Roxane Gay on clothes in the workplace: 'I have never been good at dressing like a woman'

Regulating how women dress, both in and out of the workplace, is nothing new. In ancient Greece, an appointed group of magistrates, gynaikonomoi, or “controllers of women”, ensured that women dressed “appropriately” and managed how much they spent on their apparel. The strict – and mandatory – codes were designed to remind women of their place in Greek society. In the ensuing millennia, not much has changed. Throughout history, men have controlled women’s bodies and their clothing by way of social strictures and laws.

Employers have long imposed dress codes on women in the workplace, demanding that women wear, for instance, high heels, stockings, makeup and dresses or skirts of an appropriate but feminine and alluring length. Employers have also mandated how women should wear their hair. Women of colour, and black women in particular, have faced discrimination in the workplace when they choose to wear their hair in natural styles or braids. Employers have also tried to constrain what women wear by discriminating against faith-based practices, barring, for example, Muslim women from wearing the hijab.

In the early 20th century, women began entering the workforce en masse. But only women who worked in factories, on farms or in other forms of manual labour had the flexibility to wear clothing such as trousers. Women who worked in offices had to wear the skirts, heels and jewellery expected of their sex. This division would continue until the 1970s, when the influence of the sexual revolution made its mark. Although women still had to conform to social mores, they now had the freedom to consider personal comfort and style in what they wore in the workplace.

Source: theguardian