“You never hear about men or boys having to dress modestly. It is deeply sexist and misogynistic. “
How many boys are flashing their private parts/gussets at people in the playground? Boys clothes generally are just modest. I expect both my children, boy and girl, to cover their genitals and, when she’s old enough to have them, breasts, in public. I also expect them to for the most part keep their pants off show as well. Modesty seems a reasonable word to use for that expectation. It’s nothing to do with sexism, boys leering, pervs in playgrounds etc and more that in our society that’s just what’s expected of everyone - underwear is private. I generally dress my daughter in trousers or shorts accordingly. Sometimes she wants to wear a dress, that’s fine, but in that instance yes, I’d prefer her to be wearing “big pants”/“modesty pants” “shorts style knickers” or whatever.
“Then perhaps society should stop expecting girls to wear clothes that are impractical for doing anything remotely active? How come boys get to wear trousers and shorts to school but so often girls are stuck with skirts, tunics and summer dresses?”
There are five primary schools near me - they all allow girls to wear shorts, skorts, trousers, skirts or pinafore dresses and four allow gingham dresses in summer. By secondary level I don’t think many girls are climbing trees or doing cartwheels anyway, but both secondary schools in the vicinity allow girls to wear trousers. I don’t think there’s any expectation of girls to wear dresses these days, outside of rare occasions - so it would be unusual for a flower girl at a wedding not to wear a dress for example. But in ordinary day to day life my daughter could easily live without dresses at all - except she likes twirling....