There is a large variety of shoes available for women, in addition to most of the men’s styles being more accepted as unisex. Some broad categories are:

High heels may be shoes with heels 2 inches (5 cm) or higher. They are often seen as having more sex appeal than low heels (see article for discussion) and are thus commonly worn by women for formal occasions or social outings.

Kitten heels are low high heels from about 1.5 to 2 inches high, set in from the back of the shoe.

* Sneaker boot and sneaker pump: a shoe that looks like an athletic shoe, but is equipped with a heel, making it a kind of novelty dress shoe.

* Wedge Sandals are sandals but have the ankles higher as if wearing a high heels shoe.

* Mules are shoes or slippers with no fitting around the heel (i.e. they are backless)

* Slingbacks are shoes which are secured by a strap behind the heel, rather than over the top of the foot.

* Espadrilles are casual flat or high-heeled fashion sandals of a style which originated in the Pyrenees. They usually have a cotton or canvas upper and a flexible sole of rope or rubber.

* Pumps, known in the UK as ballerinas, ballet pumps or skimmers, are shoes with a very low heel and a relatively short vamp, exposing much of the instep. They are popular for warm-weather wear, and may be seen as more comfortable than shoes with a higher heel. In the US a pump is a high-heeled typically slip-on womens dress shoe.