Through the early 20th century, America saw the rise of the new “modern” woman. One who spoke up, who wanted her voice heard, who was growing in independence and strength, and who was challenging the ideals that had been taught for centuries. Naturally, this change in the world, like any, raised fears, especially from middle-class parents. So, youth organizations were formed as a method of control and protection of the youth. One example is that of summer camps, a way for children to reconnect with nature, create relationships with one another, and develop leadership skills. Summer camps for girls were a haven for parents to send their girls to restore a homemaking mindset and grow into patriotic pioneering women. Yet, the opportunity fell short for most lower-class and racially diverse families.
New Roles and Community for Women
Another important piece to summer camp was the aspect of leadership and role models. Adolescence is a time of learning from observation and understanding one’s own potential through viewing the older individuals surrounding oneself. For many girls in the early 20th century, the older women in their lives were their mothers and occasionally teachers, offering only a limited view of their potential careers and abilities. However, opportunities were developing, and their time became considered “one of the first generations of competitive female athletes,” women went to the Olympics, and their games and events were featured in media (Thiel-Stern, 2014, pp. 68). As women fought hard to be seen and represented in all fields, new, untraditional avenues became available to the young girls who looked up to them. At camps, their counselors and directors were strong women and to upper-class “daughters of ministers, doctors, or businessmen,” the role of camp director “offered attainable glamour” (Miranda, 1991, pp. 58). The market of career options was growing into positions that went beyond just care giving and teaching and dove into the administrative and directorial fields, where women were only just beginning to dip their toes into. The variety of ages at summer camp gave girls markers to achieve and a coming-of-age experience to strive for through watching those just a couple of years older than themselves. They admired those older than them and aspired to reach the milestones that lay ahead because “to be a senior or counselor was to exist on another plane altogether” (Paris, 2001, pp. 65). Not only did they represent what one’s future could look like, but they served as an older sister like figure that could provide confidence and privacy in conversations surrounding more taboo topics such as menstruation or romantic feelings.
Minority Opportunities
The preservation of the pioneer woman and middle-class childhood at camps was further compounded by fears and discomfort surrounding growing immigrant populations. Miller describes this movement and phenomenon as “native white Americans recalling a mythic national heritage rooted in Jeffersonian yeoman farmers and fearless wilderness scout” (Miller, 2001, 157). Despite immigrant populations being made up of a range of cultures and ethnicities, Camp Fire Girls programming looked at immigrant children as white and “trained them and their families to adopt the white, middle-class gender system” (Helgren, 2022, pp. 2). Summer camp for non-white children was just another form of assimilation into an idealized image that could be seen at varying levels in the playground movement and Indian boarding schools as well. When it came to young girls of color, they “had far fewer camping opportunities than did white children of any ethnic group” (Paris, 2001, pp. 58). When integration did begin around the 1940s, African American Scouts “attended day camps with white girls, but almost none attended integrated overnight camps, communal spaces of greater intimacy” (Paris, 2001, pp. 59). As with most civil rights advancements, the integration of girl’s camps was a slow process that required baby steps in order to overcome the discrimination that plagued the country. In terms of socio-economic status, many summer camps were expensive and elite but some programs such as Life Camps or even the Girl Scouts were aimed at middle- and lower-class citizens. Yet, it’s important to note that despite this “the leaders remained women from elite family backgrounds” (Miranda, 1991, pp. 49). It would be hard for directors and leaders to cultivate a space of understanding and growth for children with whom they had no idea how to empathize with and relate to.