Hi edam,
I think that putting girls in boy like clothes gives girls the message that to be someone in todays world you have to be a boy.
Years ago, there were womens roles (child rearing, keeping house and so on) and mens roles (being tough, fighting wars, running businesses, hunting mamoth )
Then along came this idea that girls should be allowed to do jobs that were traditionally male - and I support that. But then the message came through that in order to do a traditinally male job, you also have to do it in the traditionally male way. So rather than society opening up and saying hay girls you can do anything, the message was you can do the job only if you do it like a man. So work 5 days a week 9 to 5, go to the pub with guys on friday after work. Kids - men dont 'have kids' and so on. So girls would deny the things that they like and hey girls like dressing up and looking what I call feminine. To me it is part of girls identity.
My contention is that women should be able to chart their own course through society. To me, part of being a woman is making the choice to have kids for example. Now why should it be a society where you have to pretend to be a man to be successful in business??
To me having girls were skirts to school says you are a girl, be proud to be a girl.
Now the next bit - why to wear shorts under the skirt. Well sometimes little girls undies just end up looking like a rag scrunched up between their legs and half up their backsides. And besides, adult women do not tend to go doing cartwheels and hanging off monkey bars. So to me, by wearing bike pants under a skirt, a woman can look like a woman and still engage in physical activity.
There you go.