The lifestyles of American families were changing in the early 20th century and this created an environment that fostered new thoughts on gender roles and examples of how one should conduct themselves in certain atmospheres. In Door County, Wisconsin the youth camps of this era were challenging the gender roles yet still in the context of the summer camp as a temporary situation.
The children that attended summer camps were exposed to these more fluid gender roles and gained experiences towards gender neutrality unlike their peer counterparts. Those who study gender relations have looked at how in the workforce or in school settings gender has impacted some but looking at summer camps is a much newer concept. The questioning of how summer camps demonstrated male and female roles is explored through the physical space, curriculums, as well as the psychology that was a part of creating the camps. Initially summer camps had a very militaristic style but as we go further through the 20th century that changes to a focus on greater relaxation which is why focusing on a camp in Door County which was already a tourist economy has value. Summer camps are also a key focus because as far as social institutions are concerned, only public schools have touched the lives of more youth.
Door County, Wisconsin encompasses roughly 490 square miles of what most consider the ‘thumb’ of Wisconsin. The peninsula county juts out between the waters of Green Bay and Lake Michigan and has over 300 miles of shoreline, multiple parks and beaches, and plenty of local businesses to attract people as a desirable vacation destination. This area has been crucial to Wisconsin’s tourism industry but it has also had quieter impacts, and often over looked impacts, on the societal roles regarding gender.
The main camp in Door County, Wisconsin was called Camp Meenagha. It was located within Peninsula State Park in the northern part of the county. This was a girl’s camp that lasted for eight weeks each summer and gave many women their first experience of life outside their homes and without their parents. Camp Meenagha ran from 1916 to 1948 in large part due to its founder, a wealthy widow from St. Louis, Ann Orr Clark. Fees were expensive, which meant the campers were from the upper economic classes.
One main feature of camps that can be used to explore this gender neutrality is the architectural spaces such as the dining lodges. These buildings were usually long and narrow dining rooms with a kitchen that was in a perpendicular wing that allowed it to be less noticeable to campers and even at girls camps the cooking was not a part of the camp experience.
The dinning methods also changed from army style or male centered, where there was one long table and campers sat across from each other while dining to small round tables that served meals family style which is a more feminine and in home concept. The collective moves of camps all across America during this time show how when at camp women were no longer only participating in women’s activities but able to participate in sports that were generally off limits to them outside of this environment. Summer camps were not only a place where women took on different gender roles but males also had to participate in activities that they may not outside of the camp such as setting a table or serving a meal.
In analyzing these things we can see how it fostered a mentality of equality between the genders. For young children, especially males, to witness their counterpart participating in the same activities as themselves and for the males to be doing chores once designated to women was monumental in the physiological development of the children that would grow up to make policy changes that would liberate women to a level never seen before.
Wisconsin Rediscovered 