Men’s buttons are on the right to make it easy to do up with one hand for right-handed people.
When buttons were invented, only the wealthy wore them. Wealthy women had maids who would do the buttons up for them, and so the buttons are on the left so that they are easier for someone facing you to do up.
Old guy here, I know, and it’s a pain. I’m skinny so I sometimes order women’s clothes for the fit. Also have a bunch of hand-me-downs from old girlfriends. Sucks trying to button the girl version.
Same goes for zippers! They’re reversed as well.
Me and my cousin were both skiny af when entering teens, both of us bought these Jean jackets that fit us so well that we don’t remeber buying something that snug before, both of us were very proud of these and wore them all the time until one elder cousin noticed the flipped button side, started making fun of us and to top it off the tag on jackets had a very small 3 font size “for women” under the brand name.
We still get shamed for wearing that by other cousin.
Memories.
Is this to do with being right-handed?
Yes, most men are right handed, and most maids who helped women dress in the past were right handed.
If you think about it, you’ll see how little sense it makes. Back before things like cars, motels, and telephones, having an affair was complicated. You couldn’t just pop over for a quickie. On the other hand, servants were cheap. Even a cop or a school teacher could afford at least one maid.
Your head’s in the right place. A lady was expected to be dressed and undressed by servants. But even a non-aristocratic woman would want to dress the same as the courtly ladies, and not wear men’s clothes so women’s’ shirts got buttons on the left side, regardless of the wearer’s class and the idea just persisted through to the present.
It makes women’s blouses more expensive to dry clean, because they can’t be pressed on the same machine that does men’s shirts without breaking the buttons.
I’ve heard this and wonder why don’t they just change it? Do women prefer it this way now?
It would require changing the entire womens clothing industry, machines would need to be replaced, the entire global workforce would need to be retrained, same for designers, then it would take decades to for women to relearn the technique of doing up buttons on all clothes.
All changes to the design and production processes would cost billions, and annoy their entire customer base, all of that for a relatively minor issue.
You replace the machines when they wear out. If they need to be replaced at all, I doubt they have machines specific for genders. I expect it’s just a setting.
Relearn how to do up their buttons? It would be easier.
I am not saying that relearning to do up buttons is hard, but have you ever tried to relearn a basic skill in a different way, it can be surprisingly annoying.
There’s a lot more demand (or at least much more vocal demand) for women’s clothing to have pockets. You can see how far that’s gotten.
I presume the buttons are just something you get used to.
