SAVE THE DATE: SATURDAY, MAY 15, 2027 at 12PM

Downtown West Chester, PA

What is Walk a Mile in Her Shoes?

Since 2001, men, women, and their families around the world have joined the award-winning Walk a Mile in Her Shoes® events in their community. It’s a powerful opportunity to raise awareness in our community about domestic violence. Men walk in women’s high-heeled shoes to confront gender stereotypes head-on and the playfulness of the event opens up space to talk about the roots of domestic violence without the defensiveness that usually shuts those conversations down.

Chester County’s Walk a Mile in Her Shoes event began in Phoenixville in 2023, started by the Phoenixville Area High School Walk a Mile team, led by Vivona Xu with Emerson Cairns and Brynn Klotzbach.

This year, the event is expanding countywide in partnership with the Chester County Commissioners and the Chester County District Attorney’s Office, with support from student volunteers from the Phoenixville Area High School Walk a Mile Team, Henderson High School FEMPowerment Club, Kennett High School SADD Club, Downingtown East High School NOW Club, and students from Downingtown STEM Academy, and Great Valley High School.

Why Men in High-Heeled Shoes?

There’s an old saying: you can’t understand someone else’s experience until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes. Walk a Mile in Her Shoes® takes that literally – men walk just one mile in women’s high heels to build empathy and spark conversation!

It’s not a comfortable walk, and that’s the point: the discomfort opens the door to real education, self-reflection, and change. It’s a visually-striking public show of allyship, and it gets the whole community talking about gender roles, healthy relationships, and domestic violence.

How Can You Get Involved?