Are Pants Kli Gever?

Tur Yoreh Deah 182

A woman should not wear garments unique to a man in accordance with local custom…

Responsa of Rashba V 121

For Rav Sherira and his son Rav Hai…There is a distinction among women’s ornaments, between times and places. There is also a distinction among different garments. For thus they practiced here, that clothes of linen and clothes of cotton, men don’t wear them dyed. But clothes of silk and clothes of fine wool, men wear them dyed, in all kinds of colors. Therefore, it is permissible for them to wear these, in accordance with the custom of time and place. And if there were a time or a place where they are not accustomed to these either, these would be prohibited to them. And thus, for here there is a custom of women’s clothing and of men’s clothing, and in other places a different custom, its whole prohibition is in accordance with its custom, and the permission is in accordance with its custom. For what is a man’s or a woman’s garment is only defined for us in accordance with the customs regarding [the garments], in those years…In Arabia there are those who are descended from Ishmael and Yaktan whose custom is thus: that the man who removes his armpit and pubic hair, they see him as weak as women. And [Jewish] men of these places now, it is prohibited for them to remove their armpit and pubic hair…

Responsa Rashba IV:90

…For the Torah did not say, you shall not remove armpit or pubic hair, but rather in general cautioned us against everything that is the manner of women. And that is what is written in a general way: A man shall not wear a woman’s garment. And if so, these matters are divided by lands and times. Every time and every place that it is the manner of women to do thus, men are prohibited there. And every place where it is the manner of both men and women, it is permissible. For it isn’t exclusive to women in that place or time, and I don’t call it a woman’s garment. And this matter is not clear in my eyes, because of that young Torah scholar (Nazir 59a):…The entire people except for the [pious] individuals would remove their armpit hair, and even so, Torah scholars [exemplified by a young scholar] had the custom to treat it as a prohibition. And for what reason? For behold, it was not a woman’s garment in their generation, and hadn’t it returned to being a man’s garment? Rather, any matter that is fitting for women and not for men, and the women do thus, it is prohibited to men because of “a woman’s garment.” And one who has become accustomed to a prohibited matter, and is drawn into it, and the masses are drawn into it, the prohibition does not become permissible. For if so, a person would persist in sinning, and [pious] individuals are more careful with this.

Responsa Minchat Yitzchak II 108

Really they [women’s trousers] are fully keli gever, for they are still called “trousers,” even though they are a little different…

Responsa Yabia Omer VI YD 14

Since the matter of women wearing trousers has spread nowadays to many places, there is no issue of keli gever, since in any case it is not designated specifically for men. Even more so since there is a recognizable distinction between women’s and men’s trousers.

Ohalei Ya'akov Maharikash 71

When we look closely at the words of the halachic authorities, one knows clearly that a woman is only prohibited in an item where the form of that garment is exclusive for men, and a man is only prohibited in an item where the form of that garment is exclusive to women. But a garment whose form is the same for men and women is permitted to all, and we are not at all concerned about for whom it was made …And this is the language of Rambam…He said “a woman should not adorn herself in men’s adornments and a man should not adorn himself in women’s adornments” and to imply that we follow whose it is. He also made the matter contingent on the region, which implies that we are not concerned for whom the item was made, and it is permitted to a man and to a woman even if it was made for one of them…

Ibn Ezra, Sefer Yesod Mora 9

“A man’s article should not be and neither shall a man wear…” [These are] the opposite of God’s work…

Sefer Ha-mitzvot of Rambam, Negative Commandment 40

Know that this action, that is to say women being adorned with men’s adornments or men with women’s adornments, is sometimes done to arouse the nature to licentiousness as is well known among those who are promiscuous, and sometimes it is done for heretics as idolatrous service…

Netziv, Ha'amek Davar, Devarim 22:5

The verse warns about… changing nature, that a male article, i.e., a weapon, which in the nature of a woman she should not gird herself with a sword, if she does not train herself in it for some stretch of days, and if so it is a preparation so that later she can change her clothing and go among the men, and naturally so too is the opposite, that a man is warned not to become accustomed to the nature of women to beautify themselves and the like, in order that he easily be able to change into women’s clothing.

Bayit Chadash YD 182

…It may be permitted in two ways. One is that there is no prohibition even of an item that is for beautification and decoration unless the woman wears men’s clothing to resemble a man…but if they wear [it] in order to protect against the sun in the sunny season and rain in the rainy season, there is no prohibition in that case…The second, that even to resemble [men] is prohibited only for items that are made for beautification and decoration…And thus wrote Rambam, “A woman should not adorn herself in male adornments”…But Rav Eliezer of Metz in Yere’im 96 (385/6)…implies that it is prohibited for all clothing that is distinct between man and woman – and this is certainly impossible…Rather, the Rav [Yereim] relied on that which he wrote at first [absent from our versions of Yere’im], that [specifically] matters that are adornments and beautification and beauty for the woman, such as removing hair from the underarm and pubic area, that is what is prohibited, and about this he said: “therefore a man should be careful that he not groom himself with feminine grooming…”

Tzitz Eliezer 11:62

…Really [it is a case of] “jingling with their legs” [to attract attention, cf. Yeshayahu3:16] with a noticeable split of the legs [pisuk raglayim] and with the emphasis of the figure of their bodily structure, God forbid…For wearing trousers like these is in and of itself ‘ervat davar,’ a matter of erva.

Benei Banim I Article 1:38 (Rabbi Yehuda Henkin)

I asked him [Rav Yosef Eliyahu Henkin] if it is permissible for a woman to wear trousers. He responded to me that if the trousers are loose and do not cling to the body, he does not see any prohibition in that. On the contrary, it can have [a quality of] tzeniut. But if they are tight and cling to the body one should not wear them.

Si'ach Nachum 109 (Rav Nahum Rabinovitch)

Therefore, women’s trousers that are modest, if the matter is accepted in the community in which you live, are permissible. Regarding a tunic over trousers, if it covers most of the thigh (the area between the pelvis and the knee), then the legs are covered, and the upper part of the leg is also covered as with a skirt, and this is modest dress…However, if you go to a place where this is not accepted, as when you travel to visit a community where women do not go about thus, it is fitting to respect the manner of dress in that place…In matters of clothing, there are matters that are halachot, and there are matters that are customs that are set by social mores of that time and place…In all matters of tzeniut of clothing, a person should not have his path depend only on the technicalities of the law, but rather it is fitting to respect local customs of the society of those who observe Torah and mitzvot with which one wishes to affiliate.