive partner, surely? An equal?

Mmm… think I should put down the can opener about now….before the worms make it all the way out of the can.