“I don't know who invented the high heel, but all women owe him a lot. Excuse the pun, but it was the high heel that gave a big lift to my own career.”

Source: Beauty Queens

<i> Body Language & The Male Gaze (Mar 31, 2016)</i>
Tropes vs. Women in Video Games (Feminist Frequency, 2013 - 2015)

On being a woman in rock, The Independent https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/music/it-still-feels-like-love-courtneys-back-26344406.html (13 January 2008)
2006–2013

Isn’t She Deneuvely?: Vanity Fair, Dec 2008 http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2008/12/winslet200812

Book III, Ch. 13. Of Experience
Essais (1595), Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

A May 3, 1982 Frank and Ernest cartoon.
Elizabeth Knowles, " Backwards and in high heels http://books.google.com/books?id=jxFQqDLav6wC&pg=PT25&dq=%22backwards%22+%22high+heels%22+%22ginger+rogers%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=wPs_U-qZC9PNsQS90YLYBQ&ved=0CDgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22backwards%22%20%22high%20heels%22%20%22ginger%20rogers%22&f=false", What They Didn't Say: A Book of Misquotations (Oxford Press: 2006)
" Quotes About Ginger Rogers http://www.gingerrogers.com/about/quotes.html", Ginger Rogers: The Official Site
Often incorrectly attributed to Faith Whittlesey, Ann Richards (who used it in a 1988 speech), or to Ginger Rogers herself
Alternative version: Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, except backwards and in high heels.
Source: http://www.frankandernest.com/

The line originated in a 1982 Frank and Ernest cartoon ( image http://www.reelclassics.com/Actresses/Ginger/ginger-article2.htm) by Bob Thaves as "Sure he was great, but don't forget that Ginger Rogers did everything he did, ...backwards and in high heels." On the internet and in many publications the line is incorrectly attributed to Faith Whittlesey (see [List of Websites That Have Attributed Thaves' Line to Whittlesey, http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rls=en-us&num=100&newwindow=1&q=%22Faith+Whittlesey%22+%22Ginger+Rogers%22+-incorrect+-incorrectly+-%22Bob+Thaves%22+-%22Ann+Richards%22&aq=f&oq=&aqi=, 2009-07-25, Google]) or Rogers herself. Ann Richards popularized the line by using it in a speech but she credits Linda Ellerbee with giving her the line, and Ellerbee credits an anonymous passenger on an airplane with giving her the line (see [Keyes, Ralph (2006), The Quote Verifier: Who Said What, Where, and When, St. Martin's Griffin, 77, 0312340044]). The official Ginger Rogers website http://www.gingerrogers.com/about/quotes.html attributes the line to Thaves.
About

Earlier use in Frank and Ernest (c. 1982), by Bob Thaves, as the characters observe a billboard for a "Fred Astaire Film Festival: "Sure he was great, but don't forget that Ginger Rogers did everything that he did… backwards and in high heels."
Quoted in
Misattributed
Context: If you give us the chance, we can perform. After all, Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did. She just did it backwards and in high heels** Keynote address, 1988 Democratic National Convention