{"id":1027,"date":"2018-08-20T19:16:28","date_gmt":"2018-08-21T02:16:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.planetsweetpea.com\/blog\/?p=1027"},"modified":"2018-08-22T10:39:28","modified_gmt":"2018-08-22T17:39:28","slug":"the-day-girls-were-allowed-to-wear-pants-to-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/janbrehm.com\/blog\/the-day-girls-were-allowed-to-wear-pants-to-school\/","title":{"rendered":"The Day Girls Were Allowed to Wear Pants to School"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-982\" src=\"https:\/\/www.janbrehm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/12247915_734478766653954_8293000202723569580_o-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/janbrehm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/12247915_734478766653954_8293000202723569580_o-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/janbrehm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/12247915_734478766653954_8293000202723569580_o-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/janbrehm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/12247915_734478766653954_8293000202723569580_o-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/janbrehm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/12247915_734478766653954_8293000202723569580_o-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/janbrehm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/12247915_734478766653954_8293000202723569580_o.jpg 1884w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>It was in the fall of 1969, we budding women shoved open the doors of Woodrow Wilson High School in Portland Oregon and strutted down the locker-lined, noisy halls with our heads held high, basking in a newly granted freedom. It was on this momentous day, at long last, women of every shape and size were allowed to hang up our skirts and dresses and wear pants to school. Previous to this day, girls were to look different than boys, and wearing pants would<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>be considered \u2018un-lady like\u2019\u2026which I\u2019m guessing was a quality we were to be aspiring toward\u2026? On cold, stormy snow days were permitted to wear pants <i>under<\/i> skirts to walk to school. Once at school, we were to take off the pants until the walk home.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>And I do believe that on this one day, this historical day that we were allowed to put one leg in and then another, zip or button up, whether spoken or thought, in the minds of young ladies, courageous and spirited or self conscious and timid, the question,\u201cDoes this make my butt look big\u201d was born.<\/p>\n<p>Kidding aside, a few interesting facts I dug up as to the early history of women\u2019s liberation from cumbersome clothing in America.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>1851 Editor of the women\u2019s newspaper, The Lily, New Yorker Amelia Bloomer introduces<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>\u201ca new ladies\u2019 garment comparing a skirt cropped at the knees over a billowy pair of trouser-like leggings\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Elizabeth Smith Miller is often credited as the first woman to wear pants. Miller was a suffragette.<\/li>\n<li>Cady Stanton, leading suffragette wears the bloomers, but as their popularity grew she stopped wearing them out of concern they would diminish the serious efforts of the movement.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li>1874 in San Francisco the fight for dress reform continues.<\/li>\n<li>1892 Mrs. S.C. Smith strolls down Grove St. in San Francisco wearing a short, loose-fitting princess dress over lady\u2019s riding trousers. Pictures published in the publishing the San Fransisco Call earned her support as helped fuel the battle for women\u2019s rights\u2026<i>(<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/bellatory.com\/fashion-industry\/A-History-of-Trousers-and-Pants-in-Western-Culture\"><i>https:\/\/bellatory.com\/fashion-industry\/A-History-of-Trousers-and-Pants-in-Western-Culture<\/i><\/a><i>)<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-1028\" src=\"https:\/\/www.janbrehm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Screen-Shot-2018-07-30-at-3.10.32-PM-148x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"148\" height=\"300\" \/><\/i><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>but here\u2019s my favorite story\u2026<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s 1896. Mrs. Louise Cranston is angrily reprimanded<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>by her husband Tom after she orders a suit of bloomers, \u201cYou shan\u2019t wear bloomers!\u201d he exclaims. With her neighbor Mrs. Kynaston, they devise a plan to sway Tom\u2019s decision and as he enters his home that evening, five women in sporty bloomers stand before him,<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>but to no avail. \u201cDon\u2019t speak to me of bloomers again\u201d, he snorts, \u201c\u2026you may go to those women\u2019s rights meetings if you want, and you may wear standing collars and men\u2019s waistcoats, but you shall not wear trousers\u2026\u201d Louise agrees and vows to never mention bloomers again. \u201cThat\u2019s a dear, good girl,\u201d he replies and <i>promises to do anything else<\/i> she asks of him.<\/p>\n<p>The plot thickens as Louise the next evening, asks Tom to make good on his promise and help her out with a task by having him put on an unfinished dress so she can pin and finish the hemming. He keeps his promise and reluctantly stands up on a table, dressed fully in women\u2019s attire. But alas <i>Mr. Kynaaston <\/i>walks through the door (as pre-planned by Mrs. Kynaaston and Louise) and a humiliated Tom is snared in their trap. A bit of humor covers Toms embarrassment and he declares to Louise, \u201cIf you\u2019ll call my promise off, you may have the bloomers or anything else you want\u201d. Good Man.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i>(Wild West Issue 2016 Pioneers and Settlers by Deanna Kerr).<\/i><\/p>\n<p>and finally we arrived:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In 1969 Rep. <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Charlotte_Reid\">Charlotte Reid<\/a> (R-Ill.) became the first woman to wear trousers in the U.S. Congress<\/li>\n<li>In the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/United_States\">United States<\/a>, this may be due to the passage of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Title_IX\">Title IX<\/a> of the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Education_Amendments_of_1972\">Education Amendments of 1972<\/a>, which declared that dresses could not be required of girls. Dress codes thus changed in public schools across the United States. <i>(<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/blogs\/reliable-source\/post\/update-first-woman-to-wear-pants-on-house-floor-rep-charlotte-reid\/2011\/12\/21\/gIQAVLD99O_blog.html?utm_term=.9056d7980135\"><i>https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/blogs\/reliable-source\/post\/update-first-woman-to-wear-pants-on-house-floor-rep-charlotte-reid\/2011\/12\/21\/gIQAVLD99O_blog.html?utm_term=.9056d7980135<\/i><\/a><i>)<\/i><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So there it is. Just a bit of enlightenment to remind us how far we have come, and the next time we attempt to squeeze into those skinny jeans, we can thank or blame it on those who went before.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It was in the fall of 1969, we budding women shoved open the doors of Woodrow Wilson High School in Portland Oregon and strutted down the locker-lined, noisy halls with our heads held high, basking in a newly granted freedom. It was on this momentous day, at long last, women of every shape and size [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[108,109,107,1,6,9,101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aging","category-empty-nest-syndrome","category-for-the-woman","category-menopause","category-mid-life-madness","category-musings","category-road-blocks-and-detours"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/janbrehm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1027"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/janbrehm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/janbrehm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janbrehm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janbrehm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1027"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/janbrehm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1027\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1038,"href":"https:\/\/janbrehm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1027\/revisions\/1038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/janbrehm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janbrehm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janbrehm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}