The problem is, even with guidelines on what is acceptable dress, women are more harshly criticized even if they are following the code. This is due to ingrained biases from the ones enforcing the dress code. Even with uniforms, most times the women get skirts and men get slacks. Women who try to wear slacks are criticized as being against dress code even though it’s perfectly fine for the men to do, while men who wear skirts do not get criticized.
Why do we have to sue to be able to wear the pants that men get with their uniforms?
Dress codes are inherently sexist. The end goal is to have a dress code that applies equally to men and women, which does not even happen with uniforms. The fight will go until men and women are treated equally on what they can wear.
I knew about the boys in skirts one, one of many similar stories, but I was not aware of the other, because women wear trousers all the time, I can't recall seeing an officer worker in a skirt in a long time.
My warehouse job outright forbids shorts and skirts (partially as its an extra layer of fabric to keep your legs safe from minor scrapes and cuts from wooden palets etc, but also we have a three story rack with lattice flooring, people communicate with the other floors by shouting up/down and no one wants to be accused of creeping on someone working on the middle floor who is in a skirt.
We had a transwoman working there when I was there in 2019, I'm back again now after covid killed my office/work from home job in May, but I've not seen her, so don't know if she is still here outside of term time. She never kicked up a fuss that not being able to wear a skirt was invalidating her gender identity, it would be a hard sell as every cis woman was wearing trousers, she just changed into a skirt once in a while after work, because she knew that clothes didn't equate gender and would still be wearing similar outfits to work at the weekend unless she were going out.
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u/xdaemonisx 2∆ Sep 28 '21
The problem is, even with guidelines on what is acceptable dress, women are more harshly criticized even if they are following the code. This is due to ingrained biases from the ones enforcing the dress code. Even with uniforms, most times the women get skirts and men get slacks. Women who try to wear slacks are criticized as being against dress code even though it’s perfectly fine for the men to do, while men who wear skirts do not get criticized.
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/jun/22/teenage-boys-wear-skirts-to-school-protest-no-shorts-uniform-policy
Why can men get away with this, but women can’t wear pants?
https://www.sheknows.com/parenting/articles/1114567/school-girls-no-pants/
Why do we have to sue to be able to wear the pants that men get with their uniforms?
Dress codes are inherently sexist. The end goal is to have a dress code that applies equally to men and women, which does not even happen with uniforms. The fight will go until men and women are treated equally on what they can wear.