School uniform rule - girls not allowed trousers

[Fisharefriendsnotfood]

I'm wondering if I can call on the collective wisdom of you good people to help me construct my argument in the best way.

Dd (5) and yr 1 attends a local R.C primary school that I am more than happy with. She suffers from recurrent thrush and this year I noticed that when she wore tights under her pinafore it seemed to exasperate the problem. I checked the school prospectus for details because I have never seen a girl in trousers at the school and it states that girls must wear a pinafore or skirt as school uniform..

I then emailed the head and explained the issue and asked for clarification on the rules and she said that the last time the issue came before the chair of governors they decided not to introduce trousers as part of the girls uniform. She was very sympathetic and pleasant and said that if I got a doctors letter perhaps she.could allow it.

Now, there is no way dd would wear trousers if no one else was and I also feel that this would high light the issue / invite questions into something that is no one else's business.

So if you are still with me, I want to get the issue raised again with the chair of governors because I cannot think of any valid reason in this day and age why girls should not wear trousers if the want to. I have to speak at a parent voice meeting and if I can muster enough support the issue will be on the agenda of the next governors meeting where I can present my argument.

Where to start? Can anyone offer pointers?

Sorry for the essay

NiceTabard said: Trying to pretend there are areas where boys are stopped from doing something that they want to do and that would be sensible and practical, just because they're boys. Because there actually isn't one, is there.

How soon we forget. There have been recent threads on school uniforms here, and one thing mentioned was an incident a couple of years ago where the weather had turned hot, and a certain school allowed skirts or dresses, but only long trousers and never shorts. One of the boys wanted to be more comfortable, so he went to school in a skirt, and when questioned, the authorities said it was a valid uniform and perfectly OK with them. There were never any followup reports so I don't know if there was any proposal to change the rules, or whether that boy ever wore the skirt after that one day--or whether the idea caught on with all the other boys (I kind of doubt it).

The irony there, of course, is that it wasn't so long ago that boys would have been required to wear shorts to school, summer and winter, and no bloody tights either. Just because they're boys.

Are boys allowed to wear skirts? I seem to remember a boy doing this because of this same point, it was a fair few years ago when mine were younger. It was headline news, not sure of the outcome though.
It may be worth a search OP all the tabloids followed the story.

whoops missed the post above

Our school allows summer dresses for girls and short trousers for boys in the summer. Thanks for all the supportive messages. I need to put my thoughts and points into some form of mini presentation/speech so that I can stand up and tell people why I believe this rule should be changed.

I am bricking it, but my NY resolution was to be braver so I am going to tackle this and I am going to win two glasses of Pinot later

Good luck, OP.

In the mean time, may I suggest above the knee socks as a temporary solution?

We are doing mint thanks
She actually is happy out, but it's bothering me now

i thought we'd fought and won this battle when I was at school in 1978 and my mum stormed in and got the uniform policy changed.

Is your mother available for hire?

I wear tights with the gusset cut out because of this issue, but I'm 44 and don't care if I resemble a bag lady, it's so hard on your dd to make her the standard bearer for this.

Several strands of feeling about this - 1. I do feel it is up to a school to define its uniform policy; 2. I have come to hate uniforms; 3. I really can't believe that anyone is STILL having to argue for this since I spent years fruitlessly chomping away at The Authorities at my school in the dark ages. In fact the head teacher banned discussion of trousers more often than once every 3 years because otherwise it would have dominated every single school council meeting.

I would try cotton tights and over the knee socks in the meantime.

And regardless that it's a school, no employer would be allowed to specify that women must wear skirts. How on earth does a school think that it can reinforce such utter sexism with such young children.

Why can't girls wear trousers? What is the reason exactly? Do they not look feminine enough? Are they not sexually attractive enough? Ya know, at 5? Ask them to explain it. And defend it.

So come on everyone, let's compile a list of reasons why a school might specify why girls must wear a skirt.

I'll start:

It's traditional. Girls wore skirts in 1920/30/40/50....

......

Send her in stockings and suspender belt

I see your point, Tina.

You could also point out that traditionally boys wore three quarter length trousers and caps back in the day, and yet they have managed to let go of those particular aspects of traditional uniform.

I don't understand how it isn't illegal under some equality act. There must be some lawyers out there who can quote a law about this sort of thing!

Maybe it needs posting in legal matters?

I think Tina's point is really good. You should have this as your back up defense when they try and bring up the 'tradition' argument in support of their stupid uniform policy, OP.

To me this is kinda resonant of the Sun Page 3 thing. Girls can't wear trousers at school but it's ok to have a woman with her tits out on page 3 of a national newspaper.

I mean, why the fuck can't girls wear trousers to school?? And yet it's ok to have a woman with her boobs out in a national newspaper? What the fuck kind of message are we giving to our young women? Particularly our educators? You can't wear trousers???

But worry not. You can get your boobs out!

This caught my eye as my dc have recently started at a church school. Dd has an option of trousers, skirt or pinafore.

I find it very odd she can't wear trousers and would certainly raise it. She is there to be educated to find her way in the modern world, not be stereotyped.

The main point is wtf is a school thinking in this current day and age not allowing girls to wear trousers anyway? Blatant discrimination

Well at my school it stopped any Muslim girls applying. They didn't say that, it was just one of the things we knew. Not only had we to wear a skirt it had to be knee length.

And of course that is a terrible, discriminatory reason.

OP

I think you should fight this. It is no fun walking through snow in a skirt.

I need to put my thoughts and points into some form of mini presentation/speech so that I can stand up and tell people why I believe this rule should be changed.

Snow for a start, how many of the governors would go out in bare legs in the snow?
Sex discrimination.
Why do girls have to have bare legs and boys don't?
Do the governors like to look at girls legs?
Do the governors like to look at little girls pants when they do cartwheels?

Thanks for all the posts. Seems to me that I should present the reasons I feel girls should be allowed wear trousers

1. Warmth
2. Comfort
3. Modesty
4. Equality

I'm also thinking of raising the point that girls get their period in primary school and would more than likely feel much more secure / confident wearing trousers at this time.

I will then ask for their reasons why it's not allowed and point out that the female staff wear trousers.. Will counter tradition argument with boys traditionally wearing short trousers all year round and with the fact that they want the girls to wear ties..

Any thoughts?
5.

Do you need reasons? Isn't it just discriminatory and therefore they shouldn't do it?

If you are going to give reasons, I'd skip the modesty one, personally. I don't like any suggestion that modesty is something we should be requiring of little girls.

OP - I agree with curlew that the fact it is blatant discrimination should be top of the list. Also, what do you mean by modesty? IMHO It really irritates me when my 3 year old daughter is say relaxing watching tele or something and is told she isn't sitting in a very "ladylike" fashion. My son never gets told the equivalent. That kind of everyday sexism from the start of life perpetuates these problems I think.

Good luck with the governors! Come back to say what happened.?

Here is a link to the story about the boy who wore a skirt

bbc.in/kARNop

By modesty I meant that she can't sit crossed legged or do a cart wheel without showing her knickers

Sunday bump, any additional help / info out there

I think you're list is good Fish.

I think I'd be tempted to mention the fact that it's discriminatory/sexist at the top and work down, and then mention it again at the end of the list e.g. and just to recap...'it discriminates against girls.'

If you could get a good quote from their own equal opportunity policy that would be pure gold. Obviously they won't have a specific one about the uniform, but there must be something in there about how 'pupils will not be discriminated on grounds of their sex/gender' which you could then use to question why this policy doesn't apply to uniform.

Also, you could ask in one of your points, if the school wants to encourage it's pupils to think that it's acceptable for girls and boys, and men and women to be treated differently.

Be brave, ask the female govenors how such a policy would make them feel, and why that should be any different for the girls in the school.

Maybe they'll respond by saying "I don't want to wear trousers," t which you could point out it's about having the right and the choice to decide for themselves, to take away that right on the basis of gender, surely contradicts their own equal opportunities policy.

This has probably all been said, but I didn't have time to read the whole thread, sorry.