Petition Sends Sexist Dress Code Before U.K. Parliament

(CBS4) - What women wear on their feet is personal, but Nicola Thorp said she was ordered to put heels on on her first day of work.

"My manager met me at reception and said, 'Well you can't wear those!'" Thorp said.

In the U.K., it's against the law to require woman to wear heels, but some companies exploit a dress code law that makes filing a complaint costly and time consuming.

Thorp said she was fired all because of two inches. But she didn't step down without a fight. Fed up, she filed a formal petition to have the issue debated in Parliament.

"Within three days, it had over 100,000 signatures," Thorp said.

Hundreds of women contributed, saying they were required to dye their hair, wear revealing outfits, and re-apply make-up.

CBS News spoke with Susan Scafidi, a professor at Fordham Law, and asked if such mandates are legal in the U.S.

"In general, yes, but in New York you can only tell a woman to wear heels if you also tell men to wear heels to work," Scafidi said.

The laws do not acknowledge how required heels can be uncomfortable.

"It's really objectifying, and I don't understand why some of these male or female employers are so attached to this, almost like "Mad Men" era of men looking like men and women looking like women," Thorp said. "And I think that in 2017 moving forward, we're blurring gender lines and sexuality lines. We need to get rid of that."

Parliament has debated a wide range of issues, but never before they discussed heels. The debate is scheduled in March.