House Speaker Paul Ryan is now open to modernizing the Dress Code of Congress because of pressure from social media and female House Democrats. After a lot of comments about the ban on the sleeveless dress for women were tweeted and posted on blogs, Ryan said he spoke to the sergeant at arms about the dress code, Associated Press reported.

On Friday, California Democratic Rep. jackie speier led a protest of other Democratic congresswomen. They wore sleeveless clothes and posed for photos to show solidarity with female reporters who were not allowed to enter the House lobby because they wore sleeveless dress.

Right to bare arms

The Friday protest, called “Sleeveless Friday,” is the female representatives’ way of telling the House leadership that they have the right to bare arms, particularly now that it is summer. The congresswomen, numbering about two dozen, had their photos taken on the steps of East Capitol to send their message across.

Speier said she found the House dress code had been enforced selectively. She added it was not fair to female reporters. Male reporters not wearing a necktie and coat are also barred at the Speaker’s lobby, Mashable reported.

In response to a tweet from Antonio Manriquez why men do not join the protest, Speier tweeted they did.

Time for Congress to follow Silicon Valley and banks

Outside Congress, the corporate world had responded to a push from younger workers, particularly millennials, for less formal office attire.

In June, Goldman Sachs allowed a relaxed dress code for its computer engineers who comprise about one-third of the bank’s 33,000 employees. JPMorgan Chase allowed in 2016 its 237,000 employees to wear business casual attire on most occasions. Since 2013, Barclays had allowed its staff to wear casual attire on Fridays.

Casual attire, such as jeans, sneakers, and hoodies are the preferred work clothes of many employees, especially those working in Silicon Valley companies.

It helps that besides the work environment in tech giants, such as Alphabet and Facebook, more relaxed than traditional companies, some of the tech industry captains are into casual clothing most of the time. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is often in gray t-shirt and jeans, while the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ daily attire is the black turtle neck shirt.

Speier’s initiative got the thumbs up from netizens. Chellie Pingree tweeted that it is 2017 with women voting and holding office, females have a right to choose their own style, while it is time to update the House rules to reflect the times. Rep. Roybal-Allard agreed that it is 2017, not 1817. Nemesis Resist reminded Ryan that even the female statue on the left side of the U.S.

Capitol East Central front entrance, named Peace, is sleeveless too.
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