Who knew that the women of Paris weren’t allowed to wear trousers because of a law that is more than two centuries old? Lawmakers of the city have finally caught up and repealed the ban on trouser-wearing females – Parisian women are now allowed to wear pants on the streets of the City of Lights.
Women all over the French capital are rejoicing that the law has finally caught up with the times – and fashion!
Apparently, there is a 200-year old ban on Parisian women from wearing pants in the streets of the city. It is ironic that there is a ban on pants for the women of Paris as it is renowned as the most fashion capital of the world.
While many modern-day Parisians are no longer conforming to this outdated law, it took the French government a while to finally make changes to the law.
Outdated law
The Minister of Women’s Rights, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem finally set things right. Because of incompatibility and the obvious obsolete quality of the law, it was legally rescinded this year.
The law was put into effect on November 17, 1800 during the time of the French Revolution. The law made it necessary for women to ask for permission from the local police if they could wear pants or “dress like a man.” If they didn’t ask for permission before wearing the trousers, they faced possible arrest.
Why the law came to be in the first place
The intent of the law was to make sure that women could not do specific jobs that were intended for men to help curtail the activities during the revolution.
The law was formulated during the French Revolution as a way of targeting the Parisian women rebels who would go “sans-culottes.” These working class women would wear trousers instead of knee-breeches, more commonly known as “culottes,” which the upper classes preferred.
In placing the ban on Parisian women from wearing trousers, it limited their ability to participate in the revolution.
Changes already made
This isn’t the first time that this law was amended or changed. In fact, the law has been amended twice already. In 1892 and in 1902, a provision was added in the law to allow women to wear trousers if they were on a bike or on a horse, Specifically, it said that trousers were permissible if the woman was “holding a bicycle handlebar or the reins of a horse”.
Although the French Constitution had already declared that men and women were equal back in 1946, the law was still not repealed until 2013.
Not followed
Many people are not even aware of the law banning Parisian women from wearing trousers simply because they do not enforce the law.
Over the years, there were already other attempts to finally repeal the law, though these went largely unnoticed. Prior to the 2013 repeal, the last attempt was in July 2012.
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