Shouldering the Pain: The Gender Politics Of Choosing a Schoolbag
Take a look around town, and you will see most women wearing shoulder bags and tote bags while most men wear practical backpacks. Is this the result of women's free fashion choices, or is this a harmful double standard, pointing to ongoing and outdated flaws in our expectations of women?
Historically, restrictive and painful clothing were adorned proudly by the upper classes as a status symbol to demonstrate that they do not need to do manual labour, leaving the working classes to free-flowing and comfortable silhouettes. On the other hand, the upper classes wore tight corsets, heavy jewellery and tiny handheld bags. Sounds good and looks good, right? Perhaps, but these women were dressed to sit around and mingle at balls, not run from class to class carrying laptops and books.
This standard of women wearing handheld and shoulder bags is a relic of decades-old ideals; it associates discomfort with class and elegance over practicality. However, this trend seems to have shifted from being merely a class indicator of societies gone by and has followed us into 2026 as a feature of gender performance. The distinction between the comfort of one’s people's clothing was based on the differences in labour that people performed. In St Andrews, even though men and women are broadly doing the same work in the exercise of carrying the same laptops, notebooks and textbooks to and from class, why is there such a difference in the comfort of the bags that we carry?
To illustrate this, I ran an experiment, looking up the first non-sponsored Amazon results for “bag for women” and “bag for men”. Here is what I found:
Padded, durable straps, endless pockets and subsections. This bag is made not only to fit essentials, but is built to last the user many years. Alternatively, the first option available when searching for a bag for women on amazon produces Tiny straps and one massive pocket. This bag is meant to be chic, and nothing else. Also note the difference in the staging of these two images. Both are the second image displayed by Amazon. The bag designed for women is carefully staged on a well-dressed, beautiful model. The image is meant to show you how the bag will add to your look. The bag for men shows what it can do for the user. It is a practical guide to its features, not concerned with beauty as such.
This bag difference is a double standard, more than just aesthetic, but a liability to women's long-term health. A 2012 study on bag types used by university students demonstrated a link between heavy shoulder bags and shoulder, neck, and back pain, and even postural deviations.
Is this true in St Andrews?
While St Andrews, being both an academic and a fashion-conscious town, has many men who wear tote bags, this tends to be an explicitly aesthetic choice, with these men embracing softer styles. There is still an overwhelming majority of women being the ones to wear shoulder bags.
One third-year student said that multiple friends and acquaintances have commented on her choice to wear a backpack, saying things like “it's crazy that you lug that thing around”.
The language used here is significant; male students I have discussed this with have never been met with the same confusion. Why is his carrying of a backpack not seen as “lugging”, and never met with a question of his style but simply accepted as carrying? If anything, carrying a 5kg bag on one shoulder is much more of a “lugging” act than spreading this weight across both shoulders.
But the question remains of where the line is between a woman's choice to feel beautiful in her style and her responsibility to not play into the patriarchal standards that shape this taste in the first place. On the one hand, a woman has the freedom to carry her belongings as she pleases. Yet, I am convinced that it is partly our duty to prioritise our health and comfort despite the St Andrian expectation to be elegant and dressed up at all times. Handbags and shoulder bags are perfect for days and nights out, where all you need is a wallet, house keys and lip gloss, but they are unrealistic to lug all of our university supplies in.
It is not just that women themselves are choosing to wear impractical clothing- we have been screaming for our trousers and jackets to come with real, functional pockets for decades but have been ignored by clothing designers. I am convinced that if women were advertised genuinely beautiful backpacks, which don't skip out on comfort or practicality, this would become a much more popular choice for the modern busy woman.
In light of this, here are a few backpack options based on the shoulder bags you may already wear.
For the bookshop-branded tote bag fanatic:
Opting for a funky corduroy backpack allows you to decorate the vast surface with as many cool branded pins as you'd like!
For the chic minimalist:
Perhaps swapping your leather shoulder bag for a backpack alternative gives the same put-together look with less pain at the end of the day.
For the Longchamp devotee:
The iconic brand, heavily favoured in St Andrews, usefully offers a backpack alternative to their best-selling Le Pliage shoulder bag style!
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