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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

women wearing trousers

227 replies

dottypotter · 10/10/2017 14:40

also wearing black clothing. Did anyone else have a granny like this. She used to hate black and women wearing trousers she used to hate it and would comment.

Cant remember how we dealt with it but did anyone else have a granny like this when they were younger?

OP posts:
sadeyedladyofthelowlands63 · 10/10/2017 17:58

it's only in the last 20 years that female teachers were allowed to wear them

I've been teaching 30+ years and I've always worn trousers!

School in the 80s and 90s however different story. Girls unable to wear trousers

And I went to a fairly conservative grammar school (started in 1975) and we were allowed to wear trousers.

MrsJayy · 10/10/2017 18:02

My maternal gran would be 102 if she were alive she wore trousers all the time she did wear skirts but i mainly remember her wearing trousers she worked up untill she was 72 in a physical job so trousers were easier to move about in.

Allthewaves · 10/10/2017 18:03

Nan wore trousers to garden in and do housework/decorating but always skirts for going out and church - she was very fond of tartan skirts

Hoppinggreen · 10/10/2017 19:19

My DD has to wear a skirt to school
I'm ok with it as we knew about the rule before we chose to send her there

EvilDoctorBallerinaVampireDuck · 10/10/2017 19:35

Was my post completely ignored? In 1980 my secondary school finally relented and let girls wear grey corduroy trousers in winter.

newtlover · 10/10/2017 19:39

I did teaching practice at a school in Blackpool in 1982, there was only one woman on the staff who has a special dispensation from the head to wear trousers, no one ever knew why.

Littlewhistle · 10/10/2017 19:40

It wasn't just one school. It was every school in our LA. Obviously there are thousands of schools in the country so they would have differences

MrsJayy · 10/10/2017 19:42

Sorry the 4thyear girls in my school rebelled and wore trousers in winter in 1985 before that it was a no trouser rule

Birdsgottafly · 10/10/2017 19:48

"She also thinks its outrageous that I wear dresses without tights."

My Nan would ask why i was spoiling a lovely frock by not wearing stockings.

We wasn't allowed to wear trousers in my school in the 80's.

TooManyPaws · 10/10/2017 20:05

What always gets me is the trousers and open toed sandals with tights. Just - why? I always saw trousers as an escape from tights though I've never been able to find smart ones to fit - too big hips, big bum and thighs, sway back and a relatively small waist to my hips. Now I wear leggings under a skirt to work instead of tights, together with knitted socks and Doc Martens Smile. All based around black as a core colour Smile. Mum got to wear trousers for a while as a Wren but only for mucky jobs. It was the same for me as a reserve Wren; I remember going to sick bay at the state of my legs during a very cold winter going great from building to building while wearing tights. Mum was born in 1920 and occasionally wore trousers but Dad was very rigid in his views and could be quite nasty so she generally wore skirts. I don't think either of my grandmothers would have worn trousers at all though Gran may have at one point as she worked in munitions during WW1; I have seen photos of workers in long overalls and skirts however.

Hellywelly10 · 10/10/2017 20:30

My nan would be 103 now if she was still Alive. She loved her slacks. She was of the generation that wore them to work in ww2. I had to wear a skirt for PE in the late eighties. My daughter was horrified.

WhyteKnyght · 10/10/2017 20:34

What always gets me is the trousers and open toed sandals with tights. Just - why?

Are you sure they're actually tights and not pop socks? My mother wears sandals with pop socks in the summer. She doesn't like having (partially) bare feet in public and also finds that sandals chafe her feet. So she wears pop socks inside her sandals for comfort. They are still cooler than shoes.

AcrossthePond55 · 10/10/2017 20:38

Oh goodness FineSally! I'd forgotten about the 'bloomers'. Mum referred to them as 'pettipants', although Gran would have called them 'ahem...underthings'. I googled to be sure I remembered it right and what do you know, they STILL make them!!!

And yes, Gran had amazing posture!

I just can't imagine doing housework or gardening without mod cons in a corset, stockings, dress, great big pants, and those shoes she used to wear. They were like black wing tip oxfords with heels. Did your gran wear those?

echt · 10/10/2017 20:41

My mother (who would be in her late 90s if she was still alive), would not buy me trousers of any kind and used to rail against fly-fronted trouser for women as They Could Have No Purpose For A Woman. Even as a kid I found this reasoning prurient.

Appuskidu · 10/10/2017 20:43

It wasn't just one school. It was every school in our LA. Obviously there are thousands of schools in the country so they would have differences

Which LEA was this then?

UsernameInvalid66 · 10/10/2017 20:47

I was allowed to wear trousers at all the schools I went to (between the early 70s and mid 80s). Neither of my primary schools had a uniform, and my secondary school was quite flexible about girls' uniform - you weren't allowed to wear jeans but you were allowed to wear cords in the uniform colour (dark blue) as well as more conventionally "uniformy" trousers! One of the female teachers once told a few of us that the head teacher had a rule that, if female teachers wore a skirt, they had to wear tights with it. So they definitely didn't wear skirts all the time and some rarely did.

My mum, who's now in her early 80s, very rarely wore trousers for most of her life but that's mostly because she didn't think they suited her - she is quite short and wide. She never disapproved of other women wearing them as far as I'm aware.

eurochick · 10/10/2017 20:49

One gran wore trousers quite frequently. The other (who considered herself posh) never did. Neither wore black. They both died last year aged around 90.

Teachers deffo wore trousers before 1997! I left school in 94 and had trouser wearing teachers. I think was around that time that women barristers were permitted to wear trousers in court though.

notacooldad · 10/10/2017 20:55

My nan died a few years ago at the age of 102. She always wore trousers ( or trews as she called them) I've seen pictures of her as a young woman in trousers as well.
Same with MIL who was born in 1925.
Mind you both were very liberated before women's lib!!! Strong, opinionated women who wirked and could manage their lives very well and discuss any subject with anyone.

bertsdinner · 10/10/2017 20:57

My nan used to like trousers, this is in the 70s. She had a white trouser suit that I used to think was very glamorous.
My mum used to wear them, again in the 70s, but reverted to skirts.
Im not a trouser person, I feel more comfy in skirts and dresses, though I do wear jeans. I wore jeans and cords growing up but have always liked dresses more, just my personal preference.
The only person I've ever come across who doesnt approve of women in trousers is my 82 year old stepdad. He "doesn't agee with it", apparently.

ladymelbourne1926 · 10/10/2017 21:00

My nan born 1920s wore trousers only once I ever remember, and I persuaded her to buy and try wearing them, she was in her 70s then and I thought they’d be warmer....she never wore them again. I remember having to adjust her tights in an ambulance once for her as she refused to go to the hospital once unless she had tights on and her hair brushed. She was always smart and took great pride in getting her hair done every week and choosing the ‘best’ dresses as she saw it, she was the loveliest lady in the world so it wasn’t a competition she just believed to look nice was important.
Not once though did she even comment on my tattered jeans and black everything, except to lie and say I was beautiful.
I miss her terribly.
My great nan however born 1890 wore trousers, she stared in the war when she ran a stall on Tottenham market, she also wore huge earrings, colourful tops.....and did time for possessing stolen goods. She was a real character, her trousers were one thing people always remembered.
Neither I ever saw wear black unless it was to a funeral.

Littlewhistle · 10/10/2017 22:25

Apusskidu suffice to say it was a LA in a fairly conservative and religious area of Scotland. When I was a student teacher, nobody would ever have dreamed of wearing trousers on a placement as that would have definitely been frowned upon.

Rumour had it that there was a school in a village with many Brethren residents where teachers were given a kind of modesty panel to insert into the necklines of their tops if they were deemed to show any cleavage.

InsomniacAnonymous · 10/10/2017 22:36

I was thinking (highly unusual that is) that in the 1930s -1950s Katharine Hepburn, Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich were considered to be glamorous and sophisticated yet almost always wore trousers. So why did so many women at that time consider the wearing of trousers to be taboo?

RhinestoneCowgirl · 10/10/2017 22:46

My all girls secondary school didn't allow trousers for pupils. As I was leaving (mid-90s) they relented a little and allowed 6th form to wear them.

I also remember a session where the school invited local business people into the school to give us practise interviews, talk careers etc. We were told it was probably best not to wear trousers to an interview as 'some people have an issue with them' Shock

Argeles · 10/10/2017 22:47

Both of my Nans wore skirts and dresses up until they were widowed, and from that point onwards, both wore trousers.

My paternal Nan wore trousers for over 40 years, and my maternal Nan has worn them for 12 years - reflecting the time they have been widowed.

Neither would allow their children to wear black when they were growing up, as they said it looked too grown up (I’m 31 and agree with this), nothing to do with funerals or mourning. My Nan occasionally wears a little bit of black, but my Mum and I think it looks far too harsh on her. My paternal Nan only ever wore 70’s earthy colours.

Sweetnessishere · 10/10/2017 22:50

I have only read page 1 & 6
Both my grandmothers were born in the 1920s and regularly wore trousers, as in slacks, never jeans. They both also wore plenty of dresses and both would wear sandals without tights in the summer. Neither wore much black.

My DPs are in their 70s and my DM standard outfit is jeans or jean like trousers and bright tops. Not high fashion, but as on tend as John Lewis. My DF has never worn jeans as he doesn't like them, he wears shorts in the summer and cords in the winter. My FIL and other people I know of a similar age wear jeans for their casual wear.

I was in school through the 70s and 80s and only went to schools where girls wore skirts, then so did my DD in the 2000s in fact their secondary school is still skirts only. Teachers wore trousers as far as I can remember.