system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: A dress code allowing women to wear dresses, skirts, etc but mandates men must wear khaki dress pants is discrimination.

I work IT at a university. The females in my workplace can wear whatever they want as long as it looks professional. This could be a pantsuit or it could be a sun dress, a skirt, or any other form of dress. 

As a male, I have to wear khaki dress pants. Doesn't matter if it's 100° outside and I have to haul equipment up three of four flights of stairs, all pants, all the time. 

It seems discriminatory to me that I can't wear shorts when it's hot, or that I can't wear jeans when I spend half my time crawling under people's desks. Why is it okay for women to wear whatever they want (within reason) while I am restricted to khakis and a collared shirt?

**Edit:** Big thanks to the one or two of you who decided to use the down vote button as a disagree button. Super productive and definitely helping me to change my view. 

**Edit 2:** Went to bed and this blew up a little bit. Let me clarify some things...

* all 250 people in my building are not techs. Four of us are and we are all male. 

* the *official* dress code for everyone is business casual. In practice though, for men it's khakis and a polo. Ask any of the bosses how a male should interpret it, and you will be told khakis and a polo. Ask one how a female should interpret it and you will find she has many, many more options. 

* on several other parts of campus, there really is no dress code. Many departments and divisions stopped having one in recent years and employees overall seem happier and more productive (surveys have been done to this effect), yet my department in particular still believes you have to dress a certain way to be good at your job. 

* finally, some of you have pointed out that it's *society*, not my place of work, that makes the dress code sexist and/or discriminatory. It doesn't matter what *makes* it discriminatory, what matters is that my workplace is enforcing it. 

I'm going to try to keep up, but it's early morning and I'm recovering from a marrow transplant yesterday and am going home today. Just wanted to thank everybody for a really great conversation, even if it has not changed my view. It *has* impacted my perspective in that I don't think my workplace is intentionally being sexist, but I do still believe the policy being enforced is, by it's nature, sexist. In light of that, I believe the dress code should either be tightened for both sexes equally or eliminated entirely. 

Thanks again, everybody.
gpt
I think the double standard here is more societal than it is specific to your workplace.  The dress code could read "Dress business casual" for both men and women and the overall effect would be exactly the same, because there are a wider range of options available to women when it comes to clothing.  This is true across all styles of dress.

Here's where the flaw is in your argument: women are not allowed to wear any of the clothes that you're not allowed to wear.  They can't wear jeans, shorts, or t-shirts either.  So unless you want to be allowed to wear blouses and skirts or dresses, your point about discrimination is moot.

If you want to argue that the dress code is unrealistic for the kind of work you do, that's a completely separate issue.