Why the battle against sexist school shoes is a fight worth having

This week a parent shamed Clarks for selling ‘flimsy’ footwear for girls – and Tesco came under fire, too. Are these shoes part of the reason why so many girls drop sport at a young age?

Are children’s shoes sexist? There have been campaigns over the past few years to stop toys being marketed specifically for boys or girls. But the new frontier is the shoe shop.

This week, Jem Moonie-Dalton was so annoyed after taking her seven-year-old daughter to the local Clarks shoe shop that she wrote the retailer an open letter and posted it on Facebook. “In the boys’ section, the shoes are sturdy, comfortable and weatherproof, with soles clearly designed with running and climbing in mind,” she wrote, unlike the girls’ shoes with their flimsy soles, straps and ornamentation. “What messages are you giving to my daughter?”

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from Children | The Guardian http://ift.tt/2vVMo1c