The Uniforms Women Used to Wear to Work Were Both Sexist & Pretty Chic

What are you wearing right now? Did you spend hours agonizing over your outfit? Combining multiple pieces, maybe a blouse and a skirt, or a dress with a sleeveless blazer, which eventually came together for a complete look, that’s both functional and fashionable. While many women today have the freedom to dress as they want in the professional setting, resulting in hours of stress and raised blood pressure for an entire generation, this didn’t use to be the case. In the 1970s, as I learned through a #tbt, female rangers working for the National Park Service wore skirts and go-go boots. Yes, to go on patrols through Yellowstone and check that Mt. Rushmore was still standing, employees had to trek through tough terrain in looks more fit for a night of dancing with Austin Powers.

Yet these ladies weren’t the only workers that had to wear some ridiculous duds when performing some pretty important tasks. Stewardesses, today known as flight attendants, flew the skies in hot pants and fishnets while nurses celebrated when they were granted permission to wear culotte dresses.

So next time you’re getting dressed in the morning and you’re thinking, “I have nothing to wear” (we all have those days even though our closets might be stuffed to the brim), remember this: you could’ve been working in another era when women, just breaking into the workforce, wore outfits designed by men, that often times were neither funtional nor fashionable. Sure, women still make 77 cents for every dollar a man earns, but at least we generally get to look chic while doing so.

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