Seriously, why are the buttons on the left? (Photo: Timur Emek/Getty Images)
If you’ve ever compared a woman’s button-up shirt to a man’s, you’ve probably noticed that the buttons are on the opposite side. But have you ever wondered why?
An age-old theory is that it all has to do with the well-known fact that women can’t dress themselves. I’m kidding, of course (I dress myself nearly every day!), but many moons ago, it was a lot harder for females to get dressed. As LiveScience puts it: “Depending on the era, men might wear waistcoats, pantaloons, gaiters and wool jackets. But women’s clothing was far more elaborate, and could consist of a dozen or more garments including petticoats, bloomers, gowns, corsets and bustles. Thus, especially in middle- and upper-class society, men generally dressed themselves, whereas women did not. Instead, maids and servants might spend an hour or more dressing the lady of the house.”
So, it’s long been thought that women’s buttons were placed on the opposite side to cater to the servants dressing them.
But as Elle recently pointed out, buttons on women’s shirts weren’t introduced until 1860 — hundreds of years after servants were first used in the dressing room.
So is there another reason? Possibly!
According to Cosmopolitan UK, there are several theories that women’s buttons are on the left to make breastfeeding easier.
Or, there’s another plausible (and depressing) theory that might resonate with you.
“In Man and Woman: A Study of Secondary and Tertiary Sexual Characters, 1894, Havelock Ellis writes that the right-to-left buttoning of women’s tops was adopted to make a point that women ‘seem inferior to men’ in ‘strength and in rapidity and precision of movement,’” writes Jess Edwards for Cosmopolitan U.K. “As women began to borrow more of what were originally considered clothes for men, e.g., trousers, shirts, the buttons were placed on a different side to signify a difference between the two.”
Sigh. We prefer the breastfeeding explanation.
This article was taken from Yahoo (July 1, 2016).
https://www.yahoo.com/style/why-are-womens-shirt-buttons-on-the-left-150743135.html
Your comments please.
The reason for this differences in buttons place between men and women returned to Napoleon Bonaparte period. He found that women start to make fun of his stand with his wright hand in his pocket. so, he ordered to put the women buttons in the left to prevent them from imitating his stand.
Regards
Dear Sir
There is no consensus on this, but there are multiple theories, and all these are here
https://www.quora.com/Why-do-mens-shirts-have-the-buttons-on-the-right-but-womens-shirts-have-buttons-on-the-left
The reason for this differences in buttons place between men and women returned to Napoleon Bonaparte period. He found that women start to make fun of his stand with his wright hand in his pocket. so, he ordered to put the women buttons in the left to prevent them from imitating his stand.
Regards
Dears Raid & Miqdam,
I thank both of you on your fruitful answers.
Rafik
Respected Professor Rafik Sir,
Please check these links also.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=11666973
https://in.news.yahoo.com/why-are-womens-shirt-buttons-on-the-left-150743135.html
Kind Regards,
Dr. Arvind Singh
Dear Prof. Rafik,
Very interesting fact, but perhaps to know who was initially invented that difference will provide the answer to your question. It could be the initial idea as simple as this: the inventor wanted his wife not to mistakenly take his shirt (may be during the time men and women shirt were quite similar...hehe...)
It's not easy to answer this question... :-)
women are naturally left hand inclined.
so that there is no interchange between the two
Let me make a comparison to driving on the left side in England and a few other countries. In ancient England, they had the horse carriages keep on the left side of a road. When a man and a woman are walking in the opposite direction, the man is to the left of the woman and hence closer to the horse carriage approaching. This was done purposefully so that should the horse carriage kick up any debris (such as a horse's waste products) then the man is on the side to protect the woman from the dirty mess. The second reason attributed to vehicles riding on the left side of the road (and horse carriages) was the notion that the man carried his sword in his right hand and therefore the right hand has to be free leading to traffic in general keeping to the left side of the road.
I am thinking this may have some relevance to the shirt button difference between men and women or may be I am totally off base.
https://www.quora.com/Why-do-mens-shirts-have-the-buttons-on-the-right-but-womens-shirts-have-buttons-on-the-left
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Linguistics
- Composition Studies
- Writing