Women at Work: Flats are Replacing High Heels -- And It's Not Only About Style
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Women At Work: Flats Are Replacing High Heels — And It’s Not Only About Style
In 2016, temp secretary Nicola Thorp was sent home from her work at a corporate finance company for not wearing shoes with two to four inches heels. This sparked outrage among the female working class with politicians and women protesting against Thorp’s dismissal through using the hashtag #fawcettflatsFriday. In a story by The Guardian Thorp said she asked the company why wearing flats would impair her to do her job. “I don’t hold anything against the company necessarily, because they are acting within their rights as employers to have a formal dress code. I think dress codes should reflect society and nowadays women can be smart and wear flat shoes,” she said.
Thorp then launched a petition calling for the law to be changed so companies will not be able to force women to wear heels to work. It accrued 152,420 signatures in six months but went down in the British Parliament in 2017.
