Dress smart
Why schoolgirls prefer skorts to skirts
Whether she’s skateboarding, climbing the monkey bars, or playing with her mates, 12-year-old Neve Ganley prefers comfort over style when it comes to her school uniform.
The Mt Maunganui Intermediate student wears knee-length trousers cut to resemble a skirt.
‘‘I prefer wearing culottes than a skirt. They’re not skirts, so you can run around with them on. They are quite comfortable.’’
Her school is one of a growing number around New Zealand that no longer offer skirts or dresses as part of the school uniform.
A Sunday Star-Times survey of more than 220 schools shows they are increasingly crossing skirts and dresses off the uniform list. Instead, shorts or ‘‘skorts’’ and culottes are making an appearance.
The survey reveals more than 70 per cent of schools have a uniform. Of those, 77 per cent let girls wear shorts and 36 per cent said boys could wear skirts, but most commented boys had never asked for that option.
Twenty years ago schools started offering an alternative to skirts, but now, many are dropping the option altogether.
Some girls’ high schools had or were working towards introducing shorts, while co-ed schools such as Kapiti College in Wellington and Queen Charlotte College in Picton let teenagers wear the uniform that suited the gender they identified with.
But does this go too far? In the interest of equal opportunities for boys, girls and transgender students, should schools be offering all students more options – rather than trying to fit them all into the same gender-neutral uniforms?
According to Inside-OUT’s national coordinator, Tabby Besley, choice is better than no choice when it comes to providing for students who are transgender, or questioning their gender.
The organisation works to help young people in New Zealand feel safe within their schools and communities.
She says schools where students wear mufti rather than a uniform allows-them to express themselves and remove barriers that a gendered uniform an enforce.
‘‘In terms of individuality, it means being able to express that through your clothing. At the same time, I think lots of young people are happy in schools that do have a gender neutral [uniform] option.
‘‘As long as there’s some freedom in choice of being able to express themselves, and their identity.’’
Besley disagrees with the notion that gender neutral meant making them masculine.
She says that ideally, schools with a uniform would have the option for a skirt or trousers or shorts and those items would not be gendered so people could choose what to wear.
But there is no clear direction from the Ministry of Education about the right way to structure an inclusive and practical uniform list. This is left to schools to decide.
Post Primary Teachers Association president-elect Jack Boyle says people have to have ‘‘faith’’ that schools would make good decisions for their students and communities.
‘‘Schools are pretty handy at being self-governing and making the right decisions for their communities.’’
Comfort and heat both had to be taken into account when designing a uniform.
‘‘Are they providing what you need rather than looking homogeneous, are they warm enough, are they made of a durable material.’’
Boyle says it is important to
Mt Maunganui Intermediate principal Lisa Morresey
‘‘empower young people’’ by permitting a certain amount of choice within a range.
A recent study by the Australian Bureau of Statistics found young women there took part in far less physical activity than young men.
Part of the imbalance could be traced back to girls wearing skirts at school.
In 2013, a researcher from the Journal of Gender Studies claimed skirts and dresses ‘‘restrict movement in real ways’’ and ‘‘skirt-wearing, consciously and unconsciously, imposes considerations of modesty and immodesty, in ways that trousers do not’’.
Mt Maunganui Intermediate’s policy is for boys and girls to wear pretty much the same uniforms.
Principal Lisa Morresey says the practical, comfortable uniform brought every child to the same starting point.
‘‘It just becomes a great leveller …. gives them a sense of identity and oneness.
‘‘Our boys and girls wear exactly the same polo shirt, their fleece is exactly the same, their sandals are exactly the same, the only thing different is the culottes and the shorts.
"[It’s] unisex, is completely interchangeable."
Former Wellington High School student and budding designer Clara Bosshard says it was not unusual to have boys wearing skirts to school when she was there.
The 18-year-old, who is soon to depart for Dunedin after winning a scholarship to study design, says putting genders into different uniforms can create segregation.
Schools moving away from putting girls in skirts shows the world is making progress in gender equality. She would like to see more unisex clothes in mainstream fashion to help get rid of the stereotypes and limitations that can accompany gendered clothing.
‘‘Everyone should be able to shop how they want and dress how they like without having to try to live up to any expectations, or society.’’
Wellington High principal Nigel Hanton agrees. The school is known for its inclusive community and does not have a uniform.
Students can almost wear what they want, he says.
The only rules are that clothes do not have alcohol or drug references on them, and aren’t offensive.
The mufti policy and the school’s culture of acceptance allow individuals to express who they are, Hanton says.
Plus-size fashion designer and soon to be mother-of-five Sera Lilly says she is in favour of a simple uniform.
‘‘I’m not a massive fan of school uniforms in terms of the cost to parents, but then I do like it how schools have uniforms so no one is separated from everyone else.’’
The checked skirt, shirt, tie, jumper and blazer her daughter wears each day is expensive, she says.
‘‘It would be so ideal for it to just be a skirt and a top. Kids just grow way too quickly.’’
If schools had ‘‘more generic’’ uniforms, items could be passed down from an older brother to a younger sister.
‘‘I’d rather my girls wore shorts to school than a skirt.’’
Lilly is pleased schools are moving away from the more traditional uniform.
‘‘I think it’s a great thing, you just have to move with the times.’’
New Zealand Schools Trustees Association president Lorraine Kerr says most primary schools with a uniform allow girls to wear pants during the winter, but secondary schools usually insist on skirts.
She isn’t aware of many secondary schools offering pants for girls, or of any students saying they would like to be able to wear pants instead of kilts or skirts.
‘‘At the end of the day, the decision belongs to that individual board [of trustees].’’
Lawyer John Hannan says schools have a clear legal entitlement to specify a uniform for their students, and there is nothing in the law that said they have to go one way or the other when it comes to making special provision for transgender students.
They did need to make sure they were not breaching any antidiscriminatory provisions of the Human Rights Act.
‘‘If their uniform had the effect of discrimination that could potentially be a problem for them.’’
That is not an issue back at Mt Maunganui Intermediate.
The school is a busy place with an active student body, and lots of kids surf, skate or play sports, says principal Morresey.
Culottes, skorts, or just plain old shorts, make sense.
‘‘It’s practical, it’s comfortable and it brings a sense of pride to our children.’’
The culottes were added as part of a uniform review which was undertaken by the school’s board of trustees – with input from the community – about seven years ago.
‘‘I think for girls having a uniform that enables them to ride their bikes, do cartwheels, climb trees – do all of that active stuff – is really helpful.’’
But the school would not blindly enforce the uniform without student input.
‘‘We actively ask the kids what needs to improve, what do we need to do better, and uniforms isn’t something that has come up.’’
Our boys and girls wear exactly the same polo shirt, their fleece is exactly the same, their sandals are exactly the same, the only thing different is the culottes and the shorts.