The principal of Dunedin North Intermediate School Heidi Hayward was approached by two students asking why girls in the school had to wear the skirt.
Hayward, who had recently started the job, realised she couldn’t think of a good reason.
“I couldn’t really argue with their thinking,” she said.
“If I was told that I was expected to wear a skirt every day to work because I’m a female, well, I can tell you what my response would be.
Students now have the choice between wearing the kilt, culottes, trousers, shorts, or a PE uniform.
“There are lots of stereotypes that are kind of implicit in society early on and have a long-lasting effect on people. We want to get across to our kids that we appreciate that you aren’t all the same.”
The initial decision made was to permit students to wear either the girls’ uniform or the boys’ uniform. This later broadened to the present five options after some girls were teased for wearing the boys uniform.
“We’re not necessarily expecting that there will be a great onset of boys wearing skirts, but it still sends the message to them that it’s not actually a problem to wear what you feel comfortable in,” said Hayward.
She continued to say “If they see that their school is accepting of difference, regardless of the fact that they may not be ready to be different, it’s really an important message from us that we see diversity,” said Hayward.
In the U.K, eighty state schools (government run schools) have changed their uniform policies and have introduced gender-neutral school uniform policies. In one school, students as young as five years old can choose to wear the uniform of their preference.
Efforts such as these to close and finally put an end to stereotyping are imperative to show support individuality, especially with a topic such as gender. It is important to not create stigma involving expressive outlets like the clothes young children and teens wear.
