Business Notes

Working women kick off high heels

Young working women in their 20s and 30s are kicking off their high heels and wearing flat soles or athletic shoes to the office.

Since the last survey in 1990, the percentage of women wearing heels higher than 2 1/4 inches to work has plummeted from 37 percent to 3 percent.

Researchers at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons in New Orleans say women have also given up pointed-toe shoes in favor of rounded toes.

Dr. Cherise Dyal, assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in The Bronx, said: ``This generation of women are very athletic and may have discovered that athletic shoes are very comfortable. They also don't have a preconceived notion that in order to be dressy you have to be in a stiletto heel.''

Dyal says the survey conducted for the American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society found that among the 500 women surveyed, 46 percent wore flat soles -- less than one inch in height -- to work, and 23 percent wore athletic shoes; 21 percent of the women wore pumps less than 2 1/4 inches high; 7 percent wore boots, clogs or other footwear; and 3 percent wore high heels.

Compared with 1990, women in 1997 were wearing more athletic shoes, 23 percent against 14 percent in 1990; more flats, 67 percent against 49 percent, and almost no high heels, 3 percent against 37 percent in 1990.

Dr. James Nunley, president of the foot and ankle society, says ill- fitting shoes are responsible for health costs exceeding $3.5 billion a year in the United States.

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