This week my social media has been filled with everyone’s cute back to school uniform pictures. Lots of pictures of boys wearing trousers and girls wearing skirts… Not thought anything of it? Well, you not noticing (or not caring) shows that sexist uniform policies are embedded in nearly every industry in the world, education settings being the first one we experience them in. For centuries, gender has been segregated by uniforms at school and in the workplace, and despite some significant progress, a number of gendered roles remain. Various industries have faced criticism for having sexist uniform policies and have demonstrated reluctance to modify sexist and outdated regulations. Every so often an archaic policy hits the headlines, generates controversy, and occasionally causes a dress code update – unfortunately these policies are only revisited when someone highlights how inequitable they are, and by that time, hundreds of employees have had to silently tolerate them.

I’d like to think that most policies have the excuse of being outdated and just not got around to being noticed and changed yet… but nope, stories appear in the media on a regular basis, reminding women that the world was just not built for them. Caroline Criado-Perez, a journalist now activist and author of the absolutely fascinating bestselling 2019 book ‘Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men’, highlighted the many (many…) issues that women faced in the workplace and in their personal lives trying to work out how to live in a world that was not designed with them in mind, including many instances of uniform policies that are just not fit for women’s use (including scary instances of personal protective equipment that doesn’t work for women’s bodies and leaves them dangerously underprotected).

Some more (in)famous examples to garner media attention:

In 2011, the World Badminton Federation hit the headlines after a new rule insisted all female players wear a skirt or a dress in order to ‘ensure attractive presentation’ – after a public outcry the Federation quickly backtracked.

Maybe the travel industry is faring better for gender equality? In 2014, British Airways air hostesses won the right to wear trousers after a two-year fight. Great! But oh no… Etihad Airways then removed this option completely in a uniform ‘revamp’ in 2015.

What about in sport? Sport seems to be a particularly controversial arena for archaic sexist dress codes. In July 2021, the Norwegian handball team were fined £1295 by the European Beach Handball championships for breaking strict uniform rules which state that female players should wear bottoms that are no bigger than 10cm on any side with a close fit and upward angle towards the top of the leg.

Unsurprisingly the men’s handball dress code is a vest and long shorts. This particular case gained a lot of media attention because the global superstar singer P!NK offered to pay the fine for the players.

The Guinness World Records came under fire in 2019 for invalidating a nurse’s London Marathon record attempt ‘because she was not wearing a dress’ to complete the race. After a backlash, they are now ‘reviewing’ their policies, but these examples of modern uniform sex discrimination do nothing but reinforce long standing gender stereotypes.

This summer at Wimbledon, a campaign called ‘Address the Dress Code’, was organised to highlight the menstruation anxiety that women face when competing in the strict traditional white uniforms required when playing tennis at Wimbledon. One of the campaign founders, Gabrielle Holmes said, “You can uphold tradition and still move with the times. There’s no point upholding tradition just for tradition’s sake”. And tradition is where the problem lies with a lot of sexist dress code. Traditional (read sexist) gender roles for women have leaked into uniform dress codes in nearly all occupations and these, like most policies steeped in gender inequality have been very slow to change.

Nicola Thorp, Doctor Who and Coronation Street actress (and broadcast journalist – my side claim to fame is that we went to school together shh!) got fired for refusing to wear high heeled shoes to her temporary job at PricewaterhouseCoopers in London in 2017 (Portico, the agency that hired her expected female employees to wear 2-4 inch heels to meet clients for up to 9 hours a day). Her treatment encouraged her to start a petition which garnered 152,000 signatures leading to a debate in parliament – the government eventually admitted that her treatment was unlawful. This dress code for Portico (and PwC) has now been changed, but many many more remain outdated and sexist.

It’s not just about how women feel when they are told to wear things that don’t fit them, don’t protect them, or just make them downright exposed or uncomfortable in their work, but also about what this says about women’s ‘place’ in society. Do we still not belong in some workplaces? Equality laws protect us on the surface… but the uniform policies say something very different about where we are fully included and how far we are accepted. Maybe we should start ‘right’ at the beginning of our uniform wearing with schools… where my toddler daughter, who is yet to wear a uniform thankfully, can run around and play unhindered by her lovely comfortable rompers and leggings. The Guardian reports that 40% of schools have now banned skirts in favour of more gender-neutral options. If girls can climb without embarrassment, sit on the floor cross-legged without exposure, and protect from menstruation anxiety, then it’s all a great step forward (Ramaswamy 2018).

Gendered roles and uniform traditions are vital when it comes to discussing particular arenas in the UK – most notably the women’s uniform in traditionally masculine arenas such as the police and the armed forces. Further blog posts will look at the history of the women’s uniform and how it has gone through significant changes (mostly positive – can you believe that the original police uniform for women was a mixture of kitten heels, force-branded handbags, handbag-sized truncheons, frilly collars, and heavy skirts – afterall women weren’t really supposed to run after criminals when there were lost children to look for…) – this blog intends to introduce the reader to problems with occupational uniforms – and invites readers to share their experiences (anonymously if they wish) of how their uniforms and equipment have significantly hampered their work in any industry.

I want to hear from you! What experiences have you had?

The blog also featured here.

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