Mums argue over who wears trousers

Mothers across Britain are challenging schools that have banned their daughters from wearing trousers.

Katia Chornik has been campaigning for a year to change the uniform rules at Kingston Grammar School in west London.

Chornik said that making girls wear skirts to school reinforces negative stereotypes.

‘‘The school utterly refutes that it is gender discrimination but if it is not gender discrimination, then what is it?’’ she said.

Chornik is one of many parents embroiled in the same fight. One mother from Richmond, whose daughter attends Sacred Heart Catholic primary school in Teddington, said that she asked the head teacher if her child could wear trousers but was told that they weren’t smart enough. (The trousers, not the girls.)

‘‘I find it anachronistic that in 2015 girls are forced to wear skirts,’’ she said.

Thousands of pages on Mumsnet, the online parenting forum, are filled with debate on the issue.

Last year St Patrick’s Roman Catholic primary school in Preston was accused of discrimination after forbidding girls from wearing trousers.

One mother said she was still fighting for the uniform code to be changed. ‘‘It is sexism,’’ she said. ‘‘Just because it is traditional sexism does not make it OK.’’

Back in 1999, Claire Hale and her daughter Jo won the backing of the Equal Opportunities Commission when they threatened legal action against Whickham School in Gateshead, after it refused to let Jo wear trousers.

The school changed its rules to avoid a costly legal battle.

David Pannick, QC, said uniform has been an issue ‘‘since the Sex Discrimination Act came into effect’’.