Starting Story

　In the first semester, I researched dialects & diversity and school uniforms & diversity. They both have a connection that there are traditions to be preserved and traditions that need to be changed.

　When I was in public junior high school, there was a rule of winter uniforms, saying that boys are allowed to wear long sweatpants over their uniform pants, but girls were forbidden to wear pants or tights under their uniform skirts. Wearing skirts without any warmers made me so uncomfortable in winter when it’s too cold, so I told my teacher that it’s not fair. Then she responded to me that it’s tradition, so the only thing that we can do is to just follow the rule.

　I thought we don’t have to follow those rules that don’t match to the current society just because it’s a tradition.

　From the research on the dialect issue, we learned that although there has been much standardization of language, there are nuances that can only be expressed in dialects, and that dialects are an identity act and play an important role. From this, I felt that dialects are one tradition, and even within the same tradition, dialects are a tradition that should be preserved.

　Moreover, here is the story that made me feel so uncomfortable and let me down. It was an extremely hot day, and I was cooling off in an air-conditioned room. Then I saw outside of the room, and there were people who were wearing suits, the color was black, all of them neatly tied their neckties. I was like “Are you crazy?” “What is the exact reason to dress up formally even it’s extraordinary hot day?”. I also saw a person who seemed like doing job hunting on the same day. They were also wearing suits with black jacket, walking in the sun. I understand there are some rules on your closing, but it made me really upset and think about the diversity of clothing especially in the workplace and on job hunting. Then, here are some research questions that I came up with.

・What is the history of shukatsu fashion?

・Are there recent changes around appropriate clothing?

・How do people think about their dress code?

Dress Code

What is the dress code?

• According to the Dictionary , dress code is a standard of dress established for a given environment, as in the military, in a school or business, or in a cultural group. SEW GUIDE says, when you say that a particular place or a function has a dress code, it means that they have a set of rules as to what kind of clothing can be worn there.

Types of Dress Codes

Some of the most common dress codes found in the workplace are following.

Survey on Dress Code in the Office

Subjects: 800 men and women working full-time at companies in Tokyo

• The reality of dress codes in the office

株式会社モニタス, a marketing support business that utilizes approximately 20 million survey monitors, surveyed 800 men and women who work full time at non-uniformed companies in Tokyo about the rules of office attire (dress code).

• Nearly 70% of Tokyo companies have a dress code. 40% of these have "unspoken rules" that are not clearly defined.

• One-fourth of all respondents have "clear rules or regulations on dress" (25.6%), and the largest share (40.5%) has "not clear, but there is an implicit rule" (40.5%).

• The most common response was "Not clear, but there is an implicit rule" (40.5%), accounting for 40% of the total.

The fact that nearly 70% of companies in Tokyo have a dress code made me have a hypothesis that companies that have more opportunities to meet with people outside of the office would have a dress code.

• Industry-specific grooming regulations

• According to the survey called “社内ルールにおける男女差に関する調査2019” taken by 日本労働組合総連合会, the proportion of those who answered that they have a rule was 60.5% for those who have opportunities to meet people outside the company, higher than those who do not have opportunities (52.9%).

• By industry, those who answered that there are rules regarding clothing and personal appearance were more frequent in the "Accommodation and food services" (86.7%) and "Finance and insurance" (71.4%).

These results reveal the fact that the existence of a dress code is more related to the type of job and less related to the number of opportunities to meet people outside the company.

• Differences in rules for men and women

  • The survey also revealed that there are numerous rules that differ between men and women regarding dress and grooming.

  • Of those who answered that there are different rules for men and women, 22.6% for "rules regarding clothing," 9.1% for "rules regarding color of clothing," and 16.8% for "rules regarding shoes.

These investigations came up with the question that if there are different rules for different genders in the workplace, then we might see such gender differences in job hunting as well.

Stories from 当事者

#01 Woman　　

　I think the trouble with pumps is that they hurt. Some people tell me to change them on the way, but why should only women have to go through all that trouble?

#02 Woman

　I feel that it is blurted that it is rude for women not to wear heals while itis not rude for men.

“ブラック社則”

According to LIFE INSIDER, Aさん, 23-year-old, a new graduate who joined a Tokyo-based company that handles consulting and other businesses, said that her company had a several-page booklet with company regulations on dress and other personal appearance at work, which stated that women must wear heeled pumps and stockings. The booklet also stated that women's shoes must be heeled pumps and stockings must be worn. The photo that appeared with the booklet was of a pair of black heeled pumps.

｢営業成績を上げたいなら、絶対にピンヒールを履かないとダメ｣

("If you want to improve your sales performance, you absolutely must wear pinwheels.")

When A asked a senior female employee about shoe designations during her post-employment training period, she received such an answer. Pinwheels are the thinnest heels among high heels. This is what the senior female employee was constantly told by her supervisor.

In addition to this, it seems that in some offices, strict regulations are imposed not only on clothing but also on personal appearance, such as mandatory makeup, prohibition of glasses, regulations on hairstyle and hair color, and no lip gloss.

Job-hunting

As typified by the black hitotsume hair, job-hunting activities in Japan are uniform and are often described as impersonal or lacking individuality.

Against this social background, PANTENE conducted a "Survey on Job Hunting" among 1,000 men and women nationwide who had experienced job hunting and found that 81% of job hunters answered that they had "once disguised themselves to fit in with a company.

In response to the results of the survey, Pantene launched the "What 1,000 job hunters really think" project.

Pantene released advertisements and videos summarizing the opinions of 1,000 job hunters.

Through the media and SNS, various discussions were generated about respecting the individuality of job hunters.

当事者 VOICE

• #01 Non-binary lenaaaさん 30代 小説家

I focused on the stories from 当事者 both in doing job hunting and workplace.

First, I looked into the story from non-binary person who was doing job-hunting. They said that the first thing they were confused about in job-hunting was the gender section on résumé. There were only “man” and “woman”, so they had no choice but to add a circle “woman” every time. But as soon as they did that, they felt like they’re disappearing.

• #02 transgender-man 合田さん　26歳　証券会社勤務

Second story was about trans-man. When he tried to start job- hunting, people around him were worrying about which company they would apply for, but the first worry for him was whether to wear a men’s suit or a women’s suit. He had been questioning his gender for many years, and he barely made the decision. In the end, he decided to wear a women’s suit and work as a woman because he didn’t want to fail in the first important job in society. He was afraid that if he shortened his hair, the interviewers would find out. He strongly believed that the hair is literally the way to show their identity, so he decided to have his hair got long and tied to one, which is called “就活ヘア.” I also looked into the voice of a woman who works wearing pumps. She argued that the trouble with wearing them is they’re hurting. Some people, especially those who have never worn pumps, tell you to change them on the way, but why should only women have to go through all those troubles?

These 当事者’s voices means a lot to me and made me recognize how important the rules of clothing when doing job-hunting or at workplace are. Does it really matter to protect the traditions which were made many years ago?

I also came up with those questions.

• How we got to this situation (clothing for both situations).

• Who will be inconvenienced by the rules?

• How many LGBT people experience problems?

• What is the actual voice of the company side?

“就活セクシズム”

According to Buzz Feed News, "Sexism" refers to sexism, and "job-hunting sexism" refers to sexism occurring in job hunting. It refers to the attitude of imposing stereotypes and discrimination based on gender, such as "like a woman," "like a man," and "like XXX."

Social Movement

References

・「就活での性差別、やめてください」大学生やマナー講師が声をあげる理由 (buzzfeed.com)

・パンプスだけじゃないブラック社則。｢NGメイク例は女性タレント｣｢爪は1ミリ以下｣｢黒染め強制｣ | Business Insider Japan

・新たな履歴書の様式例の作成について (mhlw.go.jp)

・LGBTQ+の元就活生のエピソード | パンテーン （Pantene）公式サイト

・#PrideHair | パンテーン （Pantene）公式サイト

・LGBT教材 / 調査報告 | 認定NPO法人 ReBit (rebitlgbt.org)

・ハイヒール強制やめて　「＃ＫｕＴｏｏ運動」世界が共感 [ＫｕＴｏｏ]：朝日新聞デジタル (asahi.com)

・KDDIが社員の服装規定を廃止。｢男性だからスーツ｣の固定観念を見直し | Business Insider Japan