‘Pants option’ for female students sought in Senate

Sen. Raffy Tulfo Senate PRIB file photo / Bibo Nueva España

MANILA, Philippines — Female students will no longer be required to wear a skirt as school uniform if a bill lodged in the Senate is passed into law.

Senator Raffy Tulfo recently filed Senate Bill No. 1986, “promoting gender-neutral  uniforms in schools, colleges  and universities.”

The measure is also proposed to be called the “Pants for Her Act.”

“The convenience of wearing pants or trousers should be  available for all. Women should not be restricted to wearing skirts as their choice of  uniform in schools, colleges, or universities,” the bill reads.

The bill thus proposed that all schools, colleges, and universities  should provide female students “a pants option for their uniform, in addition to the traditional skirt.”

Tulfo  underscored the  importance of providing gender-neutral uniform options in schools to create a “safe and welcoming learning environment for all students.”

“It allows them to move and express themselves freely and authentically without fear of discrimination or harassment,” he  pointed out  in his explanatory note of the bill.

The senator lamented that for decades, skirts for women and trousers for men had been used as identifiers to differentiate the two genders from one another.

In today’s social climate, however,  he said, “young women must be given another alternative to the traditional skirted-uniform for them to feel comfortable and promote a gender-neutral environment.”

Tulfo also linked school uniforms’ use to the country’s yearly dengue outbreak.

“To save lives and mitigate infection, wearing long sleeves and pants is one of the easy precautions one may take to avoid getting bitten by mosquitoes that spread dengue,” he said.

Even for riding a motorcycle, the senator said wearing pants could be helpful and more convenient for female students.

“The right of young women to wear trousers to school needs to be a given, and not a privilege that needs to be argued for in each individual case,” Tulfo then said.

“Therefore, this bill proposes to allow female students to wear trousers or pants in addition to or instead of skirts through the mandate to offer gender-neutral school uniform options in all public and private schools, at all levels.”

“In this regard, wearing a skirt as a girl’s school uniform shall not be required in both public and private schools. All schools from elementary to college, shall make equal and flexible choices of school uniform for everyone,”  said the senator.

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JPV/abc