Why do men's clothes have so many pockets, and women's so few? For centuries, the humble pocket has been a flashpoint in the gender divide of fashion. Now, with a #WeWantPockets hashtag gaining momentum on social media, is that finally set to change?

Social media trends can frequently be hard to fathom and, at first glance, a recent spate of women posting TikTok videos of their hands grasping as many objects as they can physically hold on to seemed as unintelligible as many viral fads. But "the claw grip" is less random than it seems, serving as the latest Trojan horse for an issue that won't go away: why women's clothes don't have more pockets.

It's become almost a meme in itself: a woman complimenting another woman on her dress, only for the reply to be an excitable declaration that: "It has pockets!" Forget hunting for the perfect jeans, the ultimate white T-shirt or the ideal little black dress – nothing gets hearts racing quite like a simple square of fabric. But behind all the lighthearted fervour lies a genuine frustration: the humble pocket has long been a flashpoint in the gender divide of fashion.

Pocket inequality isn't new – it's a centuries-old frustration. But the issue has been thrust back into the spotlight with increasing frequency in recent years. A #WeWantPockets hashtag gained momentum on social media. As phones got bigger women realised how hopeless their pockets were. A 2020 YouGov survey in the UK found that four in 10 women had put an item of clothing back on the rack once they realised there were no pockets.

When pockets do exist, they're usually shorter and narrower than those on men's clothes. Or, at their most maddening, nothing more than sheer illusion. Earlier this year an eight-year-old schoolgirl wrote to UK supermarket Sainsbury's asking why their girls' school trousers had fake pockets and the boys had real ones. "Girls need to carry things too!" she said. A representative from the retailer promised to look into the issue.

"Pockets have become a symbolic and very contentious part of male and female dress," says Caroline Stevenson, programme director of Cultural and Historical Studies at the University of the Arts London.

At the autumn/winter 2025-26 fashion shows earlier this year, which set the trends for what we'll be wearing in the coming months, there were signs that the industry is taking note. Many models swaggered down the catwalks with their hands pushed firmly into deep pockets – carrying an extra dose of confidence compared to those with their arms flailing freely. At Simone Rocha, actress Fiona Shaw had her hands stashed away inside a black satin egg dress. There were plenty of pockets at Prada and Louis Vuitton too. Whether it's a significant shift or just a passing moment in the fashion cycle – or if it will trickle down to the clothes that women wear in their everyday lives – remains to be seen.

Pockets for women have long been an afterthought. "In the 16th and 17th Centuries, women did have a kind of pocket," says Stevenson. "They had what they called tie-on pockets which tied around the body and were underneath the skirts, which had a slit in the sides so you could reach into them."

These tie-on pockets were often heavily decorated and used to store items like keys, money, handkerchiefs and sewing kits, as well as valuables like watches, snuff-boxes and smelling bottles.

"They symbolised this sense of autonomy," says Stevenson. "But they disappeared in the late-18th and early-19th Century when the Regency style was introduced and silhouettes became much more form fitting." As pockets went away, so did that autonomy. "If as a woman you can't........

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