Education
Education

Girls fight back against gender bias in dress codes

By Maureen Downey
March 30, 2016

As temperatures climb, students start shedding sweaters and jeans in favor of tank tops and shorts.

At least the boys do.

Girls have to think twice about what they wear to school because of dress codes that limit what they can wear. Today, some dress codes even bar girls from showing their collarbones.

Underpinning dress codes is the belief that what girls wear causes boys to lose focus in class. Yet, girls are routinely pulled from class for dress code violations.

Increasingly, girls are fighting back against dress codes that hold them responsible for “distracting” boys. Dress codes have gotten so extreme that even 5-year-olds have gotten in trouble for wearing spaghetti straps.

To learn more about why high school girls are protesting dress codes, go to the AJC Get Schooled blog on MyAJC.com.

About the Author

Maureen Downey has written editorials and opinion pieces about local, state and federal education policy since the 1990s.

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