What Single-Sex Summer Camp Offers
Whether it’s traditional overnight or day sports camps, an all-girls or all-boys environment can provide strong role models of the same gender who can help increase campers’ confidence. Curriculum and extracurricular activities will be targeted specifically to boys’ or girls’ interests. In same-sex environments, it can make it easier for campers, especially teens, to focus and be more themselves without peer pressure and distractions from the opposite sex. (Click here to search for girls and boys’ camps.)
In certain male-dominated fields such as science and engineering, specialty camps offer programs for girls to help them learn, challenge themselves and build skills and confidence in a supportive and nurturing place. The same is true for all-boys’ camps.
“I think that environment is very conducive to developing strong women,” says Catherine Ross, communications manager of the Canadian Camping Association and author of Our Kids Media’s Preparing for Camp e-book for parents of new campers. “Girls may feel less intimidated if they don’t have guys watching or evaluating them. It pushes them to try things they might not otherwise try and step up to leadership opportunities they may not otherwise tackle. . . . How they look, if their hair is okay, ceases to be relevant.”
At a single-sex camp, girls pitch tents, build fires, carry packs across portages, do rock climbing and other activities stereotypically seen as things girls don’t usually do, says Ross, who was camp director for 20 years of Mi-A-Kon-Da, an all-girls overnight traditional camp in Parry Sound, Ontario.
This kind of camp can be special for children who have mostly been exposed to coed situations inside and outside school.
“It breaks down gender-role stereotypes,” says Dr. Christopher Thurber, a clinical psychologist and camp consultant from New Hampshire. “I think there’s something special about young women being able to see assertive, strong female role models and boys being able to see sensitive, caring men.”
Another advantage of single-sex camp is boys and girls can be their whole selves and gain renewed confidence and empathy, Thurber says. Such camps not only offer positive role models of the same gender, but also reinforce the best parts of being a girl or boy, he says.
What Coed Summer Camp Offers
In a coed world, coed camps help prepare children for the real world as girls and boys have to learn social skills by respectfully interacting with each other and developing friendships, rather than romantic relationships, with the opposite gender. At coed camp, girls and boys can see a positive side of each other: girls as athletes and leaders, and boys as nurturing and expressive individuals, Thurber says.
“What coed camp offers is a positive environment for campers to interact with the opposite gender in an appropriate and positive way,” says Pat Birnie, director of Camp Arrowhead, which offers coed day and overnight programs in the Muskoka area.
Unlike the sexualized images in the media kids are exposed to, Birnie says “camp is more of an innocent environment” where kids wear functional clothes and become like family.
How much girls and boys get to interact with each other varies in coed camps. At some, girls and boys are completely integrated throughout the camp experience except their sleeping and changing quarters. Others have boys and girls together for meals and general programs but separated for some activities. Meanwhile, some single-sex camps have a “sister camp” or a “brother camp” on the same property.
For families with children of only girls or only boys, coed camps can be a chance for them to learn how to be comfortable with the opposite gender. The same is true for students attending same-sex schools. It can also be a matter of convenience for parents with all boys or girls to go to the same single-sex camp, or a boy and a girl to go to the co-ed camp together. On the other hand, some siblings may choose to go to different camps so they could have more independence.
An Important Decision for Both Parents and Children
Is your child active, sporty and adventurous? Or is he or she more the artistic type, a lover of books and nature? Parents don’t choose camps just because they’re a boys or girls camp—there are many factors to consider. (Read more about the types of camps.)
Ultimately, choosing between single-sex and coed camps is not a one-camp-fits-all decision. Experts stress the importance of involving children in the decision.
“It goes back to the parent and child deciding what it is they want,” Ross says. “I think every camp has its own personality. . . . The program, location, the style and philosophy of the director – all can give an idea of the type of camp that’s best for the child.”
Watch for more camp advice from Our Kids Media in our camp series.
Christl Dabu is the editor of camps.ca and Our Kids Go To Camp magazine, produced by Our Kids Media, which provides info and news on camps, private schools, education and parenting through its three magazines and four websites. For more info on camps, contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , or go to camps.ca/2011.
