Nicola Thorp: Online government forum sparked by high heels 'sexism' row flooded with responses

Outraged: Actress Nicola Thorp
Hatty Collier11 June 2016

An online government forum sparked by a sexism row over women being forced to wear high heels at work has been flooded with hundreds of responses in just a day.

Actress Nicola Thorp, who was employed as a temporary worker by PwC’s outsourced reception firm Portico, launched a campaign after being told to leave on her first day when she refused to wear high heels.

The 27-year-old’s government petition calling for a ban on employers forcing women to wear heels received more than 140,000 signatures, meaning it is being considered for debate in parliament.

The House of Commons petitions committee has launched an inquiry into the issue to gather evidence ahead of the potential debate.

Women who have been forced to wear high heels at work have been invited to share their experiences with MPs via the online forum before the deadline on Thursday, June 16.

Popular cause: Nicola Thorp
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Since its launch on Thursday, it has been flooded with more than 600 comments from women, many of whom claim to have been forced to wear high heels at work.

On the web forum, Puvan Briah wrote: “I was made to wear heels for my job in retail for nine hours a day standing on my feet. We were made to climb ladders in our heels and run around when it was busy and we were not allowed to sit down.

“It felt like being tortured every day and every evening, when I came home I was in tears and unable to move because of the throbbing of my feet for hours.”

Jennifer Moore wrote: “I work in events within the legal sector and it is a requirement to not only wear high heels during an event, but also to wear visible make up, something which I strongly feel is a personal decision and not something that should be forced upon an individual.

“Having to spend a number of hours on our feet at a time, sometimes a whole day, this can be extremely uncomfortable and painful. As someone who struggles to walk naturally in heels anyway, I feel that it actually distracts from my ability to perform my job to a high standard as I am teetering around and concentrating more on the pain than my actual job.”

Hope Miller added: “I was made to wear high heels at a major fashion brand. My feet would hurt everyday whilst wearing them, during my lunch break and when going home I would have to immediately change to trainers because of the pain and the blood.”

A House of Commons spokeswoman said: "No employer should discriminate against their workers on grounds of gender.

"We expect employers to act in accordance with the law, which is clear that dress codes enforced by employers must be reasonable and include equivalent requirements for both men and women.

"We welcome the opportunity to debate this issue, which is clearly of importance to a large number of people."

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