I’ve been married to a man for sixteen years. That makes me an expert in men’s dress. If the occasion is formal—an important meeting at work, a cocktail party, a wedding, or a funeral—he wears a suit and tie. If the dress is business casual, he wears slacks and a dress shirt. If we’re going to a ball game, he wears a Carolina t-shirt and a pair of shorts with pockets (so he has a place to put his wallet and phone). That same man has been married to me for lo these many years. But he couldn’t rattle off the same dress code for me. (I know because on several occasions over the last decade and a half, I’ve asked about the appropriate dress for women. He always responds by telling me to ask some other woman attendee what she plans to wear.) But while it may not be easy to tell women what to wear, there are plenty of folks with opinions about what women ought not to wear, especially women lawyers. Indeed, Slate ran an article last week provocatively headlined, “Female Lawyers Who Dress Too ‘Sexy’ Are Apparently a ‘Huge Problem’ in the Courtroom.” A federal bankruptcy judge quoted in the article probably thought he was being helpful when he advised that “‘you don’t dress in court as if it’s Saturday night and you’re going out to a party.’” This might help some women, but, as I’ve already mentioned, I’m not sure what the dress code is for [...]
Faculty Coordinators
