Arguments rage frequently between strong-willed young women and determined parents and teachers, as well as many opinionated bystanders, on appropriate lengths of school skirts and the relevance of punishments for breaking the school rules.

On principle, having a repercussion for breaking school rules by having a skirt shorter than is allowed, seems reasonable. It’s a ‘uniform’ for a reason, many say, and so not conforming to it is missing the point. Schools want students to look the same to create a community spirit and want them to follow the rules to create discipline. However, some schools take it further, saying short skirt lengths are an issue in themselves. Reasons given for not allowing short skirts are that it ‘sends the wrong message’ and ‘there are male students and teachers at school’.

But what is this message? asks the opposition. Surely we should be teaching young girls that their appearance has no impact on their capabilities in life and schools should uphold the standard of a society where girls are not judged on the length of their skirt. The objectification of women in the past does not create a basis for these rules and punishments, but rather demonstrates why we should not perpetuate these ideas with judgemental attitudes towards girls’ skirts. And, as for the presence of the opposite sex, if an individual is going to be distracted by a few inches of female thigh, perhaps it is not the female we should be taking issue with.

For common decency, then, many respond. It is not merely ‘a few inches’, as very often girls take skirt-rolling too far, which compromises their modesty and the reputation of the school. This forces schools to spend time and energy to combat the rebellion, including the ultimate threat to send a girl home if her skirt remains too short.

As a Girls’ Day School Trust student myself, I was fascinated to read an article by Dame Helen Fraser, former Chief Executive of the GDST, commenting on schools sending girls home for short skirt lengths. She’s ‘certainly not advocating a free-for-all’, and can see the attraction of a cut throat, no-nonsense approach, however, her article details why schools often overstate the importance of school skirt lengths and why ‘blanket bans are not the answer’. My peers and I have often wondered about the logic of denying girls an education on the basis of their skirt length, because, as she states in her article, ‘[it] gives the impression to them… that what they look like is more important than their education’. Lilly Tuesley, a Year 11 student, echoes and advances these views, saying ‘The length of a skirt does not adversely affect our education in any way, therefore it is irrelevant. When schools focus on our appearances rather than our achievements it contradicts the values that we want to instil in young girls.’

Laura Bates, feminist writer and Everyday Sexism founder, goes as far as to say that ‘if schools pull girls out of lessons and publicly shame them for exposing too much of their bodies, they are only preparing them for a sexist and unfair working world in which women are constantly judged and berated on their appearance.’ A working world with such arbitrary rules on dress codes was recently made evident by a female London receptionist being sent home for refusing to wear high heels.

There seems to be no right answer as to how schools should discipline girls wearing short skirts or whether the girls should be disciplined at all. Trying to balance arguments of feminism and education against uniformity and modesty, schools and educational leaders are being put in a difficult position.