Quote Originally Posted by Wandering Spark View Post
The Winter 1932 Sears catalog has a woman's fashion shoe which is obviously inspired by the ghillie brogue:

Sears was an American company which made affordable versions of trendy fashions. The fact that they described the ghillie as having "taken the country by storm," implies that it was a recognized shoe style in the US in 1931.
It also implies that it was a new women's fashion. Obviously based on the male shoe, it may further reinforce the idea that the term itself was fairly recent.