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Good point! Yet at one time say back in the early part of the 20th century, say up till the 50s a woman in anything but a dress was improper, women even wore casual house dresses for housework when at home.
I'm sure when the first few women started wearing pants it was considered odd and improper! And now it's completely normal!
I don't get why more women now don't want to wear dresses! I find them quite comfortable!
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We lost another new member, so I have to resort to creating a new thread to respond to this.
Women started wearing something close to pants after bloomers were created in 1851. They morphed for a few decades until the 1880s when women started getting interested in exercising for health reasons and women started fighting for their rights, including the dress reform movement.
Dresses were sort of incompatible with bicycles, so women started to wear bloomers (originated by Amelia Bloomer) when riding. There was some resistance (after all this was the Victorian era), but I don't think that there was all that much because long dresses or skirts just weren't practical on bicycles. There was some resistance and prejudice, though, even a few court cases. Women's bicycle drop frames and fender lacing made things more practical and safer, but split skirts and pants were the way to go until the automobile came along.
P.S. I have a long history with bicycles and worked for a person who had Canada's largest antique bicycle collection. He had a number of different women's antique bicycle designs. Bicycles were very influential socially for women in a few ways, too.
Now, in more recent times, especially after the Great Depression, it took a few external effects to change women's fashion. This includes women working in the WW2 industrial homefront, and the 1940s Hollywood actresses who set many fashion trends after the war, such as high-waisted pleated pants. There are a few easy to find pictures of, say, Lauren Bacal and Kathrine Hepburn's tomboy style wearing that kind of pants. This style gets revived or mimicked every so often.
@harriette - when did blokes start wearing pants (or trousers as we call them in the UK)?
@sunnyday Probably for more than 5 millennium. The oldest known are from between 13, to 10 millennium BC, in China. Otzi wore leggings and he lived between 3400-3100 BC, in Italy, so getting closer.
Pants have been around for a while.
@harriette - interesting. Depends where you look I suppose. The ancient Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians didn't seem to be that into trousers. And I believe in the UK, the demise of 'stocking making' around the time of the industrial revolution was brought about, in part, by the increasing fashion for wearing trousers.
This topic is very near and dear to me, I'm that person that wants to blend skirts and normal men's tops. I long for the day when we can walk down the street in a skirt of any kind and not have it be weird.
@rusn I did that once or twice with a male face presentation. It wasn't all that comfortable, and that takes a lot for me to say that.
It's a good thing that my wife never saw that. 🤪
I bring that same point up in any discussions I have about gender males wearing dresses, skirts or anything that is labeled for women. It’s a great point and if they are logical there’s no come back. Kilts is another way to penetrate the backwards thinking we have in this society
Bear in mind, however, that for decades in the United States of America it was illegal for women to wear pants. This lasted well into the mid-20th century! Women had to fight for their right to dress how they wanted for decades and be willing to suffer the consequences. In no state is it illegal for me to walk around in a dress, so we are already ahead of the game in this regard.
Additionally, when they finally did gain the right, they were wearing pants that were designed and tailored for women, not simply donning men's pants. What most of us are doing is not only wearing attire designed for women, but also wearing wigs and makeup to look fully feminine.
I would suggest pausing a moment or five to contemplate this before equalizing the two situations as I do not think they're nearly as similar as one might expect.
@melodeescarlet - interesting to hear about those developments in the US. Not something I was aware of.
Interesting post in a recent webinar on International Womens day with work about womens rights in the workplace our CEO said when she first started employment in a typically corporate office in the City of London in the 1980s the dress code with her company for female employees forbid them to wear trousers and apparently this was the case in a lot of corporate offices in those days. So its only became recently acceptable for women to wear trousers in certain workplaces until fairly recently.
I know I’m old, so I get to say that back when I was in school, I remember that girls weren’t allowed to wear pants to school. They finally got to get the schools to allow them to wear pants to school because it was cold wearing dresses and skirts. Yes, that was in the early 60’s, but I thought I’d let you youngsters know how far that we’ve come as a society.
I've gotta say though thank god they didn’t ban mini skirts in the late 60s, I loved looking at those and wishing I could have worn one too.
@jennconn The high school I attended until 2006 forbid girls to wear trousers only grey pleated knee length skirts (but some wore them shorter). They were allowed to wear black tights to keep warm in winter though.
@jennconn Hey Jennifer, I started high school in the late 1960’s and dress codes were still in place that didn’t allow pants for girls. On the cold winter mornings they had to change from pants to a skirt.
Alice
Joan of Arc. She was put on trial by Bishop Pierre Cauchon on accusations of heresy, which included blaspheming by wearing men's clothes, acting upon visions that were demonic, and refusing to submit her words and deeds to the judgment of the church. She was declared guilty and burned at the stake on 30 May 1431, aged about nineteen. (wiki)
@leslienix Yes, the church used her wearing a military uniform as an excuse to execute her.
@harriette Women who became pirates at times disguised themselves as men in order to do so since they were otherwise rarely allowed on pirate ships.
Hepburn was one of the first to popularize pants for women. Genghis Khan was the first to popularize pants for men (easier to ride horses). I favor skirts for all! I have experienced discrimination for doing so, however. I was not allowed to ride a zip line on a cruise until I changed to pants, which I had not packed, so found myself out of luck.
