When shopping for clothes is a tall order

A Princeton and Harvard- educated lawyer, formerly an associate in a Chicago law firm and the holder of several high-profile positions in Chicago public administration, the 44-year-old will be on a par with all of the high-flying advisers she is likely to meet in the White House, in more ways than one. But as a tall girl who grew into a tall woman, 7in above the US and UK national average height for women, she will be well aware that height for a woman has both its advantages and drawbacks.

TV presenter Lisa Butcher measures up at 6ft and has modelled for Ralph Lauren and Yves St Laurent. She has been on the cover of nearly every glossy magazine, including Vogue, Elle and Marie Claire.

Other tall women can be reassured to know that even a model like Butcher has mixed feelings about her height. "There are days I like it and days that I don't," she says. "If I'm feeling self-conscious, being tall stands out, which I don't like." On the other hand, when she's feeling confident, the attention is very welcome.

One of the biggest headaches is finding appropriate clothes. "I do struggle - not just because of my height but also my shape," says Butcher, who is style adviser to the Long Tall Sally clothing chain. "Jackets and shirts in particular are always a problem, as are trousers. Sleeve lengths are always too short. Ridiculously, I have to roll up the sleeves on a favourite white shirt so you can't tell it's too short."

Then there is the question of wearing heels. Butcher, for her part, says heels "seduce" her and she has a "huge collection", but adds: "I hardly ever wear them because of my height." Last year's Miss Scotland, Nieve Jennings (5ft 9in), takes a different line. She was recently in China for Miss International Beauty and met girls there who were 6ft 2in in their socks. "They wore flat shoes. I think, why? Be proud," she says.

That's easier said than done, if by wearing heels you are destined to be taller than 90% of the men you ever meet. Katie Holmes is 2in taller than Tom Cruise, and Slavica Ecclestone is 10in taller than Bernie, from whom she's rumoured to be seeking a divorce after 23 years of marriage. Jennings wouldn't be too keen, though Butcher says she attracts "much shorter men"; her former boyfriend, the actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers, is 5ft 10in.

The assumption that women generally prefer men who are their own height or above appears to be borne out by the evidence, and tall men reap the rewards. Men of 6ft or above are 50% more likely to be married or have a long-term girlfriend than men below 5ft 5in, according to a 2005 study by the National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies in Paris, based on a sample of 2000 men. More surprisingly, short women, of 5ft-5ft 2in, are most likely to be in a long-term relationship and to have children by the age of 42, according to a Open University study of 10,000 people published in 2002, though the reasons for this are not clear.

Difficulty finding men of a similar or greater height is one of the reasons tall women contact the Tall Club UK, says Jim Briggs, one of its directors. Originally established as a directory of retailers catering for the tall, the club now also organises social events and promotes the interests of tall people. Much of its work focuses on the overly standardised design of everything from train seats to desks and doorways. "The 6ft 6in door frame became standard in 1870," says Briggs, who is 6ft 9in. "Why are we living with 150-year-old standards? If you ask most people the height of their same sex grandparent, they will say two or three inches shorter than them. Every generation is getting taller. Why can't we have flexibility of design? Why can't we have adjustable desk heights?"

A self-confessed extrovert, he doesn't mind being noticed, but does mind ignorant people being rude. "Would you go up to a large-breasted woman in Tesco and say, Blimey, what cup size are you?'," he asks. "You wouldn't, but people will come up to me and say My God, you're tall, I've never seen anyone as tall as you, how tall are you?' It's happened to me more times than I care to think about." He says that society in general is getting better at "accepting people for who they are", but the staring continues.

Once you get past the day-to-day irritations, being tall has proven advantages. A recent study by Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore has found that taller women were less likely to get dementia than shorter ones. A University of Pittsburgh study of men and women in management and shop-floor positions found that those in management roles were significantly taller than those who weren't; the same held true for men and women. Other studies have identified pay advantages for the tall.

In 2005, researchers at Stirling and Aberdeen universities suggested that taller women appeared to be more ambitious, competitive and career-minded. The study of 1220 women from the UK, US, Australia and Canada involved asking the women questions about how important career was to them, how competitive they were and how many children they wanted or had, and at what age they wanted to have them. According to researcher Miriam Law Smith of St Andrews, the taller a woman was, "the less maternally-driven she was likely to be". One hypothesis was that taller women have more testosterone.

So there you have it. Perhaps it's not just coincidence that the President-elect and his wife are well above average height. There does appear to be a slight bias in favour of taller presidential candidates: out of 46 elections where the height of both candidates is known, the taller won in 27 cases, including this one (John McCain is 5ft 7in), the shorter in 17 and in the remaining two, the candidates were of equal height.

Briggs, for his part, wouldn't be an inch shorter than he is. "It's very handy in a crowd, I always get a good seat in the theatre, though there's never enough legroom, and it generates attention," he says cheerfully. "I love being tall."

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