Port Hope to re-evaluate summer camp descriptions after parent backlash

Port Hope, Ont., says it is re-evaluating descriptions for its camps after some parents said they believe two city camps reinforce gender stereotypes. 

The 'Just For Girls' and 'Boys Only' summer camps are split by gender and appear in the Port Hope Leisure Guide.

An online description for the city's Just for Girls camp describes it as "fun with the girls with makeup, hairstyling, crafts and special guests," while the Boys Only camp promotes a week of fishing, biking, basketball, sports, guest speakers and gadgets. 

Eilidh Ashmore is the mother of two girls and says she was shocked and saddened to see what she felt was an outdated camp concept.

"It's 2018, and I sort of hoped we were beyond these sort of gender stereotypes," she told CBC Toronto.

The descriptions of the camps were posted to Facebook where people, including Ashmore, responded saying the camps were not inclusive and that the municipality was promoting gender bias.

"It's important in our society to raise our girls in ways that empower and to raise our boys in ways that are empowering, to teach them that they don't have to be who society thinks they should be," she said.

Wording off-putting, city says

Port Hope director of parks, recreation and culture Jim McCormack said the wording was a little off-putting and doesn't accurately describe the camps.

"In retrospect, I think we could have done a better job in the description, and it's certainly something that we're going to re-evaluate," he said.

According to McCormack, there are over 40 different activities, including yoga, storytelling, swimming and dancing, that children could participate in at those specialty camps. He says the Just for Girls camp is not geared toward hair and makeup, but those are some of the many activities offered.

I think we could have done a better job in the description.- Jim McCormack, Port Hope director of parks, recreation and culture

McCormack also says the specialty camps for boys and girls have been operating for several years and some of the specific activities, like hair styling and makeup, are offered due to feedback from parents and campers who want them.

Ashmore says the problem isn't the activities themselves.

"The problem is when you advertise that those sort of activities are only things that girls should be interested in or only boys should be interested in," she added.

McCormack says they will be tweaking their co-ed camps so that those specific activities offered in the specialty camps are available to all and that while they can't list every single activity provided in a few sentences, the camp descriptions will be re-evaluated this fall.

"One of the thoughts that we're looking at is having a link below each descriptor where the parents can go online to our leisure guide, click on it, and it would bring up a whole listing of the types of activities that their children could partake in."