Today, on #WomensEqualityDay, we briefly explore a feminist topic near and dear to our heart: women’s pockets.
When pockets first began being stitched into garments, women still relied on separate pockets that were worn between layers of skirts and dresses. While men’s pants and jackets received functional, exterior pockets, women had to remove a layer of clothing, essentially eliminating access to their belonging in public.
As fashion evolved in the late early 1800s to more figure-hugging styles, women used small purses that held very little, a visual representation of the fact that women didn’t have a need to carry money. They didn’t own property and were meant to be in the home, not working and tending to their husbands and families.
At the turn of the 20th century, women rebelled. They shared manuals on how to add pockets to skirts and dresses. A 1910 “Suffragette Suit” was functionally a trouser but looked like a skirt, and contained 6 pockets! World Wars brought pants and pockets to women’s style, but the roller coaster of the women’s pocket continued.
In modern times, when slimmer styles of pants and dresses became trendy, most women’s pockets moved back to being tight, small, and impractical. Exposure of the female form was prioritized over functional pockets, as men had had for years.
The pocket represents independence, privacy, and equality. We have the right to vote here in the U.S., and pockets are a small fight to fight, but we’ll do what we can - here we are, putting pockets in as many items as possible.
There’s room for phones, keys, snacks (and drinks 😂). Shop and discover your next favorite comfortable dress with pockets shopping on Mata Traders.
How far we have come (and how much is still to be done 💚).