Figure 1.--Here is a scene from Sports Day: a view of a girls' relay race. Some of the girls wear shorts, others skirts; both short and long socks are visible. One girl wears her sweater. A good mix of most of the options for kit! |
|
The girls’ PE kit was rather different to the boys’: they wore light green short-sleeved Aertex tops, with dark green shorts (tight and brief) or skirts. When it was cold outside they could wear a grey sweater. On their feet they could wear plimsolls with optional white ankle socks (though long white socks were an accepted variation!) or, for hockey, coloured socks and boots. I never did discover what they were supposed to do about underwear. In principle, the shorts were for PE and the skirts for hockey, but outdoors in the summer – typically for athletics or rounders, or for netball in the winter - either could be worn. The girls were far more likely to go barefoot than the boys, and in the gym, or outside in the summer, a third or more of them would be barefoot. What they did about forgotten kit I don’t really know – they clearly couldn’t just do without as easily as the boys! Skirts and shorts were clearly interchangeable for most purposes, and I suppose they could have managed with the sweater instead of the Aertex top.
The girls’ PE kit was rather different to the boys’: they wore light green short-sleeved Aertex tops, with dark green shorts (tight and brief) or skirts. When it was cold outside they could wear a grey sweater. In principle, the shorts were for PE and the skirts for hockey, but outdoors in the summer – typically for athletics or rounders, or for netball in the winter - either could be worn. Skirts and shorts were clearly interchangeable for most purposes, and I suppose they could have managed with the sweater instead of the Aertex top. Ther girls wore much more than we did in the gym. With just the Aertex top, they would be similarly dressed to a boy in a t-shirt, and warmer than one in a running vest, let alone stripped to the waist... and as I said, it could get cold in that gym! Outside with just the Aertex top on a cold day, their bare arms would have got cold, but it would be much the same as for a boy in a t-shirt
On their feet they could wear plimsolls with optional white ankle socks (though long white socks were an accepted variation!) or, for hockey, coloured socks and boots. The girls were far more likely to go barefoot than the boys, and in the gym, or outside in the summer, a third or more of them would be barefoot.
The rules for footwear were clearly the same as for the boys, but seemed to be enforced just a little more rigorously: very occasionally one of the girls would have to play netball barefoot outside on the tennis courts in the winter. The tarmac would not be as cold underfoot as the damp grass on which we would have had to run (we didn’t normally use the tennis courts in winter), so presumably it was considered acceptable. (The tarmac itself wasn't a problem - I played tennis there regularly in bare feet) .This was about the only time any of the girls had to tolerate much cold.
I never did discover what they were supposed to do about underwear.
What they did about forgotten kit I don’t really know – they clearly couldn’t just do without as easily as the boys!
I have picked up some general bavkground from the internet.
It was fairly common for girls to be required to remove their underwear for PE, or to put on knickers (?panties in the US) kept for the purpose, likely without a bra. Leotards have more recently become popular; these are often worn with nothing underneath, mainly because any underwear would be clearly visible around a brief leotard.
The vexed question of lost or forgotten kit seems to have been solved, at least in all-girls schools, in the same way as for boys: do without, or wear underwear. For the younger secondary-school girls, “just underwear” would often imply just knickers: how much embarrassment this might cause depended on the personality of the girl in question. Compulsory bare feet outdoors seem to have been more common with girls than with boys; not just for PE, but in some cases for cross-country, particularly if the course was very muddy.
The options in primary schools were much the same as for boys, and depended largely on how much kit the school required. In the 1950’s, it was fairly common for primary school children – both boys and girls – to strip to their underpants in the classroom, then walk to the school hall for indoor PE. This practice still occurred very rarely in the early 1990’s but has, I expect, long since ceased.
