Tag Archives: discrimination

All-girls’ schools – what’s the legal position on girls’ uniforms?

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Girls’ schools, despite their overwhelming public marketing message of female empowerment, largely continue to deny girls’ the right to wear shorts and pants to school. While these schools often talk of creating an environment where gender stereotyping is not present, they lay down a tightly controlled rule on what is acceptable female dress. They perpetuate and reinforce the gender stereotype that girls wear skirts and dresses, and tell girls that they must look a certain

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Girls Have A Right to Education Free From Discrimination

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One parent’s fight, backed by the Anti-Discrimination Board, for her daughters’ rights to have the choice of wearing shorts and pants to school.  Missy M’s three daughters were very cold and uncomfortable in their dress uniform.  So, Missy asked the school principal if shorts and long pants for girls could be added to the uniform list.  Missy tells her story below: “She [the principal] said no, just like that, a straight, flat out no! I then

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Girls Wearing Shorts to School: Taking Action on an Age-old Problem

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We often hear schools say no-one has ever raised the issue of girls wearing shorts or pants.  Often we hear from parents who are pleased to hear about Girls Uniform Agenda; they had thought they were the only person who felt uniform choice was important.  After all, the P&C, and the Principal, had said that nobody had ever asked if girls could wear shorts or pants. We know this can’t be true.  This argument is

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Research on school uniforms – it’s clear, they disadvantage girls

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As a researcher, I value evidence when considering my position on important issues. Recently, I had the pleasure of reading a Masters of Education thesis completed in 2016 by Hayley Johnston-Coutts called Gender and school uniform: a case study in fairness and equity. This research involved a detailed examination of one Australian independent private school and its uniform, undertaken via individual interviews with six (6) members of the College Executive; six (6) Teachers of the

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