Female Command Officers & the Uniform Code

Tonight while watching "Space Seed", I spotted a woman wearing a command gold miniskirt. While such an outfit may be suitable for younger officers, I wondered: would a command officer with a place in the ship's panel of senior officers wear that? -- or would she wear something more dignified, as suited her position?

 

I see nothing wrong with the miniskirt.

[edit] I am surprised they didn't try to make some sort of catsuit back then for female officers.

 

Oh, it's an admirable uniform, but doesn't seem too becoming for captains and first officers.

 

I don't think they were worried about that.

Pants? I could see a black ankle length dress with the gold uniform top.

[edit] or a black knee length skirt and gold top.

 

Having a 'Pants Only' motiff for Senior Command officers seems exactly like the sort of thing this particular Starfleet would do- then again, it's the same Starfleet that permitted the Miniskirt to begin with, so...

I would imagine it all comes down to Personal Preference, relying on the need to generate a Stable Discipline onboard vessels in order to have as few Captains/XOs and the like baring their legs for all to see.

And I just spent two paragraphs of Hot Bytes when I could've just said 'Personal Preference' and left it at that.

 

She's wearing the division color, but what's her rank? Chekov wore command gold. He was an ensign and not a senior officer. He's not even senior navigator. Hadley and Arex both rank him. This woman's probably in a similar position, an ensign at the bottom of her department, training for an eventual senior posting.

 

"The Cage" and WNMHGB established that (at the time) women wore tunic and pants. And during TOS' 1st season there were a couple of shots where we could see a production era version of the tunic and pants for women. Although we've never seen it I always imagined there was a TOS era tunic and pants uniform available for women as an alternate duty wear and for women of officer o command rank. One could further speculate that there might have also been a Cage era skirt alternate for women even though we never saw it.

Something I cooked up a couple of years ago.






At some point I'd like to do some live-action photomanips to better illustrate my idea for a Cage era dress alternate and a TOS era tunic and pants for women.

 

Well, as pointed out, the miniskirts were an option... not a requirement. Female crew members didn't have to wear it if they didn't want to.

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You mean like Uhura?

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She started out wearing gold and then started wearing red, she is a Lieutenant, and seems to be the head of communications. She can also handle most bridge stations (she has worked communications, library computer and navigation) and has the expertise to do the hardware repairs on them as well.

She always seemed better trained than most of the other regulars, so it is funny that she is often overlooked. Those aspects of her character weren't there by accident.

 

Wow! That dress variant looks stunning, excellent work

 

Agreed. Command appears to be the division concerned with the ship's navigation and weaponry, and includes personnel of all grades. Angela Martine from "Balance of Terror," for example, who seems to be a fairly low-level member of a weapons crew. Being called the the "command" division does seem to place it in a little higher position than the other divisions, though. Perhaps that division is more directly under the captain's control than the others?

--Justin

 

I used to think I'd have a hard time respecting the authority of a command officer in a miniskirt, but after watching the first officer in the fan production Exeter in a miniskirt, I see how it could have worked.

 

Well, it's similar to female bosses who wear skirts (notice I didn't say miniskirts) in the real world....

You still have to respect their authority.

Of course, I would love to hear some accounts of men who tell said female bosses, 'I can't respect you if you're not wearing pants everyday on the job.'

Hmmm.....

 

If a female captain was wearing a miniskirt I would respect her just the same...I really don't see it being a problem.

[edit] The COMMAND ALTERNATE skirt is good.

 

I do not see how the outfit equates to rank or respect.

 

It shouldn't but in the 1960s/1970s, it probably did matter. I think starting in the 1980s up until now, it wouldn't make a difference and I highly doubt anybody would notice/care.

BTW, Warped 9, I really like those sketches you did of the uniforms.

 

As was already pointed out upthread, there were female "pants" uniforms in the TOS-era Starfleet. One thing still nags at me: was Nurse Chapel the only female crewmember seen wearing a worker-jumpsuit in the entire series?

 

What about Uhura (in Who Mourns for Adonais?)?

 

I also think there might have been variants to the miniskirt that we never saw as well, a mid-thigh one, a knee length one, and maybe evan a full length one? Although this last one would probably be a "dress" uniform only?

 

Women weren't allowed to be captains.

Problem solved.

 

I'll agree with you. Case in point, I had a female boss who was rather attractive. I did quite enjoy when she'd wear a rather short skirt, but it never did interfear with me respecting her as my superior.