Uniform restrictions for girls vs boys

[Wwfan]

Are most uniform restrictions weighted towards girls?

We’ve received the following email today. They don’t say girls but from what I can work out it’s only girls (or those who identify as girls) who wear the items listed.

I fully support uniform and don’t show an inch of eye rolling to my kids! They know the rules are the rules.

But when I get these sorts of emails I think it really highlights the disparity.

I’ve just realised too that when I click on the uniform link (that I’ve removed from the cut and paste below) that the school trouser girls can wear must have the school badge on (so school uniform shop) whereas the boys trousers must be grey from a school supplier (eg M&S etc)!

Dear Parents and Carers,

We are writing to remind families of our school uniform expectations and to seek your continued support in ensuring that students attend school dressed appropriately and in line with our published uniform policy:

REDACTED

Recently, we have experienced increasing issues with students wearing non-permitted items, particularly black leggings and flared trousers, which are not part of the school uniform.
As a result, we are reaffirming that leggings are not permitted as part of school uniform. Students should wear standard school trousers or skirts and change into appropriate PE kit for lessons.
Trousers and Flares
We would also like to remind parents that flared trousers are not allowed. Trousers must be of a traditional school style and fit appropriately.
Skirt Length
Skirts must be of an appropriate length, in line with our uniform policy. This expectation is in place to safeguard both students and staff, ensure comfort and dignity and maintain a professional learning environment.
Half Term – Time to Make Corrections
To support families, we expect that any required uniform corrections are made over the half-term period. This will ensure that students return to school on Tuesday 24th February dressed correctly, allowing learning to begin promptly and without unnecessary disruption.
From this point onwards, uniform expectations will be consistently enforced in line with school policy.
We appreciate that uniform conversations can be challenging, but consistency between home and school is vital. Your support helps us maintain high standards, reduce disruption to learning and ensure that expectations are applied fairly to all students.
Thank you for your continued cooperation and support.

I think the thing is with boys trousers from a high street shop you get pretty much get straight, slim or regular. There was skinny for a while but Ai haven’t seen them in boys/men’s for ages.
With girls you get skinny, leggings, flares, cropped, ankle grazer, slim, barrel leg…
all of which are often sold as school trousers despite not being acceptable in most schools and that’s before you’ve even started on skirts.

Boys are generally not wearing flares, leggings or skirts. You seem to get a couple who wear joggers but on the whole they wear the ‘right’ trousers. The girls on the other hand for whatever reason don’t seem to comply.

It would have been more clear if you had included this in your original post. This is the problem, I think! Of course girls and boys should both get trousers from the same place- this is not ok!!

Some girls don’t comply. The same as some boys don’t comply with footwear, colour of socks, unticked shirts, haircuts , ties, hoodies instead of blazers etc. And some boys will also try to sneak by with trakkies, jeans ,”skinnies” or saggy bottoms/pants on show when it was the fashion.

I thought the regulations changed so schools cannot insist on logo on uniforms.

And girls uniform tends to be more expensive imo. I remember the primary school uniform list saying girls wear skirts that were checked (expensive) skirts and boys wear generic grey school trousers.

I did say what the uniform policy said in my o/p. I just didn’t cut and paste.

The girls around me wear boob tubes for skirts, you can see their knickers (or worse bum cheeks if in thongs). It’s revolting. My 4yo was stood behind one in Tesco and very loudly announced “Mummy, I can see her bottom.” Said teen was not impressed. Teachers/other members of staff are not paedophiles or perverts for pointing out that they don’t want to see this.

I haven't suggested that they are.

You highlighted the line on safeguarding staff and students, inferring an objection to this line. I have many teacher friends and they don’t want to see arse or knicker gussets, or be accused of leering if they unintentionally look in the direction of a barely covered bottom.

I don't see the issue with the safeguarding the pupils and staff line.I live on a road where there is a secondary school and I see thongs, knickers, full arse cheeks and the occasional vulva on a daily basis. Our secondary has pleated kilts and they boot out when they are rolled up.

I don't see why adults and children should have to work looking at knickers.

Would it be considered a safeguarding issue if a school opened where you had to wear a uniform where you could see your underwear?

Take it up with the school that you would like the boys and girls trousers the same.

I would say though that I know a few girls avoid standard charcoal school trousers as they find them uncountable and deeply unflattering. Perhaps the shcool ones have a better fit for girls?

Why? It’s absolutely inappropriate for adult men to measure the length of a female child’s skirt. Girls get uniform violations in some schools just for having longer legs than the policy allows for. It’s nothing to do with excessively short skirts. Even if it was, restricting the shortness of a skirt is entirely rooted in its “distracting for men”, regardless of whether it’s a school or an office. Total misogyny.

Girls do push boundaries with types of trousers; we all did. Boys don't bother. If the boys all started wearing dark grey Adidas three stripe trackies or black Nikes instead of shoes, that would be in the letter too.

The bootcut/flares trouser restrictions is way OTT. I wear black work trousers most days and they are wide leg/slightly flared. The majority of other 35-55 year old women I work with wear very similar I would say they are entirely standard work trousers - I certainly wouldn't wear them at the weekend and nor are they any sort of fashion statement. They are, in fact, very much like the school trousers I was wearing in the early 2000s. Straight leg trousers literally don't fit me because I have chunky legs.

You could probably challenge the requirement for girls trousers to be branded and only available from the school shop as direct discrimination. Even if not branded navy trousers are harder to find than black or charcoal.

Personally I would massively push back about them making the girls wear much more expensive trousers. That's massively unreasonable and arguably discriminatory.

The rest of it is totally standard. Not unreasonable to ask that girls wear skirts that don't show their bum and trousers rather than leggings.

Well, it would be equally inappropriate if a male turned up with tiny shorts.

Girls push the boundaries of clothing more than the boys

This. It doesn't even matter what you start from the girls will push it, the boys will wear it

@anotheruser76326 I, a female teacher, would also prefer not to see students' bums. I don't think that's unreasonable. I tend to use fingertip length as a reasonable expectation that fits the size difference for most kids.

My dc's school brought in much more rigid stance on uniform when a shop opened in the precinct called "school uniform shop" selling items that clearly were not school uniform, almost entirely aimed at girls. (eg skin tight black jeans with studs)
They relaxed the rules a few years later when the shop closed.

Sounds like something similar in your area.

I didn’t highlight it. Two other posters mentioned it, I replied to one stating I didn’t really understand what the school meant.

Sorry, just realised the bold text was from the school not you - as you were! Trousers costing £ for boys and £££ for girls is outrageous.

I would want two answers in particular:

• why do the girls have to pay more for trousers than the boys which is discriminatory
• does the girls’ supplier supply uniform in different waist/length combos as is common for boys?

IME the latter point is a problem as girls uniform was always too short for the width for my DDs but for the boys I could get longer lengths as standard. This is a really common problem (and I’d imagine affects shorter height girls) and increases the cost of girls’ uniforms and sometimes its not even available.

It’s a great leveller. Everyone in the same boat.
it also teaches about conforming and respecting dress codes. It also means they can concentrate on learning and not what they should be wearing.

You’re extremely naive if you actually believe the first point. On the second, there’s dress codes (fair enough) and there’s outdated , or ridiculous or sexist rules. Point 3, we’re not exactly top of the world when it comes to education, are we? Somehow , children in other countries manage to learn (sometimes to a higher degree) despite wearing jeans. Funny that.

No we are not top of the World? Who do you think is? You got it, China, Korea, Singapore.etc. All the Asian countries with strict regimes and very strict uniform policies. So there is your first naive point. Second naive statement is that you are stating we are not the top of education. Actually we do very well in the international league table. Twelfth. Now if you took out the 3 other UK countries, England would be in the top ten. Sorry to disappoint you. Obviously you don’t have a clue.