Why do men's pants have a right-hand zipper and women's pants have a left-hand zipper?

Because buttons are the same way.
Maybe so it’s easier to unzip each others’ clothes?

Because that’s how buttons are found on garments. My understanding is that at one time well-to-do ladies were dressed by their handmaidens, more so than men of means who often dressed themselves. Of course I could be wrong.
Nah.

@jaytkay – It would make it easier for a right-handed person to undress the person wearing the lady pants, but again, awkward for the man pants.

@AstroChuck – Hrmmm. But did ladies have handmaidens still when zipper pants became popular/acceptable for women to wear?

@MissAnthrope- I imagine that’s just a carryover from buttons and ties.

i would like to have a man handmaiden (haha) unbutton my buttons.

Perhaps it’s so you can differentiate different pairs of pants when they appear unisex. I find the alternative zippers to be handy when shopping at consignment stores and such.

So you can tell the sexes apart?

Because the genitals between the legs make it difficult for us to use one zipper – do you want all the world to be one big androgynous blob? (lol, that’s what people throw at me when I talk about gender norms).

Men’s pants have right-handed zippers because most men are right handed.

Women’s pants have left-handed zippers because most men are right handed.

@filmfann So we don’t want to get in your pants too?

My understanding is they were the same until the middleages. Then they switched mens garments because their swords would get caught in the fly when they tried to draw them. And when you were in the middle of a fight you didn’t get the chance to call time out.

@janbb Of course you do, but as I have said before, I am married.

Aw shucks!

@WestRiverrat That is more or less what I was going to say. Good call.

@AstroChuck is right, this is exactly the reason. Women’s clothing had the buttons backwards because they got dressed by their servants and not themselves, and this got carried on to modern blouses, jackets, zippers and so on. Now it’s just a tradition, and also a way to denote that a garment is meant for women, but the original reason was indeed social.

So who dressed the servant maids?

@AstroChuck is right. Although I like the idea my favorite poet Rieves has, this is a line that I love in one of his poems,

“And I like your theory
that men and women’s shirts button on opposite sides
so that couples can get dressed facing each other
after making love.”

hmm.. we learn new things everyday!!

and i actually never realized that!! When did all of you?

@WestRiverrat My understanding is they were the same until the middleages.

Women wearing pants in the middle ages? Zippers in the middle ages?

Forgetting about zippers, if a woman wore pants in the middle ages she would probably be executed as a heretic. The Bible demands that women do not wear clothing “pertaining to men.”

their swords would get caught in the fly when they tried to draw them

How do you think a sword is drawn? It is not at “fly” level, it is well above. They are worn on the waist with the hilt higher still.

It’s just the traditional way clothing is made. The same is true with the buttons/holes on shirts/blouses.

i’d bet a tailor would know why

Most people are right handed and that is a fact. Men dress themselves, therefore men’s garments have right handed buttons and zippers. Women, historically would be dressed by maids, and therefore they have left-handed buttons and zippers since what is left-handed for you is right-handed for someone facing you.

Source: Henry Petroski’s book, The Evolution of Useful Things.

If you’ve always worn women’s clothes, men’s buttons and zippers are still easier to use because they are “right-handed”?

Is that true?

@all – Interesting and informative discussion. Thank you. :)

It makes me a little grumbly about wearing women’s clothes, mainly because I’m used to doing everything right-handed.

Agree with the ‘women dressed by servants’ reason. As a side note, I wear a lot of male clothing, too, and I don’t really even notice the difference anymore.

Zipper gene on the Y chromosome?

It was not the zipper that got in the way of the sword. It was the wrap, ie think of skirt. When they wrapped the right over left and drew the sword, the skirt would fly open exposing one self. A right hand person had the sword mounted on his left.

@rich99 Nice answer! Welcome to Fluther. Lurve!

LOLL!! I had this same question in my mind today, so I Googled it. Something came up…something….“OH CRAP! IT’S ASTROCHUCK!” Then I saw Miss Anthrope, and I saw Janbb and Gailcalled…. :) That was cool.

@Dutchess_III – Wow! Me too!

Zip, zip