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School Dress Codes: When Do They Go Too Far?

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With #dresscoded and #Imnotadistraction, school dress codes are coming under fire from students who say these policies can be sexist and racist. But many argue strict dress codes are necessary for a safe learning environment. So, how should schools decide on dress code policies?

TEACHERS: Guide your students to practice civil discourse about current topics and get practice writing CER (claim, evidence, reasoning) responses.  Explore lesson supports.

What are school dress codes?

School dress codes are policies that mandate how students should dress in school. They vary from school to school, district to district.

Are school dress codes sexist?

Many people feel that some school dress code policies unfairly target women since most of the items that are banned are items that women would wear, like certain types of skirts and tops. Many also argue that school dress codes can be unfairly enforced based on body type, where more developed women or heavier women are punished more frequently compared to less developed or thinner women. Critics say that this sends the wrong message to young women about their bodies and contributes to the sexualization of young women.

Are school dress codes racist?

Many people feel that some school dress code policies unfairly target people of color by banning things that may wear like durags, hair wraps, braids, and dreadlocks. Critics argue this criminalizes culture, and can lead to a system where students of color are getting disciplined more for dress code violations.

What are advantages of dress codes?

Many proponents of dress codes feel that dress codes contribute to a safe learning environment. Dress codes that prohibit gang related clothing or clothing that others may find offensive or distracting helps create an environment where students can focus on their education rather than distracting or dangerous clothes. Many also feel that strict dress codes help prepare students for work life after school, since many jobs require employees to dress a certain way.

Pudding: The sexualized Messages Dress Codes Are Sending to Students

Vox: Students are waging war on sexist and racist school dress codes — and they’re winning

Ed Week: Do School Dress Dodes Discriminate Against Girls?

Phi Delta Kappan: How dress codes criminalize males and sexualize females of color

NPR: When Black Hair Violates the Dress Code:

NBC News: Parents Outraged Over School’s ‘Discriminatory,’ ‘Racist’ Dress Code:

The Daily Beast: ‘Discriminatory’: ACLU, NAACP Go After Florida School That Banned Child for Dreadlocks

NBC News: Louisiana girl sent home from school over braided hair extensions

SF Chronicle: Alameda schools’ new dress code: Tube tops are in, shaming girls is out

An Introduction to AUSD’s Revised Dress Code:

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Do uniforms make schools better?

by: Marian Wilde | Updated: March 1, 2024

Print article

Schools, parents, and students frequently clash over the issue of regulating what students may and may not wear to school. These controversies often pegged to the culture war of the moment touch on everything from gender and sexuality to politics, race, and religion. In 2021, a group of about 50 students in Georgia protested their middle school’s dress code for being discriminatory against BIPOC girls by wearing t-shirts every Friday emblazoned with the words “sexist,” “racist,” and “classist.” In 2022, a fight between students, staff, and police officers broke out at a Pennsylvania high school when hats and hoodies were banned as part of a revision by the school board to the school’s dress code. And in 2023, two Michigan middle schoolers, via their mother, sued their school district after they were banned from wearing “Let’s Go Brandon” sweatshirts.

Are school uniforms the best solution to this contentious debate? If every student is wearing the same outfit, will a host of campus problems be solved? Researchers are divided over how much of an impact — if any — dress policies have on student learning. There are multiple studies with conflicting conclusions, plus books such as 2018’s The Debate About School Uniforms , but the argument wears on, with a list of pros and cons on each side.

Why do some public schools have uniforms?

In the 1980s, public schools were often compared unfavorably to Catholic schools. Noting the perceived benefit that uniforms conferred upon Catholic schools, some public schools decided to adopt a school uniform policy.

President Clinton provided momentum to the school uniform movement when he said in his 1996 State of the Union speech, “If it means teenagers will stop killing each other over designer jackets, then our public schools should be able to require their students to wear school uniforms.”

The pros and cons of school uniforms

According to proponents, school uniforms:.

• Help prevent gangs from forming on campus

• Encourage discipline

• Help students resist peer pressure to buy trendy clothes

• Help identify intruders in the school

• Diminish economic and social barriers between students

• Increase a sense of belonging and school pride

• Improve attendance

Opponents contend that school uniforms:

• Violate a student’s right to freedom of expression

• Are simply a Band-Aid on the issue of school violence

• Make students a target for bullies from other schools

• Are a financial burden for poor families

• Are an unfair additional expense for parents who pay taxes for a free public education

• Are difficult to enforce in public schools

Uniforms vs. dress codes

Schools and districts vary widely in how closely they adhere to the concept of uniformity.

What’s a dress code?

Generally, dress codes are more relaxed than uniform policies. Sometimes, however, dress codes are quite strict with requirements that are potentially viewed as biased based on race or gender. In 2020, two Black male students in Texas, cousins with West Indian heritage, were suspended for wearing dreadlocks in supposed violation of the district’s hair and grooming policy, part of the dress code. The elder one, a senior, was told he couldn’t attend prom or graduation until his dreads were trimmed. In 2022, girls on the track team at an Albany, NY high school were sent home for wearing sports bras at practice.

Uniforms are certainly easier for administrators to enforce than dress codes, largely because the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) can be depended upon to protect a student’s “right to express themselves.” The ACLU believes dress codes are often used to, “shame girls, force students to conform to gender stereotypes… punish students who wear political and countercultural messages. Such policies can be used as cover for racial discrimination… Dress codes can also infringe on a student’s religious rights…” To successfully enforce a dress code, insists the ACLU, the school must prove the student’s attire, “is disruptive to school activities.”

The ACLU’s dress code stance is regularly supported by federal courts , like the 2023 lower court ruling in North Carolina that ended a charter school decree that girls couldn’t wear pants to school. ACLU lawyers claimed this violated Title IX because the dress code “discriminated against female students by limiting their ability to fully participate in school activities, such as using the playground.” The U.S. Supreme Court later declined to take up a case challenging the lower court’s ruling.

Check with your school to see what the dress code is, as they can be fairly specific. In Tulsa, Oklahoma, for example, the dress code prohibits :

• Symbols, mottoes, words or acronyms that convey crude, vulgar, profane, violent, death-oriented, gang-related, sexually explicit, or sexually suggestive messages.
• Symbols, mottoes, words or acronyms advertising tobacco, alcohol, or illegal drugs or drug paraphernalia.
• Symbols, mottoes, words or acronyms identifying a student as a member of a secret or overtly antisocial group or gang or that identifies a student as a member of an organization that professes violence or hatred toward one’s fellow man.
• Visible and permanent tattoos/brands incompatible with the standards set forth herein shall be covered to prohibit their display.
• Excessively large or baggy clothes

What’s a uniform?

School uniforms worldwide can widely range from nondescript to bizarre. (Extreme examples from China, Australia, and the UK on this YouTube video ) Most public school outfits in the USA are quite casual, with a “ common type ” for boys often a polo shirt in a solid color, with pants in khaki, black, or navy blue. A girl’s uniform is often a skirt and a white buttoned-up shirt. Dress shoes are frequently required for both genders.

In the United States, low-income families spend an average of $249 on a child’s school uniform annually, far less than the typical Australian student’s $578. But still, the cost is sometimes viewed as unfair because public education is intended to be free, paid by tax dollars, not “a stress for families on lower incomes.” The ACLU believes that public schools should provide free school uniforms , because the expense is unconstitutional, and it increases wealth inequity.

What research says about school uniforms

In 2006, Virginia Draa, professor at Youngstown State University, reviewed the impact of school uniforms at 64 public high schools that had larger percentages of economically disadvantaged and minority students than other urban schools. Her conclusion surprised her: “I really went into this thinking uniforms don’t make a difference, but I came away seeing that they do… I was absolutely floored.” Her analysis determined that the schools with uniforms improved their students attendance, and graduation rates rose an average almost 11 percent.

In 2022, Ohio State University and University of Pennsylvania researchers reached a contrary opinion in their report titled “ School Uniforms and Students Behavior: Is There a Link? ” Their view was that, in general, evidence that school uniforms improve social skills in the students was “inconclusive.” The solitary praise they provided to uniform-wearing was noting there was “some indication that low-income students in schools that required uniforms demonstrated better school attendance than low-income students in schools that did not.”

What to believe? Jury is still out.

What do students think about uniforms?

A student discussion: pros and cons of uniforms

Editor’s note: This video is part of our high school milestones series about communication skills. The students in this video discuss the pros and cons of school uniforms.

A University of Nevada, Reno, survey of 1,848 middle school students, published in 2022, revealed that 90 percent did not like wearing a uniform to school . Only 30 percent believed the uniforms “might reduce discipline issues, a mere 17 percent thought the uniform helped them focus at school, 34 percent believed their school was safer due to the uniforms and 37 percent said, “I worry less about my appearance” due to the uniform requirement.”

An earlier study, also in Nevada, displayed similar unpopularity with newly instituted uniforms among middle school students. However, when the researchers looked into school discipline and local police records and compared them to the prior year’s data, discipline referrals were down 10 percent, there were 63 percent fewer police log reports, and incidences of graffiti, fights, and gang-related activity were all down.

It’s a big issue

A new trend is the mounting pressure to establish dress codes for teachers. Apparently, the same casual mindset toward revealing outfits is cropping up in the ranks of our teachers.

The debate over uniforms in public schools encompasses many larger issues than simply what children should wear to school. It touches on issues of school improvement, freedom of expression, and hot-button culture wars. It’s no wonder the debate rages on.

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Why School Dress Codes Need to Be Abolished

While school is going to look different this fall (understatement of the century), it’s about time it changed even more, by abolishing school dress codes . To some, this may seem like a radical move. Don’t kids need some rules to keep them in line? As we still limp through this pandemic, and work to make sure that racial justice remains at the top of our priorities, it makes complete sense to remove the rules that have become an obstacle to equitable education.

“Dress code has always been about policing the body,” Dr. Christopher Emdin , associate professor of Science Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, and author of For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood , told SheKnows. “What’s happening right now is that we are pushing back against the concept of policing without purpose or controlling without really good reason, and one of the mechanisms that we use to police and control in schools is dress code and hair styles [rules].”

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Not a dress code for all

This has been a long time coming. A few years ago, there was a flood of news stories about dress codes — often involving girls who went viral on social media as they protested how their schools’ teachers and administrators unfairly punished them for violating rules designed to keep them from “distracting” boys with short skirts and shorts, and revealing shirts. In these incidents, the girls were pulled out of class and even suspended for the sake of these boys, and the teachers ignored the irony of how distracting this was. Girls, their advocates , and academic scholars began to gather evidence that girls and students of color were getting disciplined far more than white boys for these rule violations.

But even worse were the stories we heard about the Black, Latinx, and Native American students, some heartbreakingly young, who were sent home for wearing their hair in braids, dreadlocks, Afros, or other natural hairstyles. Administrators repeated those same “distraction” arguments for their rules about hair length, but the pictures showed Black children unable to attend first grade and high school students not being able to graduate . (Should we be thankful that they have at least stopped using the unfounded, despicable argument that these hairstyles are supposedly dirty?)

View this post on Instagram Locs remain one of the most recognized hairstyles, yet one of the most misunderstood. Let’s #PassTheCROWN and normalize #locs in the workplace and in schools. Beautiful photo by @TheBennettGang! 😍 Learn more about the movement at thecrownact.com #TheCROWNAct A post shared by Official Campaign (@thecrownact) on Jul 21, 2020 at 10:00am PDT

The racist outcome of these rules is no surprise to the people paying attention.

“We have to situate this policing of hair in the larger context of: whiteness or closeness to whiteness is always right,” Emdin said.

The Crown Act , a movement to get states to prevent discrimination against Black hairstyles , had already been slowly gaining ground before 2020. It has been signed into law in seven states so far. When the Black Lives Matter movement swept the world early this summer, we began to have hope that things were going to change faster and more dramatically, and Emdin has, in fact, seen some educators change their way of thinking.

“I think that there are schools and districts that are really reconsidering what their positions have been historically,” he said.

But at the same time, there are others that are not. Teen Vogue just reported on schools in Tennessee, North Carolina, and Brooklyn that are enforcing dress codes even when their students are attending via Zoom.

“During standardized testing, we were forced to have our cameras on and to be ‘appropriately’ dressed or our scores would be invalidated for fear of cheating,” Justin, a Black student at Uncommon Charter High School in Brooklyn, told Teen Vogue. “I personally was told to take my hood off by a teacher during a test since they wanted all of our faces to be on camera.”

Earlier this month, 6-year-old Asten Johnson was refused entry to Zion Temple Christian Academy in Cincinatti, due to his dreadlocks. Though the city has its own law against hair discrimination, religious institutions are exempt.

This isn’t just about allowing children to show off their hair or wearing cute cutoffs. It’s about the fact that people’s insistence on rules becomes a slap in the face to the children who are otherwise eager to learn.

Emdin has found this in his conversations with Black and Latinx youth, who truly come to school with a love of learning and often find that school institutions don’t return that love.

“When young folks are free to be who they are in the classroom, they learn better,” he said. “They’re not consumed by whether or not [they’re acceptable. They are not worrying about how they are going to be perceived or interpreted. They’re not worried about: am I breaking a rule or am I not? Am I going to anger somebody? And the reality is, when a young person is consumed by how adults are viewing them, based on how the hair grows out of their head, for example, they don’t have the mental space to also learn.”

But should we ban all dress code rules?

You might be reading this far and wonder why we can’t simply make sure dress codes don’t ban natural hairstyles and that they are enforced equally. We don’t exactly want our children to go to school naked or to have to sit in a classroom with someone wearing Nazi regalia, right?

In districts in Oregon, Seattle, and California, schools have been experimenting with abolishing most rules about dressing . They follow a model developed by the Oregon National Organization for Women in 2016. The model places a higher value on student self-expression and comfort than on “unnecessary discipline or body shaming,” and it frees educators to focus on teaching instead of enforcing rules. For the sake of everyone’s health and safety, they have to have certain body parts covered. The also can’t wear anything that has hate speech, profanity, pornography, or promotion of drugs or violence.

View this post on Instagram School pushout starts with discipline policy. Find out if your school is unfairly targeting students with the Let Her Learn toolkit (link in bio). #LetHerLearn A post shared by National Women's Law Center (@nationalwomenslawcenter) on Jan 14, 2017 at 8:40am PST

So far, we haven’t heard of these new rules backfiring in anyone’s faces.

Some of the arguments for dress codes and school uniforms are that they discourage kids from judging each other based on their clothing and unify them as one. This is not what actually happens.

“If you created a school culture where everyone was valued for their self-expressiveness and their culture and their style, then you wouldn’t have to worry about using dress to be the mechanism to build community,” he said. “If you really build a strong community, you wouldn’t need what people wear to define it. There’s a wide array of modes of self-expression actually helped to make the community stronger.”

The mask exception

We’ve seen the irony of the same kinds of people who love a good dress code suddenly arguing that no one should be forced to wear a mask to prevent the spread of COVID-19. And now, even progressive educators are worried that mask rules might be one more way that students of color are going to be unfairly disciplined.

Emdin had a reasonable way of looking at this: “If it causes harm or discomfort to another human, then it should not be welcome.”

By not wearing a mask, you may be causing harm or discomfort to another. On the other hand, reusable masks are now offering kids a different opportunity.

“What’s inevitably going to happen is that they’re going to put on masks and the masks are going to be the chief mechanism through which they express their culture.”

What can parents do?

If you see dress codes being inequitably enforced in your child’s school, it’s time to use your voice. Let the administration know that your top priority is that the school is a place of learning and acceptance, not of molding little humans into some uniform ideal. They may even pay more attention to you if you make these opinions known without your child having been dress-coded. And then tell your friends, your PTA, and more. Systemic change works when we join together and speak up for each other and for those who can’t.

Help your kids express themselves with these face masks from Black-owned brands .

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Essay on Dress Code

Students are often asked to write an essay on Dress Code in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Dress Code

What is a dress code.

A dress code is a set of rules about what you can wear. Schools, offices, and clubs often have dress codes. They help people look neat and proper for different places. For example, your school might ask you to wear certain colors or types of clothes.

Why Dress Codes Matter

Dress codes are important because they create a sense of unity. When everyone wears similar clothes, it can make people feel like they belong to a group. In jobs, it helps customers know who to ask for help.

Pros and Cons

Having a dress code means everyone knows what to wear without thinking too much. But, some people feel dress codes limit their freedom to express themselves through their clothes.

Dress Code Tips

When you follow a dress code, make sure your clothes are clean and fit well. If you’re not sure what to wear, ask a teacher or a friend. Always try to look your best within the rules.

250 Words Essay on Dress Code

A dress code is a set of rules about what clothes people can wear. Schools, offices, and some events ask people to follow a dress code. This means everyone wears similar kinds of clothes. It keeps things fair and makes sure no one feels left out because of what they wear.

Types of Dress Codes

There are many types of dress codes. For example, in school, you might have to wear a uniform. This is a special set of clothes that all students wear. At a party, there might be a fancy dress code, which means you need to wear your best clothes. In offices, the dress code is often formal, which means suits for men and dresses or suits for women.

Dress codes are important because they help people know what is okay to wear. They can make sure that no one’s clothes cause a problem or distract others. In school, a dress code can help students focus on learning instead of what everyone is wearing.

Dress codes have good and bad sides. A good side is that they can make everyone feel equal. A bad side is that sometimes people feel they can’t express themselves with their clothes. It’s important to find a balance so that people can feel comfortable and still follow the rules.

Dress codes are about wearing the right clothes for the right place. They help keep things fair and respectful. It’s good to follow the dress code, but it’s also important to feel good in what you wear.

500 Words Essay on Dress Code

A dress code is a set of rules about what clothes people can wear. Schools, offices, and different events often have dress codes to make sure everyone looks proper and respects the place or event they are at. For example, your school might ask you to wear certain colors or types of clothes so that all students look alike and no one feels left out because of what they wear.

Why Do We Have Dress Codes?

Dress codes are important because they help keep things fair and orderly. In schools, if everyone wears the same type of clothes, it can stop students from feeling bad if they don’t have the latest or most expensive clothes. Dress codes in the workplace make sure that everyone looks professional and ready to work. They also help customers know who to ask for help because the workers are dressed in a certain way.

There are many kinds of dress codes. Some are very strict, like a uniform that all students must wear. Others are more relaxed, just asking people to wear smart clothes or avoid certain items like flip-flops or hats. At formal events, you might have to wear a suit or a dress. Each dress code is made to fit the place or event it is for.

Pros of Dress Codes

There are good things about having a dress code. It can make choosing what to wear easier because you know what is expected. It can also make everyone feel like they belong to a group, like their school or company. Dress codes can also teach us about respect and how to dress appropriately for different situations.

Cons of Dress Codes

But, not everyone likes dress codes. Some people feel that they can’t express themselves or show who they are through their clothes. They might think that dress codes are too strict or that they don’t have a say in what they can wear. Sometimes, if a dress code is not thought out well, it might not be fair to everyone.

Following Dress Codes

When there is a dress code, it’s important to follow it. If you’re not sure what you can or can’t wear, it’s a good idea to ask a teacher or someone in charge. They can explain the rules to you. Remember, dress codes are not there to make life hard but to make sure everyone is dressed right for the place or event.

Dress codes are all around us and they play a big role in how we dress for different places and events. They have good points, like making everyone feel equal and looking proper, but they can also have downsides if people feel they can’t be themselves. It’s important to understand why dress codes exist and to follow them while also thinking about how they affect everyone. Whether you’re going to school, work, or a special event, knowing about the dress code can help you fit in and feel comfortable.

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Home — Essay Samples — Business — Dress Code — The Dress Code Debate: Argumets For and Against

The Dress Code Debate: Argumets for and Against

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Words: 1064 |

Published: Sep 7, 2023

Words: 1064 | Pages: 2 | 6 min read

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Arguments for dress codes, arguments against dress codes, the role of context in dress code arguments, you may also like.

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School Dress Codes Aren’t Fair to Everyone, Federal Study Finds

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A North Carolina principal suspended a high school girl for 10 days and banned her from attending graduation and any senior activities because she wore a slightly off-shoulder top to school. An assistant principal in Texas drew on a Black boy’s head in permanent marker to cover up a shaved design in his hair. And a transgender girl in Texas was told not to return to school until she followed the school’s dress code guidelines for boys .

These are only three examples across the country over the past few years demonstrating how school dress codes disproportionately target girls, Black students, and LGBTQ students.

A new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that not only are school dress codes not equitable, but districts that enforce them strictly also predominantly enroll students of color. The findings come as schools increasingly clash with parents, students, and civil rights advocates over disciplinary procedures used to regulate what students can—and cannot—wear to school.

The report also calls on the U.S. Department of Education to develop resources and guidance to help schools create fairer policies and more equitable ways of enforcing them—particularly when it comes to disciplinary actions that cause students to miss out on learning time.

GAO researchers analyzed dress codes from 236 public school districts (there are more than 13,000 districts) and conducted interviews in three of them from August 2021 to October 2022.

Alyssa Pavlakis, a school administrator from Illinois who has studied school dress codes, said the findings were not a surprise. “It does not shock me that the reports are showing that these school dress codes are disproportionately affecting black and brown students,” she said, “because our schools were built on systems that were supposed to be predominantly for white people.”

Pavlakis’s research , published in 2018 with Rachel Roegman, concluded that school dress codes often sexualize girls, particularly Black girls, and effectively criminalize boys of color as their detentions and school suspensions mount.

What dress codes prohibit and who is impacted

Ninety-three percent of school districts have dress codes or policies on what students wear to school. School and district administrators said the policies promote safety and security for students. Prohibitions against hats or scarves, for instance, allow educators identify who is a student and who is not.

More than 90 percent of those dress codes, however, prohibit clothing typically associated with girls, commonly banning clothing items such as “halter or strapless tops,” “skirts or shorts shorter than mid-thigh,” and “yoga pants or any type of skin tight attire,” the report says.

Many of those policies, for example, prohibit clothing that exposes a student’s midriff. About a quarter of them specifically bar the exposure of “cleavage,” “breasts,” or “nipples,” which are aimed at female students.

Almost 69 percent prohibit items typically associated with boys, such as “muscle tees” and “sagging pants.”

“My girls definitely feel anger towards the school for not educating the boys and making [the girls] aware every day what they wear can be a distraction to the boys,” the report quotes an unnamed parent in one district as saying. Some parents told researchers the policies promote consistency with values their children learn at home.

Other policies fall heavily on students from racial or cultural groups that have traditionally been in the minority, according to the report. More than 80 percent of districts, for example, ban head coverings such as hats, hoodies, bandanas, and scarves, but only one-third of these dress codes specify that they allow religious exemptions, and a few include cultural or medical exemptions. Fifty-nine percent also contain rules about students’ hair, hairstyles, and hair coverings, which may disproportionately impact Black students, according to researchers and the district officials that GAO staff interviewed.

For example, 44 percent of districts with dress codes ban hair wraps, with some specifically naming durags, which are popular among African Americans for protecting curls or kinky hair, or other styles of hair wraps.

The report also cites dress codes with rules specific to natural, textured hair, which disproportionately affect Black students. For example, one district prohibited hair with “excessive curls” and another stated that “hair may be no deeper than two inches when measured from the scalp,” according to the report.

Pavlakis said while the report did not contain details about how dress codes affect transgender, gender-nonconforming, and nonbinary students, it’s an important aspect of their inequitable nature.

How districts enforce dress codes

About 60 percent of dress codes make staff members measure students’ bodies and clothing to check adherence to codes—which may involve adults touching students. An estimated 93 percent of dress codes also contain rules with subjective language that leave decisions about dress code compliance open to interpretation, the report says. The interpretations often target LGBTQ and Black students, according to experts quoted in the GAO report.

Schools that enroll predominantly students of color are more likely to enforce strict dress codes, and also more likely to remove students from class for violating them. This is particularly concerning because more than 81 percent of predominantly Black schools (where Black students make up more than 75 percent of the population) and nearly 63 of predominantly Hispanic schools enforce a strict dress code, compared to about 35 percent of predominantly white schools.

“When we take away that instructional time because they’re wearing leggings, we are doing our students a disservice,” Pavlakis said. “And at the end of the day, we’re doing our black and brown students a bigger disservice than anyone else.”

The report also found that schools with a larger number of economically disadvantaged students are more likely to enforce strict dress codes. Dress codes can be challenging for low-income families to adhere to, especially if they’re required to buy specific clothing items, such as uniforms, or can only allow their children to have hairstyles approved by schools, experts quoted in the report said.

Finally, schools that enforce strict dress codes are associated with statistically significant, higher rates of exclusionary discipline—that is, punishments that remove students from the classroom, such as in-school suspensions, out-of-school suspensions, and expulsions.

That means students of color and poor students—most specifically, Black girls—are most likely to face consequences for violating school dress codes, causing them to miss class time. The more class they miss, the more likely it is that they will fall behind in school.

While dress code violations do not often result directly in exclusionary discipline such as suspensions and expulsions, an estimated 44 percent of dress codes outlined “informal” removal policies, such as taking a student out of class without documenting it as a suspension.

Districts also commonly list some consequences for violations of their dress code policies, such as requiring students to change clothes, imposing detention, and calling parents or guardians.

“In order for students to get to the point where they can learn, they need to feel a sense of belonging. They need to feel cared for and loved,” Pavlakis said.

“If we spend part of our day telling students, ‘you don’t look the right way. You’re not dressed the right way, you could be unsafe because you have a hat or a hood on,’ kids aren’t going to feel loved supported a sense of belonging,”

A version of this article appeared in the November 23, 2022 edition of Education Week as School Dress Codes Aren’t Fair to Everyone, Federal Study Finds

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Dress Codes: A Racist, Sexist History and Why They Must be Changed

By Adam Shelburn, High School Junior • IDRA Newsletter • September 2022 •

When students try to stand up against these sets of rules, we are told they are in place to “promote school safety, promote discipline, and enhance the learning environment for all students and staff.”

In reality, school dress codes are a way for a school administration to legally be racist and sexist to students.

Many schools prevent gender expression among students by adding gendered rules into the policies, like policies that state that girls must wear dresses for formal occasions and boys must wear button-down shirts. This gendering causes mental health issues among transgender and gender non-conforming students (Hartnett, 2022).

Additionally, these policies promote gendered stereotypes and, by association, perpetuate sexist ideologies that sustain rape culture (Serena, 2018). This protects the assaulter by using what a student is wearing as an excuse for someone else’s actions against them. Policies that promote gendered stereotypes and sexist ideologies allow blatant sizeism and body shaming of students.

These policies also target students of color. Bringing gender into how students can wear their hair, for example, affects students by preventing them from taking part in certain cultural and familial traditions (Salam, 2021). Native American students are forced to cut their hair short and go against their cultural and familial values (Indian Traders, 2020). Black students are forced to cut off braids or twists in their hair, cutting these students off from their culture dating back over 5,000 years (Allen, 2022).

School dress codes are a way for a school administration to legally be racist and sexist to students.

I am not saying we should remove dress codes from schools. Dress codes can be in place so that students and faculty feel safe. What we need is for districts to see how problematic the current dress codes are and change them to create a better and safer learning environment.

Evanston Township High school in Illinois has put in place policies that allow students to express themselves and create a safer and more equitable learning environment (Marfice, 2017). These new policies allow students to wear what they want as long as: clothing does not depict drugs, violence and other illegal activities; clothing does not contain any hate speech; and clothing covers buttocks, genitals, breasts and nipples.

These new policies promote support for students’ mental, physical and emotional health. Other school districts should do the same. To start, they should review their policies to remove all gendered regulations and terminology that reinforce stereotypes on students (Leung, 2017). Districts and schools can rewrite consequences for breaking dress codes and have actions in place so that students are not targeted.

The simplest thing that districts and schools can do, though, is just to listen to their students. Most of us will just tell you what we need from them to create a more equitable and safe learning environment for all.

Allen, M. (July 14, 2022). The Fascinating History of Braids You Never Knew About. Byrdie

Hartnett, H. (January 11, 2022). School Dress Codes Perpetuate Sexism, Racism, and Transphobia. Planned Parenthood.

Salam, E. (May 15, 2021). Black U.S. high school student forced to cut hair during softball game. The Guardian.

Indian Traders. (September 15, 2020). Why Do Native Americans Wear Their Hair Long? webpage.

Latham Sikes, C. (February 2020). Racial and Gender Disparities in Dress Code Discipline Point to Need for New Approaches in Schools. IDRA Newsletter.

Serena. (January 24, 2018). How dress codes reinforce systemic violence . Anti-Violence Project.

Marfice, C. (August 25, 2017). All Schools Should Look At This Dress Code That Finally Gets It Right . Scary Mommy.

Leung, C. (April 11, 2017). T he dress code is unfair and vague. Here’s how to improve it . The Lowell.

Zhou, L. (October 20, 2015). The Sexism of School Dress Codes. The Atlantic.

A high school junior, Adam Shelburn is a member of IDRA’s 2022 Youth Advisory Board from Mansfield, Texas.

[©2022, IDRA. This article originally appeared in the September 2022 issue of the IDRA Newsletter by the Intercultural Development Research Association. Permission to reproduce this article is granted provided the article is reprinted in its entirety and proper credit is given to IDRA and the author.]

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4 Things Public Schools Can and Can’t Do When It Comes to Dress Codes

Most students have encountered school dress codes in one form or another – from bans on spaghetti straps or crop tops, to restrictions on certain hair styles, hair length, and head coverings. Despite how common they are, school dress codes and grooming policies often reflect and reinforce outdated and sexist stereotypes, and may be disproportionately enforced against students who are more likely to be policed or perceived as deviant by school officials.

School dress codes, for example, may reflect the sexist and harmful view that girls’ bodies are inherently vulgar or inappropriate , that boys will be “distracted” by girls’ bodies, and that girls’ dress and appearance require more regulation than that of boys. Such policies also may punish LGBTQ+ students for not conforming with rigid and binary gender norms about proper behavior and appearance. Moreover, students of color – and especially Black girls and other girls of color – are disproportionately targeted for dress code enforcement because of intersecting race and gender stereotypes. Black girls, in particular, are often seen as less innocent and more adult-like, aggressive and threatening, and needing less support and protection – often known as the “adultification bias.”

You may be left wondering where the line is between a permissible dress code and unlawful discrimination. Here’s the short answer: While public schools are allowed to have dress codes and uniform policies, they cannot discriminate against certain students or censor student expression.

Here are a few of the basics on what public schools can and cannot do when it comes to dress codes:

Dress codes can’t be explicitly discriminatory.

That means that while dress codes may specify types of attire that are acceptable, these requirements may not differ based on students’ gender, race, religion, or other protected characteristics. Under federal laws protecting against discrimination in education – including Title IX , Title VI , and the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection guarantee, public schools cannot enforce a dress code based on gender- or race-based stereotypes about appropriate dress or appearance. For example, a public school cannot require girls, and only girls, to wear skirts or dresse s, or require boys, but not girls, to wear short hair . This also goes for special events and occassions – such as prom , graduation , or yearbook photos . For example, while a public school can require “formal attire” to be worn at special events, it may not require that girls, and only girls, wear gowns – or that boys, and only boys, wear a suit.

Schools cannot enforce dress codes in ways that discriminate against people for who they are. Students, your body is a not a problem. Know your rights.

All students, whether transgender or cisgender, must be allowed to wear clothing consistent with their gender identity and expression.

This is because the clothing, accessories, and hairstyles we wear are part of how we express our identity, and because schools cannot force students to conform their appearance or behavior based on rigid and discriminatory gender norms and stereotypes. For example, a public school may not enforce a dress and grooming policy that prohibits boys, and only boys, from wearing nail polish , or imposes rigid restrictions on hair length based on gender . Such dress codes marginalize non-binary, transgender, and gender-nonconforming students, and ultimately send the message that these students do not belong.

Dress codes that are unevenly enforced against particular groups of students may violate laws prohibiting discrimination.

Even when a dress code appears to be “neutral” on its face, a public school may violate students’ civil rights by targeting enforcement of its dress code against certain groups of students. For example, public school dress codes that ban “cleavage” or “bra straps” – or impose restrictions on the length of shorts or skirts – are often targeted against girls and invites unnecessary and excessive policing of girls’ bodies in schools . The ACLU has expressed concerns about potential discrimination where a school targeted dress code sweeps against girl students , and where a school district suspended girl athletes for practicing in sports bras, while allowing boy athletes to practice without shirts .

Moreover, Black students and other students of color are often more harshly disciplined and targeted for dress code enforcement based on racist stereotypes about proper appearance and behavior. Notably, dress and grooming policies that prohibit certain hairstyles – including hair extensions, braids, or locs – often disproportionately punish Black students and are rooted in racist standards of professionalism and respectability. In 2018, the ACLU and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund raised legal concerns when a Florida school turned away a Black first grader for wearing locs on his first day of school. However, it is worth noting that courts have been less consistent about applying antidiscrimination laws to grooming policies, and your protections may vary greatly based on where you live.

Restrictions on head coverings and certain hairstyles also raise significant concerns regarding religious and racial discrimination. Students from some religious backgrounds may wear head coverings or longer hairstyles due to religious reasons, and public schools may not impose restrictions that conflict with students’ religious freedom.

Schools can’t discriminate based on the viewpoint expressed by your clothing.

The Supreme Court has recognized that public school students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” The First Amendment prohibits schools from picking and choosing which views students are allowed to express. All views must be treated equally, so long as they are not obscene or disruptive. This means that if a school permits items like t-shirts with slogans, buttons, or wristbands , it has to permit them no matter what message they express .

What this boils down to is that public schools’ authority to impose dress codes is not unlimited. Students should be informed of their rights so they can speak out if there are violations. And school administrators must reexamine their dress codes to ensure that they do not violate students’ civil rights and liberties.

Does your school have a dress code that treats people differently based on gender, race, or other protected characteristics? Let us know by filling out this form .

Dress and Grooming Policies Based on Gender Stereotypes

Does your school or workplace have dress and grooming policies that treat people differently based on gender stereotypes? Share your story with us.

Source: American Civil Liberties Union

Click here for a handy fact sheet outlining your rights related to school dress codes and grooming policies, gender identity, and self-expression. Share this and our latest podcast episode with a friend!

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Why dress codes can’t stop sexual assault

The idea that clothing contributes to rape is false — and incredibly common.

When news broke that deputy principal Cherith Telford at Henderson High School in New Zealand told female students that their uniform skirts must be knee-length in order to “keep our girls safe, stop boys from getting ideas and create a good work environment for male staff,” reactions were mixed. Singer Erykah Badu felt that the girls had no business wearing skirts that stopped above their knee to school , while actress Reagan Gomez argued that i t wasn’t the responsibility of the girls to avoid being a temptation  to grown men.

The idea that clothing has anything to do with assault is global and persistent. In 1999, the Supreme Court of Appeals in Rome ruled that a woman wearing jeans couldn’t be raped , reasoning that  a rapist couldn’t forcibly remove a pair of pants. Police question victims of sexual assault about  what they were wearing , as though the length of their skirt  is an indication of consent. Members of the Missouri legislature responded to reports of increasing sexual harassment with plans to enforce more modest dress codes , as though the problem is a 19-year-old’s first business suit and not the 50-year-old who’s using his power over an intern inappropriately. In 2005, Amnesty International polled Britons and found that as many as a third of respondents believed women were partially responsible for being assaulted  because of attire and behavior.

It’s a common argument that invariably boils down to the same nonsense: If the victims were different, they wouldn’t have been victimized. It’s a comforting myth, guaranteed to make it easy to pretend that sexual assault is something that only happens to people who make bad choices. It’s also a myth that has been thoroughly debunked by the Justice Department, RAINN and many other organizations. A Federal Commission on Crime of Violence study found that just 4.4 percent of all reported rapes involved “provocative behavior” on the part of the victim. (In murder cases, it’s 22 percent.) It also found that most convicted rapists could not remember what their victims were wearing. Studies show that women with passive personalities, who tend to dress in layers, long pants and sleeves and high necklines, are actually more likely to be raped. In one study, 1 in 3 college men said  that they would force someone to have sex if they could get away with it, and that has nothing to do with clothing.

We know that anyone from a nun to a soldier can be a victim of sexual assault — including men. In fact, while everything from attire to alcohol consumption is blamed when women are raped, military sexual assault statistics show that men in the military are at a slightly greater risk of sexual assault than women. Now either the three-piece military uniforms and combat boots are leading people astray — or clothing has nothing to do with what makes rapists assault people. The sad reality is that rapists choose to rape, often more than once , and studies show they are also often guilty of other violent crimes. 

The cultural assumption that rape is something that can be prevented by behaving a certain way has never been extended to include male victims. While some of those assaults are characterized as hazing or bullying, the reality is that we don’t assume male victims are at fault for existing near a rapist. (Male victims face other damaging notions, like the idea that men cannot be raped or that men enjoy the sexual attention of older, predatory women. Both of these incredibly dangerous ideas makes men less likely to report an attack and should be challenged, along with the idea that women can only hope to avoid rape by not being tempting.)

Despite the fact that 9 percent  of sexual assault victims are young men, we don’t insist that they dress differently. We don’t warn young men not to tempt their teachers with their bare biceps, knees or other body parts. We don’t warn young men not to be a distraction to their female classmates, or regulate whether they can wear shorts in the summer to school. When a news story breaks about an adult female teacher preying sexually on a boy, no one asks what he was wearing or insists he should have known better than to be alone with her. So what’s the point of policing skirt lengths, of advising young women not to go to certain places, to protect their drinks instead of focusing on telling rapists not to rape?

Women who express their fear of being assaulted as a reason to avoid strange men on the street are often chided for thinking that “all men are rapists.” And indeed, studies show that a small percentage of men are responsible for most sexual assaults. But the anti-rape campaigns that are put forward on campuses , in the military  and elsewhere  focus on the idea that the only way a woman can be safe from sexual assault is to change her behavior, to change her attire, to never do anything that could potentially increase her risk of being a victim. There’s an assumption that rapists are just one of those unavoidable aspects of life, and the onus is on women, who make up 91 percent of victims, to insulate themselves.

Now, if only 6 percent of men are rapists, wouldn’t it make more sense to focus on changing the behavior of the smaller population? To have anti-rape campaigns that focus on teaching not only what constitutes sexual assault but that actively teach not to be a rapist? Wouldn’t it make sense for schools to focus on training teachers not to see their vulnerable young charges as potential sexual partners? After all, the only one in control of whether a sexual assault is attempted is the perpetrator. If a teacher can be tempted into inappropriate behavior because of the skin just above a girl’s knee, then the problem isn’t the knee, the problem is the teacher. And if our culture insists on perpetuating the lie that clothing leads to rape, despite all evidence to the contrary, then the problem is our culture.

99 Dress Code Essay Topics & Examples

Welcome to our list of topic ideas! Here, you will find dress code research questions, titles for dress code essays, and bonus samples. Explore the importance of school uniform, arguments for and against it, and much more with our dress code argumentative essay topics!

🔝 Top 10 Dress Code Titles for Essays

🏆 best dress code topic ideas & essay examples, ⭐ good research topics about dress code, 👍 simple & easy dress code essay titles, ❓ dress code research questions, ✅ most interesting titles for dress code essays.

• How to Dress for Special Events
• Dress Codes and Gender Equality
• Dress Codes in Religious Institutions
• Uniforms in the Hospitality Industry
• Workplace Diversity through Traditional Attire
• Trends in Entertainment Industry Dress Codes
• Individual Expression in Workplace Dress Code
• Impact of School Dress Codes on Student Behavior
• Brand Representation through Sports Dress Codes
• Where Is the Line between Formal and Casual Attire?
• Dress Code and Social Norm Violations In my opinion, this norm is not appropriate in the modern world due to several reasons: first, people are free to make decisions and consider their interests; second, fashion is a current issue that cannot […]
• Dubai’s Food, Dress Code and Culture Religion is an important in aspect in Dubai because it influences the lifestyle of the people and forms the foundation of their culture.
• Workplace Dress Code Rules and Their Failure As it has been mentioned before, it seems to me that a company must offer a certain dress code or, at least, certain boundaries in terms of clothes, for its employees.
• Dress Code and Modesty in the Society In modern cultures, dressing controls and conveys a special message to the society. Dress code and modesty in the society should conform to the moral rules regardless of a person’s religion or culture.
• School Dress Codes and Self-Expression Being urged to wear only approved clothes, students are deprived of an opportunity to understand the differences between social groups and the unique problems of their social class.
• A Dress Code Policy as a Discriminatory Practice A dress code is an organizational policy of a school, university, company, or community organization that prescribes prohibitions and rules for the wearing of clothing.
• Organizational Manual for Dress Code: Attire and Grooming The figure below illustrates the contents of this manual: The organization will create an environment to help the workers and other stakeholders optimize their productivity. However, the employees will still be expected to groom in […]
• Legal Issue: A Working Dress Code The manager, in turn, replied that heels are part of the dress code that complements the image of the waitresses and attracts customers.
• Altman Corporation’s Dress Code Policy Memorandum In line with the recent dress code policies developed by the communication manager, the following previews and revisions have been made for the effective implementation of the policies.
• Altman Corporation Dress Code Policy They are civilian ware and not professional. Underwear should not be visible above the waistline of the clothing.
• Consultant to an Organization: Dress Codes The reason for changing a dress code policy is to ensure that employees dress appropriately to the work place. However, not all employees respond positively to a change in the dress code.
• A Support for Dress Code Policy Dress codes issues in America have been serious to an extent that students have historically taken school administration to courts because of infringing on individual free expression contained in the 1st and 14th amendments.
• Medical Assisting Vocational School: Dress Code First and most obvious, the establishment of the standards in accordance with which the dress code will be altered will have to be considered.
• Dress Code Implementation Into the NBA
• Religious Beliefs and Dress Code Policies in the Workplace
• The Dress Code and Its Effect on the Safety of Students at School
• Arab Women Freedom and the Dress Code
• Restrictions in Business Casual Dress Code for Managers
• Effectiveness of Student Dress Code in American Schools
• Casual Dress Code vs. Business Casual Dress Code
• Increased School Safety and the Dress Code Policy
• School Uniform: Improving the Dress Code
• Dress Code Dilemma: School Education Clothing
• Feminism and the School Dress Code for Girls
• Body Piercing, Tattooing, and the Public School Dress Code
• Discriminatory Dress Codes in Male-Dominated Industries
• Applying the Dress Code Policy
• Business Casual Dress Code: Formal or Informal
• Dress Code Violation and Discrimination
• Jesuit Dress Code and Hair Restrictions
• Business Casual Dress Code of the Workplace
• Uniform and Dress Code Policies: To Provide a Safe and Orderly Environment
• The Debate Around the Dress Code in Schools
• How Dress Code Takes Meaning and Life Out of Clothes
• Islamic Dress Code and Its Restrictions
• Dress Code for Expats Who Visit Qatar
• Understanding Company Dress Code: Appropriate Work Attire
• Arguments for Reversing the Dress Code for High School
• School Dress Code and Limit Students Freedom of Express
• Nursing Uniforms: Why There Should Be a Mandatory Dress Code for Nurses
• Establishing Employee Dress Code: Suit up or Ship Out
• Dress Code and Uniforms Code: What Is the Difference in Restrictions?
• What Not to Wear: Avoiding Dress Code Discrimination
• Dress Code for Public Schools: Pros and Cons
• Enforcing the Dress Code Policy for Nurses
• Arguments for and Against School Dress Codes
• Dress Code Arguments for High School
• Anti Dress Code Arguments for Public Schools
• Wearing Dress Code for Female Workplace
• Dress Code Policies for Public Schools: Teachers and Students
• Sexual Harassment, Dress Code, and Attendance Policy
• Business Dress Code and Image of the Company
• School Uniforms, Dress Codes, and Free Expression
• Should School Dress Code Be Enforced?
• Why Should Dress Code Not Be Enforced?
• What Does the Dress Code Be?
• How Dress Code Takes Meaning and Life Out of Clothes?
• Does Dress Code Prevent Certain Events?
• Does Your Dress Code Address Flip Flop?
• What Are Some Examples of Dress Codes?
• What Is Called the Dress Code?
• What Are the Four Types of Dress Codes?
• What Are the Three Levels of Dress Codes?
• Is It Against the Dress Code to Not Wear a Bra?
• Why Is a Dress Code Necessary?
• What Is a Nice Casual Dress Code?
• What Are the Dress Codes for Work?
• What Is the Formal, Casual Dress Code?
• What Is a Formal Dress Code for Ladies?
• What Is the Most Formal Dress Code?
• What Is the Fanciest Dress Code?
• All Schools Should Have a Student Dress Code?
• How Arab Women’s Freedom Enforced the Dress Code?
• What Is the Difference Between a Casual Dress Code and Business Casual Dress Code?
• What Is Dress Code for Expats Who Visit Qatar?
• Which Is Dress Code for Teachers in Public Schools?
• What Are the Pros and Cons of the Dress Code?
• What Is the Connection Between Dress Code Violation and Discrimination?
• Why Should There Be a Mandatory Dress Code for Nurses?
• The Role of Dress Code in Impression Management
• Do School Uniforms Restrict Students’ Self-Expression?
• How Dress Code Correlates with Gender Identity
• The Link Between Dress Code and Consumerism
• Ways to Avoid Cultural Appropriation in Dress Code
• Body Shaming and Size Inclusivity in Dress Codes
• Dress Code Policies and Their Effect on Employee Morale and Productivity
• How Workplace Fashion Reflects and Shapes Societal Perceptions
• From Traditional Attire to Contemporary Fashion: The Evolution of Dress Codes
• Ways to Balance Discipline and Personal Expression at School
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

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Rethinking Schools

Non-Restricted Content

Girls Against Dress Codes

By Lyn Mikel Brown

Illustrator: Alaura Seidl

“Ugh, Dress Codes!” The title of one of 15-year-old Izzy Labbe’s SPARK Movement blog posts encapsulates what I’ve heard so many girls say they feel about their middle and high school dress codes.

Izzy wrote her blog after years of frustration, beginning in early middle school when she began to notice girls’ bodies become objects of adult interest and surveillance. She honed her critique as part of SPARK Movement , an intergenerational girl-fueled activist project I co-founded in 2010. In her central Maine high school, Izzy and her friend Hannah formed the school’s first-ever Feminist Club. On the top of their list was a challenge to the terms of a dress code that penalized girls for wearing shorts and spaghetti-strap tops. After reasoned conversation with administrators failed, club members quietly posted dozens of 8.5 x 11″ sheets of white paper with large black print on school bulletin boards: “Instead of publicly shaming girls for wearing shorts on an 80-degree day, you should teach teachers and male students to not overly sexualize a normal body part to the point where they apparently can’t function in daily life.”

Izzy is now a first-year college student, but just this spring another Maine girl, 6th grader Molly Neuner, made national news for challenging her school’s dress code. Like so many before her, she joined a coalition of girls across the country using the Twitter hashtag #iammorethanadistraction. Reading her story, two things strike me: This issue is not going away and most adults don’t see the gift the issue offers.

Protests against dress codes get to the very heart of what it means to be an adolescent girl. It’s more than a generational claim to personal identity. Dress codes are a stand-in for all the ways girls feel objectified, sexualized, unheard, treated as second-class citizens by adults in authority — all the sexist, racist, classist, homophobic hostilities they experience. When girls push back on dress codes they are demanding to be heard, seen, and respected. This means it’s a moment primed for intergenerational engagement and education.

But too often, only two types of adults appear: administrators under fire for defending their schools’ policies and moms complaining about the shaming their daughters have endured or the school days they’ve missed for dress code violations. Where are the teachers who see the possibility for meaningful conversations about the development of institutional policies, about freedom of speech and choice, about democracy? How about those who see the opportunity to encourage critical thinking about cultural differences or the chance to examine the impact of media and pop culture on gender identity or the influence of rampant marketing and consumerism?

In response to this vacuum of adult engagement, girls are having these conversations without us. Most aren’t asking schools to eliminate dress codes altogether. They simply want policies that are relevant to their lives, policies that account for changes in clothing styles, that value identity development, gender expression, and cultural diversity. And they want and expect to be consulted.

They also say they want policies that are consistent and fairly applied. One study from the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity , for example, indicates teachers are more likely to discipline girls of color for minor offenses like dress code policy violations and are more likely to give them harsher punishments. Dress code policies can become just another example of a hostile school experience for girls of color, for trans girls, for girls living in poverty. Teachers who have not addressed their own unconscious biases (e.g., their tendency to judge a girl’s character by how she dresses), who have not confronted their internalized sexism or racism, who struggle with students who challenge the gender binary, cannot apply dress codes fairly. The best way to ensure a policy is applied fairly is diversity and bias prevention training for teachers and administrators.

It also helps to spend some time with students who have struggled with school dress codes and who think critically about bias, prejudice, and injustice. Here are a few things I’ve learned from listening to what girls say that make for a good dress code policy:

• “Each dress code rule must have an explanation,” Ejin Jeong writes in a 2015 blog post for SPARK Movement . “So much of the discontent with dress codes is that students often don’t understand why the rules are in place.” As a result, she says, dress codes “often feel arbitrary and unfair.” Bex Dudley, who blogs for Powered by Girl , tells me her school “tried to enforce ‘no brightly colored bras,’ when the material of the school uniform meant bras were visible. They were literally shaming girls for an ‘issue’ that they’d created.”
• A good policy applies to everyone; there are no gender-specific rules, no double standards. If girls can’t wear tank tops, neither can boys; if girls can’t show collarbones, neither can boys. In fact, girls want policies that have nothing to do with gender. “Have a plan for trans students without them having to ask for it!!” Bex exclaims. A transgender-friendly policy means anyone can wear a dress or a suit or earrings or makeup; anyone can wear their hair long or short. Formulated this way, a dress code can do more than prohibit; it can affirm and protect those who are already vulnerable, including transgender students and those who dress outside the gender binary.
• A good dress code is attuned to cultural and religious differences and allows students to do their hair (Afro, dreadlocks) and wear clothing (hijab, turban, yarmulke) that reflect these differences. And they include rules that protect students from those who appropriate or insult their religion or culture through clothing choices.
• A good policy is practical. It “gives some room for flexibility and expression,” Bex says, “like painted nails and colored hair.” And it maximizes student comfort. It accounts for changes in weather, allowing for seasonable clothing — e.g., shorts, sundresses, and tank tops when the temperature rises.
• Girls say they want policies that do not contribute to sexual objectification by making reference to their body parts or give adults the discretion to use dress code rules to body-shame. Izzy notices that teachers target girls with “curvier figures. . . . [G]irls aren’t getting in trouble for the length of their shorts,” she writes. “They’re getting in trouble for the shape of their bodies” and “it sounds like we’re blaming girls for other people’s negative reactions to their bodies. That’s misogyny! And it’s a problem when it enters classrooms and girls’ bodies are treated — by the staff, by boys, and by each other — as dirty, ugly objects that must be covered.”
• A well-crafted policy makes boys accountable for their behavior. Girls want school dress codes that make it very clear they are not responsible for how boys view them and that their clothing choices are not responsible for boys’ inability to focus or learn. Such assumptions excuse unwanted attention and harassment. It’s a short leap to blaming victims of sexual assault. “Can we throw the phrase ‘provocative clothing’ out the window, please?” Izzy asks. “Saying that clothing is provocative insinuates that it provokes sexual assault or rape or harassment, which is totally false. Harassers harass and abusers abuse regardless of clothing choices.” Instead of policing what girls wear, girls say they want schools to actively teach boys to respect girls and teach everyone to respect transgender students and those who are gender nonconforming.
• Good dress code policies give boys credit for being more than the sum of their hormones. When girls’ bodies are framed as “distractions” to boys, Gabby C. writes in a 2016 blog post for the FBomb , “they not only strip girls of their sense of self-respect and free-expression, but demean boys as incapable of controlling their basic urges.”
• A good policy clearly prohibits public shaming, which means adults don’t make girls kneel in front of classmates to assess skirt length or pull out a measuring tape in public to prove a strap is too narrow. Administrators don’t make an example of those who violate the dress code by forcing them to wear baggy T-shirts emblazoned with “dress code violator” like a scarlet letter. Correcting and shaming are not the same thing.
• A good dress code policy addresses the realities of poverty and social class. Some students wear what they can afford and what’s available to them. A short skirt or tight top are not necessarily attempts to ignore school rules. Dress codes can become a way to target and shame students already struggling with hypervisibility that comes with not wearing the latest styles or the most popular brands, much less clothing that fits well.
• A good policy does not send those who violate the rules home from school. There is no logic to a policy that takes away a girl’s right to education because her skirt is too short. “What’s more distracting, my shoulders or the fact that I just missed an entire history lesson?” Ejin asks.

In truth, most everything useful I’ve learned about girls I’ve learned from girls. On the surface, this isn’t an especially profound statement. But as I look around at the ways adults talk about girls, dismiss what girls know, blame them for the symptoms of societal injustice in all its intersectional forms, create barriers for some and soft landings for others in the guise of concern and protection — I think it’s radical to listen to girls and trust them as the experts on their own experience.

However well-intentioned, dress codes are a perfect example of an educational policy that puts compliance before learning; pressures and demands before support; a top-down bureaucratic solution created by adults at the expense of the time and effort it takes to really listen to and learn from students. And if girls are not heard, we should encourage them to advocate for their right to protest if need be. We can’t say we want girls to have high self-esteem, to take risks, to lead, and then dismiss or punish them when they take this issue on.

With dress codes, we can see up close and personal what it means for girls to struggle in ways that release imagination and hope for something new. The safe and affirming spaces we offer, the questions we pose, the options we create together with students, are catalysts to critical consciousness, to what Maxine Greene calls “wide-awakeness,” and to the possibility that their passionate and forceful reactions to unfairness and hurt will unfold in ways that better their lives going forward.

As Gabby writes for the FBomb , “Girls who take issue with these rules aren’t blindly rebelling, but truly advocating for their right to be heard as sentient subjects rather than passive objects.”

It’s time we listened.

• Darling-Hammond, Linda. 2005. Policy and Change: Getting Beyond Bureaucracy. Extending Educational Change: International Handbook of Educational Change , ed. by Andy Hargreaves. Springer.Ê
• Rudd, Thomas. 2014. Racial Disproportionality in School Discipline: Implicit Bias Is Heavily Implicated . The Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at The Ohio State University.

Lyn Mikel Brown is professor of education at Colby College and co-founder of three girl-fueled social change organizations. Her most recent book is Powered By Girl: A Field Guide For Supporting Youth Activists .

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