Are Women’s pockets too small?

When the weather is this predictably cold, the pockets of our clothing can be quite nice and helpful. Since we’re in Washington, it’s practically nine months of our year when it’s wet, cold, and raining. Pockets are a source of warmth and a place to store things. Well, for men at least.

 Looking at the average difference in pocket size, we can see that the size of women’s pockets is much smaller than men’s pockets. People don’t put lots of thought into their pockets. We’ll go back to the 18th century.

From the 1800s to the 1960s, women were not allowed to wear pants, and even after the 60s, it only started to catch on as a fashion trend in the 20th century. Women were forced to wear dresses all the time, no matter the weather, what they were doing, or where they were; it was a dress at all times. Of course, many women didn’t agree with this, but during those times women didn’t have equal rights and to this day were still fighting for equal rights for women. 

In the 1900s, men would have pockets to put their tools in, so their pockets were huge, a whole lot bigger than women’s pockets, of course, nobody thought about this yet, but now we see a huge difference noticing since now it’s ubiquitous for women to be wearing pants, we barely even have pockets for our skirts, dresses, etc.

Men continue to have bigger pockets for their tools and their pockets are only getting bigger over the years due to the change in phone size. Samsung recently came out with the new, “Foldable Phone” if you have seen the phone vividly it’s a larger phone of its time but it fits in a man’s pocket, it was put in his pocket unfolded and his pocket still had lots of room, however,  a woman couldn’t even fit that phone in there pocket when closed. 

The Women’s pants industry has not kept up with the change in phone sizes for women. Most women’s clothing still has small or stitched pockets; in other words, fake pockets. Because of this, women’s phones either can’t fit, or stick out, or women have nowhere to put them since most women don’t carry purses with them. Phones are getting bigger and bigger by the day but women’s pockets are only getting smaller and smaller, unable to fit these new phone sizes. 

The Women’s clothing industries think that all women just carry a bag or a purse wherever they go, so women get small pockets since were “Supposed to have a purse” nowadays more women rely on pockets over purses but since women’s pockets either don’t exist or not fit anything but small objects, women are forced to carry a bag with them literally wherever they go.

Regardless of gender, viewers should find this very unfair. Not everyone can afford a huge bag that women must carry everywhere, and not everyone wants one because not everyone likes to carry something 24/7 always on their arm, and purses weigh a whole lot depending on what you need to carry because your pockets can’t fit it.

Pickpocketing as we know is a huge problem in our world. The Metropolitan Police Department recommends that women get purses that are hard to open, but purses could still be snatched and yanked off of people’s shoulders and taken along with everything they own. In fact, the department recommends not putting your wallets in your purse. If that’s the case, where are women supposed to put them?

Most wallets are pretty big and are meant to be put in a bag; due to their size, most women are forced to either find a small enough wallet to fit their tiny pockets, or carry a purse. Some women’s pants especially jeans have sown pockets or in other words, Fake Pockets, the only option is to put the wallet in the purse. Plus due to the pocket size for women being so small, it’s easy for pickpocketers to just reach in, take, and run.

In conclusion, women deserve bigger pockets and the fashion industry needs to stop sewing pockets closed. There is no point in having a pocket there if their wearers can’t even use it. This leaves women with only the back pockets, Where half the phone sticks out. Not everyone wants to buy a purse or can afford one, So women need pockets that can fit their phones, wallets, and everything that a purse can carry. Pockets are a very much-needed thing in our world, and the fact that women don’t get the same great quality as men is quite disappointing.