Is it a sin for women to wear pants?

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Theresalux

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Last night I was doing some digging and looking into some VERY traditional Catholic societies, and I was surprised to find out that many of them hold the belief that women wearing pants is a sin! Is there any Church teaching on this?
 
any Church teaching on this now? or ever?

wearing pants as in dominating the relationship?
 
As in literal pants.

Just all seemed very strange to me. Like even baggy pants…
 
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I attend a very traditional Latin Mass Catholic Church managed by ICKSP, and the priest there has a dress code, which he posts in every parish bulletin. Women at my parish are encouraged (though not required) to wear long dresses and skirts to Mass, and all of them do out of respect. It may be because pants on women can be seen as masculine and immodest.
 
As in wearing slacks or if you’re in the UK, wearing trousers.

Nothing about relationships.
 
Catholics that preach this idea honestly are trying their best to kill the church

It’s overly strict and assumes way too much of the woman

If she’s wearing Jeans I seriously doubt her intention is to be revealing

I get the whole dresses idea but not everyone can do that

If you’re a Catholic that believes this
It’s not a sin
Stop trying to kill our faith
 
I used to think it was sinful, but after some more research, I would say no. St. Gianna Molla wore pants on occasion, as did Servant of God, Maria Esperanza, a mystic.

However, I do think wearing dresses and skirts do add a touch of femininity. But it’s not sinful to wear pants (as long as they aren’t short shorts or tight yoga pants out of context).
 
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Yes, something like that would be just fine. 🙂

Most of the parishioners at my church are actually young people in their 20s and 30s, and the married couples have large families!

The traditional parish communities reinforce God created man and women equal, but different! We are encouraged to embrace what makes us different, and this means embracing our masculinity and femininity. I for one am glad to see this.

Our secular world is increasingly becoming amore and more androgynous. You could also say many youth are rebelling against this secular teaching by being very traditional and conservative.
 
Coming from an Asian background there are traditional women’s clothing that consists of pants or slacks. The Vietnamese ao dai and the Pakistani salwar khameez come to mind. Vietnam and Pakistan aren’t exactly hotbeds of feminism but the women wear slacks.

No reason why all Catholic women must dress like European women from past ages.
 
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Sarcelle said:
I sometimes wear this when in church. Is it okay for your church?
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Reminds me of when I lived in Hawaii…Aloha Shirt and flip-flops (AKA the “Hawaiian Tuxedo”) was the cultural and social norm for everything from Weddings to Funerals, business meetings and sales calls…and Church.

Although, upon return to the mainland, I did get a few odd looks, as I didn’t think through social and regional acceptability.
 
I think it’s interesting. Modesty threads appear on CAF often. That’s really what this is, but with just SUCH an antiquated notion of modesty. If back in the day wearing tight fitting pants really got guys all cranked up, then it would be charitable not to wear them. But notions of modesty change.
 
There was a time, back in the nineteenth or even the early twentieth century, when pants were deemed “immodest” for women, either by the Church or by society at large, or both. The people posting on the websites you’re looking at have probably unearthed some dire warning by a bishop or a cardinal, dating back to the pontificate of Pius IX or Gregory XVI.
 
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Some Catholics, especially in the blogosphere, think they can do a better job of defining sin better than the Magisterium. Unfortunately they happen to be more vocal than the rest.

It’s a minefield out there and any Catholic who is just beginning to learn their faith should be mindful of this.

I spend several years feeling like I was living in sin because according to some Catholics in the blogosphere, if you weren’t a stay at home housewife or a nun, you were living in sin. Also some of them also think that a woman who was financially independent and not relying on a man, either husband or father, for financial support, was living in sin. Extra sin points if a woman had a university degree.
 
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