to be annoyed that there will be a trousers uniform only at dc's secondary school from next year?

[bigbuttons]

DD ( dc number5) starts secondary in September. All her older sibs have gone/ are at the school. Her 2 older sisters are in years 8 and 10. Up until now the uniform has been, for girls, a blazer, skirt or trousers, white shirt and optional tie.
We got an email this week saying that after extensive consultation( I would like to know with whom because parents were not asked to my knowledge) the uniform for new year 7's would be 'gender neutral'. Both sexes will wear exactly the same uniform i.e new school jumper, no blazer, smart grey or black trousers, no skirts and all to wear a tie. Pupils currently at the school can continue with the current uniform but change of they wish.
There has been 'issue' with girls rolling their skirts up to basically just below their backsides and members of the public/parents have been complaining about this. The new trousers only uniform will help with issues of 'decency' it says.
Year 6 dd is horrified, she has never worn trousers in her life and quite frankly is not a good shape for them anyway, - leggings yes, buttoned trousers, no, although I have never said this to her of course. She is short and stocky, always has been.
I know many women who feel very uncomfortable wearing trousers because they don't like their legs/shape and always wear dresses and skirts.

What this this gender neutral crap?
I support both sexes wearing ties and I liked the blazer so am sad it has gone.

I think the girls should be able to wear skirts and am confused about the whole 'indecent' issue. If a girl wears a short skirt it's surely not her fault if people find it 'indecent'? It feels like very little has progressed for girls since I was at school. So, they now all have to look like boys?

I would be interested to hear people's views on this.

OP, how can you see the underwear and legs of the boys if they have to wear a shirt and jumper?

they did have the choice. They didn't follow the rules, school have changed the policy to trouser only. Girls should have adhered to the rules regarding skirts.

If that actually was the reason, they would have banned skirts for the entirety of the school. However, they have just banned it for new Year 7s and subsequent years, leaving all the girls they currently have an issue with to continue to wear their skirts.

I had to wear skirts throughout my school career. I would have love love loved to have worn trousers. Just loved.

I haven't rtft but just wanted to give my 2 cents as someone who doesn't agree with trousers only! As a lot of posters have been questioning why anyone would have any objections.

I did wear trousers sometimes, only on days that we had swimming as they were easier to change in and out of. We only did swimming in year 7, so from year 8 I only wore skirts. I felt completely comfortable in them, didn't feel that I couldn't run around (I did wear tights more often that not) and anyway if I had felt that way I could have worn trousers. Plenty of girls did. If I'd had to wear trousers I would have been very self conscious which has a surprisingly severe effect on your ability to concentrate, certainly for me. I felt fat in trousers and they were always too tight in the upper thigh which felt much more uncomfortably 'sexual' than a skirt hitting at mid thigh. Also, this is likely tmi so definitely won't go into detail, but I was always grateful to be wearing a loose thick skirt when I was on my period. Ultimately just think the CHOICE is important...

I thought whole school and whole class punishments were frowned upon these days?

For everyone who has been saying that 'trousers are for boys', historically speaking, that is rubbish. So far as we know, in cold/temperate climates, some of the earliest (prehistoric) garments constructed for men and for women were (animal skin) tunics and leggings or trousers. In hot climates, for men and women they were plant-fibre sarongs and shawls.

Both options were perfectly decent. For men and for women. The trouble is that 3000 years of social/religious rule-making have made us see garments very differently.

There is nothing inherently female about a skirt or any other wrapped cloth garment. Just ask an ancient Greek or Roman or an ancient Egyptian. And there's nothing inherently masculine about trousers. One theory is that they developed once people (men and women) began to ride animals. Another is that they were essential for lower limb protection for men and women in cold (eg arctic) climates.

Everyone at my secondary school wore trousers (late 90s) - one of the few things about that school I was grateful for.

"For everyone who has been saying that 'trousers are for boys',"

Nobody is.

I think its good. I went to an all girls school and we had to wear a skirt. No trousers allowed. No summer dress and it was restriciting. We couldnt run about at break so we just sat and talked. It changed the year after i left

When I was in school skirts were mandatory for girls, trousers went an option. My year was the first year to rebel, 20 of us came in trousers, got sent home, came back in trousers every day for 2 weeks, by the end they amended the rules

I have a mum on facebook who's daughter attends an academy with this rule but the trousers must be grey. The daughter is very tall and it is impossible to buy "uniform grey" trousers to fit her.

I think it's a great idea (if we must have uniform). Short skirts don't look any better on stocky or large-legged girls than trousers do tbh, especially if they are rolled up (as they usually seem to be, and not just by the slender-legged). Why is it ok for boys to wear school trousers even if they think they look fat in them?

Come on, Betrand. That has been the subtext of several messages and it is disingenuous - to put it mildly - to suggest otherwise.
You may not like the evidence from the past, but it exists...

No. There is a big difference between "trousers are for boys" which nobody has said and "trousers are the male norm" which many people have.

I think.it's great
I'm sure the girls will feel a lot more comfortable as well.

The problem with trousers for girls is they come in all sorts of shapes and sizes and unifor trousers tend to be made for one size. My trousers uniform as a health care proffesional ( which are similar to my old high school trousers) have tiny waists and great big ballooning bums. They are made for people with and hourglass or pear shape. As an apple shape with a bit of a tum and no hips or ass I find them extremely uncomfortable. I have to size up but then they are ridiculously large on my hips and still a bit tight on the waist. They are really uncomfortable.
There is a reason men look better in trousers.

That great not sat

My school in the 1980's had a gender neutral uniform, it did of course include trousers and skirts and anyone could wear what they wanted, it could've possibly have come about due to requests from boys to wear skirts, as a couple did. But it was probably just because it doesn't make any sense to disallow any reasonably type of clothing for anyone.

Trousers only certainly appears to be completely inappropriate in a uniform, there are lots of people who do not want to wear trousers.

I really dislike wearing trousers - having something that has a fixed height at my waist is really uncomfortable. I can start a day wearing a pair of trousers that fit perfectly well and by the end I'm so bloated that I'd need trousers 2+ sizes bigger to fit round my waist. Skirts can start the day sitting on my hips and shift upwards as necessary. And no, belting larger trousers doesn't help, because belting that much fabric is also uncomfortable. (I also hate tights but thankfully as an adult I'm permitted to wear clothing I'm comfortable in so can wear hold ups instead.) I'd also point out that I'm perfectly capable of running round and walking and cycling in a skirt! As, I imagine, are most girls.

Why not allow boys to wear skirts as well as girls? And/or have a rule that all skirts must be at least knee length. Boys might well choose to wear skirts in the summer when the weather is very hot. If we permitted them to wear skirts at school, perhaps it could become a choice elsewhere as well, because we'd be bringing our children up with new norms!

Firstly OP the trousers belted below the pants exposing teenage boys' arses is no longer fashion. Now it is really tight, narrow trousers (thankfully).

The short skirt debate is valid. Today I have had a knicker show about 8 times. Once a year 7 pupils walking up stairs in a THONG under her short skirt. A Year 9 who bent over and the class got an eyeful of spotty knickers. A young girl in the library who was sat cross legged in the chair ... most boys are embarrassed rather than becoming sexual predators! Of
Course a girl should be able to dress how she likes but this is a school and as such there needs to be a level of decency and decorum. Male staff are accused of being pervs if they ask a girl to roll down a skirt and (as a previous poster said) I have been accused of slut shaming when asking a girl to roll her skirt down (it was shorter than her blazer).
Trousers make this better all round - sadly we don't live in an ideal world and this is just one way to prevent time being wasted.

Bodicea do you really think boys are all the same shape?

Haven't RTFT, but it comes across very oddly from someone who said 'I want my daughters to feel comfortable with their bodies' that the DD affected was 'horrified' by wearing trousers and that she, in your words, 'doesn't have the shape for it'. The school are doing a better job of that than you by the sound of it.

Bertrand - I said 'subtext' and I'm sure you know what I mean.
I don't have the time or the inclination for goadiness, so am out of this thread.

"Bertrand - I said 'subtext' and I'm sure you know what I mean.
I don't have the time or the inclination for goadiness, so am out of this thread."

Isn't it "goady" to infer things that nobody has said?