A six-year-old girl has shown her Melbourne school who wears the pants by winning the right to ditch her winter dress.
Grade one student Asha Cariss and her mother, Simone Cariss, launched an online petition after the student's request to wear pants instead of a tunic and stockings was rejected.
"I feel like they should at least have a choice of pants and shorts, and they don't," Ms Cariss told 3AW on Monday morning.
Ms Cariss said Asha liked playing sport but the winter dress and stockings inhibited her.
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Anne Doherty, the principal of Our Lady of the Nativity in Aberfeldie, said it hadn't been a blanket "no", but there had been a miscommunication.
"I've apologised to Simone for that, there was a bit of email communication, she sent me some links about gender issues and school uniform and I've read those," Ms Doherty told AAP.
"I've started a process at looking at the uniform and inviting people onto the committee (to review the uniform).
"Things were happening but it may not have appeared that way."
Asha is allowed to wear her pants and the school uniform is being reviewed.
Catholic Education Melbourne executive director Stephen Elder says uniform decisions are made by individual schools.
"This autonomy is one of the core components to making Catholic education great, providing our schools with the freedom and flexibility to act in the best interests of their students and families," he said.
Australian Womensport and Recreation Association president Carol Fox said by the time girls reach their teenage years they are already less active than their male peers, so schools should change out-of-date uniform policies.
"AWRA believes girls should at the very least have the choice to wear a uniform which does not inhibit them physically," Ms Fox said.
Education Minister James Merlino earlier called on Catholic Education to step in.
"It's 2016 and I would expect all students should be able to wear pants if they like," he told 3AW.
