Dress code as part of work-life balance?

So my father-in-law, apropos of nothing, suddenly announces that he doesn’t understand why women aren’t allowed to wear shorts in the workplace.

Huh?

I asked him a couple of time to explain how this constitutes a dress code oppression on professional women, and I still don’t quite get it. It’s not like men are allowed to wear shorts and women aren’t, right? And if it’s a comfort/skin breathability thing, women can wear dresses or skirts, so why do they need to wear shorts?

Unfortunately, my father-in-law thinks I’m mocking him when I say I don’t get it, but I truly don’t get where he’s coming from.

Shorts are universally considered casual clothing, and since then, I’ve been in a couple of corporate offices where shorts appeared on both genders – during Casual Friday.

Ladies, are you dying to wear shorts at work, beyond Casual Friday? If I’m out of my gourd, do let me know.

And while the jury may be out on shorts, it’s come in on pantyhose. According to a report on this morning’s Good Morning America, the insurance company ALFAC considers “work-life balance” more important than requiring its female employees to wear pantyhose.

Even though we write about work-life balance here on the blog from time to time, I must admit I hadn’t considered dress code as a part of the work-life balance calculation. But hose, as well as neckties, get covered by GMA, and they’ve also issued a challenge through Diane Sawyer. If you’re a man who wants to try wearing hose for a day, and email their producers, you could actually get your 15 minutes of fame with them.

P.S. The GMA report was an offshoot of a recent Wall Street Journal article on the same subject. (Subscription may or may not be required, depending on who you ask.)

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