A Sheffield woman has created a website, Pockets for Women, to help women find high street clothes with pockets.
Mandy Fletcher, of Millhouses, Sheffield, set up the comprehensive list of pocketed garments in February 2022 when she realised every man in her life had pockets, but she didn’t.
Ms Fletcher, 41, said: “Every bit of clothing that men have has pockets. I hadn’t realised how prevalent the issue was until I went swimming with my son – even an eight-year-old boy has pockets in his trunks.”
Pockets For Women helps women find all kinds of garments with pockets, users can even filter their search by pocket size.
Research Journalists, Jan Diehm and Amber Thomas at The Pudding, found that on average, pockets on women’s jeans are 48% shorter and 6.8% narrower than men’s pockets.
Ms Fletcher thinks that every woman should be hand-bag free. She said: “Bags are debilitating. I shouldn’t have to go to Pilates to fix back pain caused by carrying a bag, it’s expected that men have pockets so women should have them too.”
Research by The British Chiropractic Association suggests that three-quarters of women have experienced back pain, while 46% carry bags on one side of their body, causing aches.
The lack of pockets on women’s clothing is something that has been spoken about widely by women on social media.
TikTok user Jenny, under the username BackPocketProjects, created a tutorial teaching woman how to sew their own pockets into high-street bought jeans. She said: “Fake pockets are a crime against woman-kind.”
Ms Fletcher agreed that fake pockets are worse than no pockets at all. She said: “Fake pockets are like teasing, ‘this is what you could have had’. It’s just ridiculous, I don’t understand why you would waste material to make something look like a pocket but isn’t.”
Ms Fletcher receives a commission on every item bought through Pockets for Women, allowing her to continue growing the site and get more pockets into women’s wardrobes.
