Compulsory skirt supplier- is this discrimination?

[greenmarsupial]

My DD's secondary school have had an overhaul of their uniform policy. They have said that the new skirt is one specific type only and that it must be purchased from their online supplier or from a specific local shop. It costs £20.

The skirt itself is not compulsory, girls can choose to wear trousers but boys cannot choose to wear the skirt.

The other one-supplier uniform items are the PE top and the blazer.

It seems to me (as someone with no legal background at all) that there must be some discrimination law around making a single sex item only be allowed to be bought from one supplier when trousers etc can be bought cheaper from a supermarket.

I'm only bothered as a point of principle, the skirts were getting ridiculously short but I do think a general style would have been better.

Do I have any grounds to complain?

It's discrimination against boys, yes

You do.

Uniform should be easily available and affordable in order not to discriminate - and by that they also mean stop parents even applying to a school sue to their limited uniform and costs.

Problem is that most schools that do this are academies and I think they have different rules.

Maybe to you but £20 is a lot for some people! I certainly can’t afford to spend so much on one item, I paid £5 for my daughters skirts, so I can get 4 for the price of one.

I also don't agree with a one style fits all approach.

Young woman come in all shapes and sizes and develop at different speeds.

We encourage body confidence and autonomy and then force them into a skirt that only ever really fits half the female school population as intended.

They do sometimes wear very tight trousers...

Would you prefer it if all trousers had to be from the school supplier too?

I think it's to slowly encourage more and more girls to wear trousers. You can challenge single supplier, but I think it's a bit of a grey area because the girls do have an option to wear trousers.

I would guess the skirt has been carefully designed/chosen to make it harder to roll up as well!

No, there are quite strict rules about trousers too...

No, just pointing out that they get round this too.

Definitely- I totally get it, girls rolling up their skirts has been a problem since time immemorial.

This is a good point!

How is that not discrimination? The girls have an option that isn't open to the boys. In practice, most of the boys would not choose to wear skirts. That said, a sizeable number of boys at a school near me did wear skirts during a heatwave a few years ago, as the uniform options didn't allow shorts and they said it wasn't fair that girls could wear skirts as trousers were too hot.

Arguably it also discriminates against girls (or at least leaves them open to unequal outcomes/harassment) as in practice most girls will likely feel pressure to conform to gender norms and wear a skirt, exposing their legs to view when male pupils are covered up in trousers.