June 06, 2019

Andrew Campbell 

A proposal revealed that students do not need to wear gender-specific uniforms in the schools caused a huge chaos in Mexico City. 

Mexico City Mayor, Claudia Sheinbaum, announced the initiative of “gender-neutral uniform” on June 3 to support the gender equality in schools. According to Sheinbaum’s statement in the news conference, it was an outdated idea for girls to wear skirts and boys to wear trousers. Now, it is the generation for boys and girls to freely pick up their outfit. 

After this statement, criticism broke out rapidly. The transgender activists welcomed the gender-neutral uniform initiative because uniforms will not be a stereotype to identify the gender. Leonardo Garcia, president of the National Union of Parents, a group as a defender of parents to educate their children, stated that the gender-neutral uniform initiative did not deal with the gender inequality but will cause more problems in the future.

One of the city officials mentioned that the proposal was just a guideline, not an obligation. Parents should consult the schools for their decision to adopt this initiative.

Local groups have different opinions related to this initiative. However, Minister of Education, Esteban Moctezuma, fully supported this initiative. He believed that other states in Mexico will soon follow this new guideline. Because of the controversial issue, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador refused to give any comments on this initiative.

Even though female activist worked so hard to push for gender equality, discrimination and violence against women still remained.  

Photo:Webshot.