Back when I first got married in 1984, it doesn't seem like white shirts were such a big deal as I bought my ex some shirts with stripes and he wore them all the time and he was a clerk or ex.sec. all the time. Nobody ever said anything.
Back when I was in high school, guys were colored shirts all the time. I loved my brother's purple shirt he wore.
I had no idea women couldn't wear pants to work. Apparently not even business suits. In Utah. Where it snows. That is just insane in this day and age. Glad to see they're being just as progressive as my high school was. In 1971 when the dress code allowed girls to wear pants.
"Mormon apostle Quentin L. Cook offered this explanation for the newly expanded policy. 'I would hope that Latter-day Saints would be at the forefront in creating an environment in the workplace that is more receptive and accommodating,' he said in a statement, 'to both men and women.' "
The forefront? Sure, maybe thirty years ago. But now the church is seriously lagging behind. My guess is that the church is having trouble recruiting highly skilled workers by solely appealing to the workers' religious impulses.
I could have worn pants to my NYC office job back in the 80s, but I wore skirts and pantyhose instead because that was the preference of my female boss. The amount of money that I spent on dry cleaning bills and pantyhose was completely out of proportion to my modest salary, but that was my mindset back then. Sometimes I didn't even get a brand-new pair of pantyhose on in the morning without getting a run. Like many women, I carried a bottle of clear nail polish with me to dab on runs in an attempt to stop them. It was a pitched battle.
By the time I went into teaching in the 90s, I knew that things needed to change. I needed an easy-to-maintain, wash and wear wardrobe. Khaki pants, knit tops, and sweaters became the order of the day. I rarely wear skirts, but by the early aughts I was persuaded by a colleague to pitch pantyhose. None of the teachers in my building wore them. I still have a drawer full of them that I haven't touched in years. Isn't the whole point of wearing a skirt in warm weather to stay cooler?
When I had an office job in NYC (yep me too, but in the 90s), I got so sick of trying to Keep up with the Joneses (or I should say 'Jane-ses'… ).. it was so expensive trying to wear different shirts and dressy women's clothes that you couldn't were two times in the same week or maybe even month without feeling the pressure..
So I decided to do what men do and get a suit and just wear my suit every day! I got a women's tailored suit, a nice chocolate brown color, with pants, no shirt and a proper jacket top. All I had to do was change my shirt and underwear every day (and I could repeat shirts and nobody would notice..) It was extremely liberating.. I did have to dry clean but not that often and just the one suit. I hardly had laundry, no more stress trying to figure out what to wear. :)
I have to say I hated panty hose.. I liked tights better but so hot, like you said.. why wear a skirt if you have to wear hose.. God forbid you show fully naked legs in the office! :)
I also (when still going to church occasionally but with increasing anger) wore pants to church a few times to see what would happen.. I noticed that nobody ever said you HAD to wear dresses to church but everyone DID do that .. So I thought well I'll wear dress pants if I want. I know I got looks but nobody said anything.
When I first saw the headline in the Washington Post, I thought they were going to say that TSCC was going to finally allow women to wear pants to Sacrament Meeting without being hassled.
Nope, guess that's too much to ask...
But for a church that used to have the motto "No success can compensate for failure in the home," and says it values families so much -- how come it's taken so long for them to begin to provide paid leave to new parents?
Women wore pantsuits to work at Ricks College when I worked there. I don't remember any discipline or snarky remarks. I think the really older (70's) women were the first to do it. I even saw some of those older ladies wearing sweatshirts with the little attached collars and imprints of birds and other things on them. I thought they were pretty unprofessional but nobody told them they couldn't wear them. Maybe the younger guys were just too intimidated by those older women.
The thing that brings wonder to me is that the Mo's are too stupid, dumb, brain washed to see how totally silly this 'announcement' is and how the whole world laughs at their antics.