Four in ten adults think boys and girls should be able to wear either trousers or skirts to school, a survey has revealed.
YouGov Omnibus asked 3,849 adults and 586 children aged 6-15 what school uniform policy they favour. The most popular option from adults was for both boys and girls to be allowed to wear either trousers or skirts, which four in ten (40%) support. Three in ten (31%) believe that girls should be allowed to wear either skirts or trousers but boys should only be allowed to wear trousers.
One in ten however support a “traditional” school uniform policy of boys in trousers and girls in skirts, and only 7% believe that boys and girls should only be allowed to wear trousers (and no one should wear skirts).
“Our survey data indicates that parents and children both feel passionately about the subject, while it’s more likely for girls to think both genders should be able to wear trousers or skirts, there is still strong support from boys which shows that many are in favour of having the freedom to choose when it comes to their school uniform,” said Ben Glanville, head of Omnibus UK.
The survey revealed that those aged 18 to 24 (46%) are significantly more likely than the country as a whole to believe boys and girls should be allowed to wear either trousers or skirts.
By comparison, men (32%) and those aged 65+ (29%) are notably less likely than average to support everyone being allowed to wear whatever they want.
[READ MORE: Why School Uniform Is Bad For Our Children]
The children’s answers show that when it comes to school uniform policy, they are broadly in agreement with adults.
There are slight differences between genders when it comes to support for boys and girls being allowed to wear either trousers or skirts, with girls are more likely to support the policy (47% to 37%).
In contrast, girls are slightly less likely to think boys should have to wear trousers and girls should have to wear skirts. Just one in fifteen (7%) girls support this policy, compared to one in eight (12%) boys.
What do you think about the school uniform policies? Should girls and boys be able to wear what they want? Share your views by emailing amy.packham@huffpost.com.
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