High heeled shoes are a type of shoe where the heel of the foot of the person wearing the shoe is much higher than the toes. High heels are a staple in the wardrobe of many women, as they are well known to give the impression that her legs are longer and more tone than they may actually be.

There are several different types of heel varieties out there. Some of the common ones are chunk heels, pumps, stilettos, tapered, block and wedge heels. Most well known shoe companies tend to classify any heel below 2.5 inches as being low, 2.5 to 3.5 inches as being a mid heel, and anything above 3.5 to be a high heel. It's also considered that anything over five inches in height is impractical, though several forms of business thrive with using shoes of this height or greater.

The high heel can be traced back to 3500 BC in ancient Egypt, where members of the upper class wore crude versions of the heel, usually at ceremonial gatherings. In more modern day history, many attribute the birth of the high heeled shoe trend to Catherine de Medici, the wife of King Henry II of France, who in 1533 commissioned a cobbler to craft a pair of heels for her, in an effort to improve fashion and her height.http://www.sooperarticles.com/shopping-articles/fashion-articles/history-high-heel-shoes-12179.html

The English Parliament was known during the 1600s to execute any woman wearing heels, claiming they were witches who attempted to seduce men to marry them. Meanwhile, high heels continued to be the rage throughout France during the seventeenth and into the late eighteenth centuries, before Napoleon Bonaparte, himself not tall in stature, passed his Napoleonic Code which forbade heels. In a final show of defiance, Marie Antoinette was executed by hanging in 1793 wearing a pair of two inch heels.http://www.sooperarticles.com/shopping-articles/fashion-articles/history-high-heel-shoes-12179.html

Heels have watched their popularity ebb and flow over the succeeding centuries, with a rise during the mid nineteenth century only to come crashing back down during the Great Depression in the 1930s. With the invention of the miniskirt, high heels became an unstoppable craze, as many women wanted to have the combination of short skirts showing off long, firm legs.http://www.sooperarticles.com/shopping-articles/fashion-articles/history-high-heel-shoes-12179.html

Heels have long been a bone of contention for feminists of the women's liberation movement. Women of this mentality feel that heels are too high, too ridiculous, and do nothing but objectify women as sex objects and eye candy. The nationwide gym Crunch features a 45 minute class called "Stiletto Strength" to help strengthen a woman's calves and legs specifically for wearing high heels.http://www.randomhistory.com/1-50/036heels.html

There even have been women that have undergone foot surgery to shorten their toes or inject padding into the balls of their feet, all in pursuit of the perfect high heel. These procedures can run between $1000 and $3500 depending on what needs to be done.http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Cosmetic/story?id=2184671&page=1

Over time, there has been plenty of debate over the effect that high heeled shoe wearing has on a woman's health. People have linked wearing high heels to everything from foot and ankle problems, bunions, hammertoes, knee joint damage and tendon problems, to schizophrenia.

On the flip side, studies have shown that wearing heels may actually improve posture in a woman, and improve the pelvic floor muscles. Those muscles assist with sexual performance and satisfaction, they provide vital support to the pelvic organs, which include the bladder, bowels and uterus. They tend to weaken as a woman ages or after pregnancy and childbirth.http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7225828.stm