Caught with Their Pants on

Caught with Their Pants on

BY ADDIE MORTON

Tradition is out and putting education first is in.

In the midst of what seems like a national fad, three Sydney schools have opted for gender neutral uniforms in their schools, meaning girls can choose to wear pants or shorts on any given day. The move away from traditional, gender specific, and often physically restrictive clothing will allow for more of a focus on inclusiveness and education rather than appearance.

According to the guidelines set by the NSW Department of Education, uniforms are a way to promote “a sense of inclusiveness, nondiscrimination and equal opportunity.” While uniforms are successful in ensuring every student is dressed alike, they are unsuccessful in ensuring every student is dressed in a way they are comfortable. Several Australian states mandate that gender neutral options be available for students, but NSW has left the choice up to the schools.

Eva Cox, a well-known feminist and active social and political researcher in Sydney, believes children should be able to wear what they would like to school.

“School uniforms seem to reinforce the idea that girls have to look nice and feminine but only reinforces the idea of being second sex,”Ms Cox said.

Ms Cox believes the issue goes beyond just girls being allowed to wear pants, and that stereotypes play a large role.

“We focus on the girls in trousers because we want to imitate the boys,” she says. “I think the boys have got to start imitating the girls so that they don’t have a superior sense of the fact that what they do is more important.

Although many people are as forward-thinking as Cox, Sydney schools are not on the same track.

In a recent study by Fairfax Media of more than 100 non-government schools across Sydney, only a handful of independent schools offered pants or shorts to female students as part of their regular uniform.

One is the secular co-ed International Grammar School in Ultimo that offers uniform options of dresses, skirts, pants and shorts to all students. IGS Principal, Shauna Colnan, said the uniforms reflect the school’s culture of inclusion as they “accord with the school’s respect for gender diversity.”

“Trousers have been on the uniform list for all students since International Grammar School began in 1984, and they became particularly popular among our young women several years ago, often teamed with boots,” Ms Colnan said.

The Sydney private school, which offers bilingual education for children from preschool to year 12, introduced ‘gender neutral’ uniforms to move towards greater inclusion and diversity. Ms Colnan explained that in Preschool and Transition, students do not wear a uniform, and all older students mix and match what they wear from the uniform list.

“We feel girls’ freedom to wear trousers is completely in keeping with our core values of connectedness, diversity, personal achievement, authenticity and vibrancy, as it allows a healthy degree of choice and does not discriminate against any student on the basis of gender,” Ms Colnan said.

Other Sydney schools seem reluctant to hop on the bandwagon despite research supporting the move from traditional school uniforms. An ABC News Australia report said that research on girls’ activity levels in relation to school uniforms showed that girls were less physically active at recess when they were wearing a dress or skirt as opposed to pants.

IGS Principal Colnan sees the importance in giving female students choices in their uniforms.

“It’s about girls being as comfortable and active as boys in the diverse range of activities in which they engage both inside and outside of the classroom at IGS. It’s also about choice,” she said.

 

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