Legislative Dress Makes the News in California

by Karl Kurtz

From the Sacramento Bee:

Bad news for bare shoulders.

While mercury soared to triple digits Wednesday, Assembly sergeants-at-arms began notifying women that a new policy requires them to wear a coat or sweater to enter the chamber.

The new policy is squishy, unwritten and still developing, but the goal is to fill in the gaps of a longstanding rule requiring visitors, credentialed media and legislative aides to wear "appropriate business attire" on the Assembly floor.

"This is the chamber of the Assembly, this isn't a barn," said Ronald Pane, Assembly sergeant-at-arms.

For years, Assembly guards had not rigidly enforced the "business attire" rule, but Majority Leader Charles Calderon, D-Whittier, recently began a push to spruce up decorum in the 80-member lower house.

A recent memo by Calderon, Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez and other Democratic and Republican leaders specified that appropriate attire for men is a coat and tie.

No specifics were given for women – until Wednesday.

Pane said appropriate business attire for women should mirror that of elected assemblywomen, which he characterized as basically including a coat or sweater, with some discretion for alternative business wear....

Tony Beard,  Senate sergeant-at-arms, said the upper house also has a "business attire" rule. It requires men to wear a coat and tie, but does not specify what women must wear, he said.

Assemblywoman Lori Saldana pointed out that short sleeves, cap sleeves and scoop necks have become the norm in women's professional attire trends. The San Diego Democrat said female lawmakers already conform to an unwritten agreement to avoid sleeveless dresses and tops.

"I'm old enough to remember when I had to wear a dress to school," Saldana said, "so when I heard this could be happening again my response was, 'Do we have to break out the burqas?' "...

This story made me wonder about how other states handle dress codes. As usual, my intrepid colleague Brenda Erickson has the answer. She did a survey of state legislative dress codes in 2006. About a third of the chambers had something in the formal rules at that time about dress. Most of the others said that they don't have formal rules but that there are traditions or informal guidelines about dress that prevail.

Both the formal and informal rules are similar to California's, usually specifying coats and ties for men. Guidelines for women tended to be more vague, saying something about "business attire." Georgia's rules referred to "dignified dress for female members." Missouri's rules were more specific: "Proper attire for women shall be dresses or skirts or slacks worn with a blazer or sweater and appropriate dress shoes/boots." Ohio House traditions agreed with the new guidelines in California that sleeveless outfits for women are not appropriate.

Most of the rules for members apply to staff or others who have the privilege of the floor with exceptions often granted to photographers, cameramen and maintenance personnel. Oregon Senate staff dress code policies specified a uniform blazer, white shirt or blouse, khaki pants or skirt and blue and gold striped tie for all "floor personnel."

Photo credit: Hector Amezcua in the Sacramento Bee

Comments

[Joshloftin]

In 2007, when I was a legislative reporter a Salt Lake City daily, the Utah House enacted a rule that all credentialed media had to wear "business attire," in particular no jeans, to come onto the floor. It was primarily in response to cameramen coming onto the floor in their typically cameramen wear: jeans or shorts and t-shirts.

I don't think the rule lasted very long. Personally, I responded by wearing jeans every day and growing my beard as long and hair as shaggy as possible during the remaining 30+ days of the session, and never got hassled by the S-A-A. Most other media people, many of which already dressed professionally but did wear jeans some of the time, basically ignored the rule, as well.

[Karl Kurtz]

Josh, I've never quite understood why it's such a badge of honor for cameramen and photographers to look as scruffy as possible. The more formal the setting, the more insistent they seem to be to look out of place.

Speaking of Utah legislative dress, I remember visiting the Senate floor one Friday 10 years or so ago and noticing that virtually all of the male senators were wearing camel hair sport coats. When I asked Lane Beatty, the Senate president at the time, about it, he laughed and said that that the members had established a camel hair Friday tradition.