Read and heed the heels

I would like to commend Times Higher Education for the attention paid to shoes in recent issues, with articles that brilliantly discuss footwear and its history in relation to power and femininity (“Hot shoe shuffle”, Culture, 18 June; “Don’t tread on me”, Opinion, 2 July).

This reminded me of a recent conversation I had with a male university leader who admitted to not understanding anything about shoes (a “mystery” to him) or why women would find them interesting. Perhaps serious issues such as gender inequality and pay gaps would have been tackled and solved much earlier had male vice-chancellors had a modicum of understanding of how the presentation of self (clothes and shoes) affects the way women think of themselves and are perceived in academia.

Anna Notaro
Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design
University of Dundee
Twitter: @notanna1