A school uniform is a uniform worn by students primarily for a school or otherwise educational institution. They are common in primary and secondary schools in various countries.

There are several positive and negative social implications of uniforms on both the students wearing them and society as a whole.

Perceptions of masculinity and femininity

One of the criticisms of uniforms is that it imposes standards of masculinity and femininity from a young age. Uniforms are considered a form of discipline that schools use to control student behavior and often promote conventional gendered dress.Boys often are required to wear trousers, belts, and closed-toe shoes and have their shirts tucked in at all times. They are also often required to have their hair cut short. Some critics allege that this uniform is associated with the dress of a professional business man, which, they claim, gives boys at a young age the impression that masculinity is gained through business success.For girls, many uniforms promote femininity by requiring girls to wear skirts. Skirts are seen by some critics as a symbol of femininity because they restrict movement and force certain ways of sitting and playing.Uniforms that include an apron for girls may suggest that the appropriate feminine societal role is a primarily domestic one. Some girls' school uniforms have been criticized as having an uncomfortable design, which prevents girls from freedom of movement and exposes girls to cold during winter.

School uniforms are embedded with gender symbolism. Schools that require students to wear a formal uniform almost universally provide trousers for boys and skirts or dresses for girls. Skirts differentiate the male from the female therefore confirming traditional gender identities for students whom must wear the correct attire corresponding to their sex. Skirts and dresses demand a particular type of feminine gender performance, whereas, trouser demand a particular masculine gender performance. By enforcing that students wear attire that corresponds with their sex inherently assigns the ways a student must perform their gender. This causes controversy when a student does not want to identify with a gender that does not align with their sex. There are rarely guidelines that allow for students to dress according to their performed gender, but almost always according to their sex assigned at birth.

Sexualization of girls

Around middle or junior school, students begin going through puberty. Uniforms can be seen as a way to restrict the sexualization of girls (rules on hems of skirts, no shoulders). Uniforms take the focus away from sexuality and focus it on academics in a school setting for girls.

Sometimes the desire to prevent overtly sexualized clothing through uniforms can fail. As an example, miniskirts have been very popular in Japan, where they are common parts of school uniforms and came to be worn within the Kogal culture.

"The pleasure our culture derives from gazing at girls who look feminine conflicts with girls freedom to run around unselfconsciously and to develop their gross motor talents as boys are encouraged to do" Schoolgirl uniforms are used in costumes in the context of "Sexy SchoolGirl"and are sold on costume sites year round. The idea of the female school uniform has become sexual and in Britain a new survey from Plan International UK found that a third of girls have been sexually harassed while wearing their school uniform. School uniforms can encourage harassment as children, as our culture defines the "schoolgirl look" to be sexual. Children as young as 8 years old report being victims of, or witnesses to, harassment. Two-thirds of the children questioned in the survey said they have experienced "unwanted sexual attention" in public, and 35 percent said they have been touched, groped or grabbed without their consent. These experiences teach girls that being harassed by men is just a part of growing up. The perception of schoolgirl uniforms allows for men to harass girls at a young age, causing girls to self-objectify their bodies from the beginning of their schooling experience.

General

In some cultures, the topic of school uniforms has sparked a multitude of controversies and debates over the years.Debates concerning the constitutionality and economic feasibility of uniforms also contribute to the controversy.

In the United States, the implementation of school uniforms began following ten years of research indicating the effectiveness of private schools. Some state-school reformers cited this research to support policies linked to private and Catholic school success. Some public-school administrators hence began implementing uniform policies to improve the overall school environment and academic achievement of the students. This is based on the assumption that uniforms are the direct cause of behavioral and academic outcome changes.However, within the Catholic school literature, school uniforms have never been acknowledged as a primary factor in producing a Catholic school effect.

Another area of controversy regarding school uniform and dress code policies revolve around the issue of gender. Nowadays, more teenagers are more frequently "dressing to articulate, or confound gender identity and sexual orientation", which brings about "responses from school officials that ranged from indifferences to applause to bans".In 2009, there were multiple conflicts across the United States arising from disparities between the students' perception of their own gender, and the school administrators' perception of the students' gender identity.

Positives

Advocates of uniforms have proposed multiple reasons supporting their implementation and claiming their success in schools. A variety of these claims have no research supporting them. Some of these pros include the following: Advocates believe that uniforms affect student safety by:

• Lowering student victimization

• Decrease gang activity and fights

Kathleen Wade conducted an experiment to see if bullying and gang presence was higher in uniform or non-uniform schools. The research was done with multiple schools where she gave a questionnaire to both students, and faculty to see if there was a significant difference. Her results showed that bullying and gang presence significantly decreases with students wearing school uniforms.

Differentiating strangers from students in school buildings

For example, in the first year of the mandatory uniform policy in Long Beach, California, officials reported that fighting in schools decreased by more than 50%, assault and battery by 34%, sex offenses by 74%, and robbery by 66%.Advocates also believe that uniforms increase student learning and positive attitudes toward school through:

• Enhanced learning environments

• Heightened school pride

• Increased student achievement

• High levels of preparedness

• Conformity to organizational goals

• Increased chance of staying in school

• Increased commitment to learning

• Increased use of school setting to the student's advantage

  
  

             

Wearing uniforms leads to decreased behavior problems by increasing attendance rates, lowering suspension rates, and decreasing substance use among the student body. Proponents also attribute positive psychological outcomes like increased self-esteem, increased spirit, and reinforced feelings of oneness among students to wearing uniforms. Additional proponent arguments include that school uniforms:

• Encourage discipline

• Help students resist peer pressure to buy trendy clothes

• Diminish economic and social barriers between students

Currently pros of school uniforms center around how uniforms affect schools' environments. Proponents have found a significant positive impact on school climate, safety, and students’ self-perception from the implementation of uniforms.

Negatives

The opposing side of uniforms has claimed their ineffectiveness using a variety of justifications, a variety of which have research supporting them. Some of the cons to school uniforms include the following legal, financial, and questionable effectiveness concerns:The primary concern with school uniforms or strict dress codes is that it limits the ability of students to express themselves. Clothing is viewed as a mean of expression – making all students wear the same clothes or limit them to what they can wear can disrupt their sense of identity. One of the main controversies can lie within Dress Code Policies vs. Freedom of Speech.This establishes that students cannot wear the latest trends, mid-drift, or clothes that the school finds that interrupt the learning environment. However, students can wear clothing artifacts that express their religion. "Both the Constitution and most state laws protect students' rights to wear religious attire inool [sic] school, such as the wearing of a turban, yarmulke, or headscarf."

Another negative aspect of school uniforms is that it can be sexist. Boys and girls are also not disciplined the same when it comes to dress codes. Girls are more commonly disciplined for "certain articles of’ attire that are prohibited because they “distract” boys. "Transgender students have been sent home for wearing clothing different from what's expected of their legalness, while others have been excluded from yearbooks."

Uniforms also generally disadvantage students, especially girls, in freedom of movement and comfort. The research was conducted on an Australian independent private school and its uniform. Comfort-wise, for boys, the blazer was too hot/cold and uncomfortable. For girls, the light coloured cotton school dress was restrictive, see-through, hot, uncomfortable, and impractical. Furthermore, the stockings were often cold, grey woolen kilt was too heavy and restrictive of movement, and the wind could cause it to reveal more than the girls wanted. When playing and moving around, for boys, the tie was a choking hazard, and the pants had no stretch. For girls, the dress/skirt caused modesty issues (e.g. hard to swing on monkey bars/run around while keeping her privacy, hence stop being active), and the kilts were are too big and heavy.

Research on how school uniforms and school dress codes influence the student can be inconclusive. "In the U.S., over half of public schools have a dress code, which frequently outline gender-specific policies."

• Legal concerns

  • Focus on the supposition that requiring a uniform violates children's individual rights

  • Mandatory uniform policies are being considered largely for urban school districts, and, hence are being forced on a predominantly minority and poor student population

  
  

• No effect on social status

  • Many students felt the school uniform policy had little impact on the social dynamic of the school and students found ways to express individuality by making minor alterations to the school uniform

  • concernsFocus on the supposition that requiring a uniform violates children's individual rights

    
    

• Legal concerns

  • Focus on the supposition that requiring a uniform violates children's individual rights   

  • Mandatory uniform policies are being considered largely for urban school districts, and, hence are being forced on a predominantly minority and poor student population

  
  

• No effect on social status

  • Many students felt the school uniform policy had little impact on the social dynamic of the school and students found ways to express individuality by making minor alterations to the school uniform. Some parents and students interviewed in a research about the social aspect of school uniforms said that uniforms were a violation of their rights and freedom. "Like adults, children's freedom to choose or to act is also circumscribed by the community – massively so by schools, with their high density, constant supervision and evaluation, lack of privacy, and the obligatory nature of their activities."

• Financial concerns

  • Groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union have voiced concerns about the cost of uniforms, specifically that some disadvantaged parents are unable to afford them

• Questionable effectiveness of those policies

  • Strongest opponents of uniform policies charge that no empirical evidence exists to support the numerous and varied claims of uniform proponents   

  • School uniforms suppress students’ individuality by mandating standardization of appearance and removing student expression

  • While uniform policies have been linked to school climate, safety, and student self-perception, there is no evidence to indicate that a uniform policy increases academic achievement

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According to Marian Wilde,additional opponent arguments include that school uniforms:

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

• Make students a target for bullies from other schools

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

• Are difficult to enforce in state/public (government) schools