Should skirt length matter in secondary schools?

[Holdonforsummer]

My daughter is 15 and in Year 10, she attends an all-girls comprehensive secondary school and they are obsessed with the girls’ skirt length. The skirt is like a tartan kilt and is supposed to be ‘on the knee’ but most of the girls roll their skirts to make them a bit shorter (think mid-thigh). I’m a bit on the fence about this but her school go on and on and on about it. They stop girls all the time, give detentions for short skirts, have assemblies about it, and have even been known to measure skirts and give girls long ones from the list property cupboard to wear instead. Yesterday, my daughter had just finished 5 hours of mock exams in 28 degrees and was walking home - outside school property - and was stopped by a teacher threatening detention even though she had left school. She came home furious and fed up of the whole thing. I can’t decide whether the girls just need to toe the line or whether behaviour from the school is bordering on a sexist, misogynistic obsession. YABU: the pupils need to obey the skirt rules, YANBU: The school should calm down and stop obsessing about skirt length.

I have.. we had to change the bloody code of conduct because of one stupid woman. There's always one. She didn't last long thankfully and then she tried to complain she was being discriminated against 😂

It's painful to deal with some people.

Most of their male classmates will look given that they are the same age, will be full of hormones and will naturally be feeling attraction.

I don't get how many on here don't seem to understand that. People can say they shouldn't look/notice until the cows come home but it won't stop it happening. Even if they don't say anything out loud they will certainly be thinking all sorts.

Where I worked we had one who wore very skimpy summer tops and no bra. She was a big girl and one day she leaned over the bosses desk and a boob fell out of the side of her low at the sides vest top about six inches in front of his face. She was informed by HR in no uncertain terms that she was not to come to work dressed like that in the future. So I do understand.

So let me get this straight. The school have a dress code. They have been very hard on it and it isn’t new (as your daughter isn’t in Y7). There are ongoing issues because girls are rolling their skirts and they are too short and don’t conform to dress code. Your daughter has rolled her skirt, broke the rules and is now ‘furious’ at having broken the rules and being caught.

So instead of you explaining that those are the rules and in life there are times when you have to follow the rules ( as presumably in whatever job she gets there will be dress code guidelines - hard toe shoes, scrubs, business wear or whatever) you decided it was ‘behaviour from the school is bordering on a sexist, misogynistic obsession’.

No OP it isn’t. Just because you don’t like it or don’t agree doesn’t mean it’s misogyny- cheap excuse for simply not following the rules. Perhaps it’s also a lesson in presenting yourself and not showing your bum in public through respect and dignity instead of crying fowl.

YABVU

Honestly the fact you think this is what is wrong with this post. Clothing does matter when children (and parents) don’t follow the rules and repeatedly show their bums. Follow the rules and there won’t be any issues.

Any job in life has a dress code no matter where you work and this is practise for that.

Yeah I work in a company where we are suited and booted and it’s always the women who go wrong. And they do. And they are told. And they aren’t taken seriously or professionally. They don’t get ahead. They are more worried about the way they look than just following the rules and doing a good job. Maybe it’s because they had parents who told them that the school uniform was stupid.

I would argue that part of their job is enforcing rules. Discipline is an import part of education in my view, and unfortunately, lots of kids don’t get enough of it at home. No wonder the country is in such a mess.

Schools should enforce the rules. Girls shouldn’t have to feel pressured by their peers into wearing their skirts shorter than they feel comfortable with and boys shouldn’t be embarrassed to walk up stairs behind them because they’re getting a full view of underwear and are worried they will be accused of deliberately looking.

It’s also good preparation for the workplace where they will often have to follow rules they may not necessarily agree with.

Kids live in a porn soaked culture sadly. They see female pop stars with their bum cheeks hanging out all over the place (Beyonce, Miley Cirus, Sabrina Carpenter etc) of course this is how they want to dress.
The objectification of women starts at a very young age.
Good on the school for having these rules, I say.

My grammar school was absolutely fastidious about uniform and the deputy head would regularly roam the halls with a ruler to make sure everyone's skirts were at least 2 inches below the knee. It didn't do me any harm, and we all looked smarter than the local comp kids, with their skirts rolled up and blouses unbuttoned.

For what it's worth, I don't think it was anything to do with the male gaze - they were equally fastidious about the boy's tie length and blazers. It was about looking smart, respectable, and positively representing the school.

Gosh hope you didn’t have to interact with any of those dreadful “comp kids” 🙄. Heaven forbid!

More common these days is that skirts are becoming shorter than a blazer being worn. If your backside and underwear are on show then its way too short and not appropriate for school.

Oh please calm down, I just said their uniforms were a mess - which they were 🙄

Girls absolutely do have their arsenal cheeks hanging out in my town. Literally entire bums and pants can be seen

It's gross and absolutely not feminist in any way ! As has already been said by many the girls always look very uncomfortable and are constantly pulling at thr back of their skirts

Meanwhile boys bowl along perfectly comfy

I used to go raving as a teen in hotpants and bra so I am hardly a prude...but I am really appalled by girls skirts that I see daily... it's just sad they are allowed by weak adults around them to do it when clearly neither comfy or safe

😆😆😆😆. This is Mumsnet at its finest!

Yeah but you could have just said kids at another school. Or another local school. Your bias was showing you got caught and then your response was to tell the other poster to calm down. Perhaps consider how your bias came across in the first place .

Seems ridiculous that schools insist on uniform down to the level of the colour of socks and then do nothing about skirts that are just an extended waistband. It’s not about distracting boys it’s about appropriate clothing for a particular environment. None of those girls could work in an office like that. They can’t even bend down to get something they dropped; they’re restricting themselves.

School is preparing them for worklife and the wider world. They have to learn what is appropriate and how they will be expected to be behave in adulthood. The school is fighting a tough battle if the parents can't see that.

I feel when girls get older and approach 18 if they want to wear something risque on a night out, so be it. But at school, come on

We can’t do anything about skirt length as parents don’t support us. Whilst many do enough don’t, as is evidenced in this thread.

I simply don’t understand why the female children’s uniform can’t be a skort or culottes, trousers if preferred.

if you can’t change the behaviour, and you can’t, because the girls that have their skirts rolled this high obviously think they’re the nuts, then change the clothing.

Any cost difference on the skort would be negated by not having to buy Nike pros.

I am not seeing anyone with Nike pros (or any alternative), just what appears to be normal knickers being flashed.

'We can’t do anything about skirt length as parents don’t support us. Whilst many do enough don’t, as is evidenced in this thread.'

Parents want teachers to teach their kids. That's it. Trouser styie/skirt length should be of no concern to a teacher.