The fight for pocket parity

Business Daily

BBC

News, Business

4.4 • 796 Ratings

🗓️ 20 January 2022

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How deep are your pockets? Are they big enough to carry all the things you need? Your money, keys and mobile phone? If you’re a woman, the answer is most likely a no. This little pouch has a lot to say about gender roles and a woman’s right to financial independence. We hear about the great divide in pocket designs that has existed for hundreds of years with Ariane Fennetaux, author of The Pocket: A Hidden History of Women's Lives, 1660–1900. We take a trip to London’s V&A Museum to see how pockets – or a lack of them – led to the billion-dollar handbag industry, and we hear from Indian fashion designer and founder of the Meri Pocket campaign group, Taarini Saraf on the fight for pocket justice. Presented by Vivienne Nunis. Produced by Sarah Treanor. Music used with the kind permission of: @HebontheWeb Image: A women's small jean pocket. Credit: Getty images.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Business Daily with me, Vivienne Nunes. We talk about deep pockets as a measure of wealth,
0:08.1	but today we're focused on the pockets themselves. For hundreds of years, men's pockets have been
0:13.8	roomy and useful, a sign he has all he needs right there with him and can rely on himself no matter what the day brings.
0:23.4	But women's pockets have been dainty, decorative and often absent from clothing altogether.
0:29.5	You have articles saying if you're wearing pockets, you're old-fashioned, you're like a granny.
0:36.4	It's a feminist issue.
0:37.9	It's something where we need to collaboratively as designers and as shoppers
0:42.2	force these people to have pockets and not buy the clothes without pockets.
0:47.0	The fight for pocket parity.
0:49.6	That's Business Daily from the BBC. No, don't give me that page. No one's the point if it's useless.
1:12.3	I'm actually trying to use it to carry my phone.
1:16.3	So give me pockets on my jeep.
1:21.3	Men have pockets to keep things in women for decoration.
1:25.8	So said the iconic designer Christian Dior in 1954.
1:30.4	Women listening to this might be rolling their eyes, but they won't be surprised. How often have
1:36.5	your hands searched for a pocket only to find what you're wearing doesn't have any? Or worse,
1:42.8	it has fake ones, just like the LA-based musician Hebb was
1:47.5	singing about at the start of the show. For years, clothing has been made with very different
1:53.4	pockets for very political reasons. According to a survey of 80 pairs of men and women's blue jeans,
2:02.7	by the digital publication The Pudding,
2:07.7	women's pockets are on average about half the size of men's. So instead of a spacious 9-inch or 22-centimeter pouch for a wallet, phone and keys,
2:14.2	a lady's denim pocket is often a meager four inches or just 10 centimetres. And that's
	...

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