auction category selection

is there a setting somewhere in the theme or wordpress that I can change to ensure that if a child category is selected, the parent category automatically inherits? For example, if someones auctioning off high-heels, I would like the auction to be displayed in both categories, highheels, and the parent category ‘womans footwear’. I would think this would be common sense, but it doesn’t seem to function this was by default.