She-She-She Camps

The She-She-She Camps were organized by Eleanor Roosevelt (ER) in the US in response to the formation of the Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) programs designed for unemployed men. ER found that the men-only focus of the CCC program left out young women who were willing to work in conservation and forestry and to sign up for the 6 month programs living away from family and close support. She lobbied for a sister organization to the CCC that would be for young women. Eleanor Roosevelt proposed that this would consist of camps for jobless women and residential worker schools. The She-She-She camps were funded by presidential order in 1933. Labor Secretary and Cabinet Member Frances Perkins championed one such camp after ER held a White House Conference for Unemployed Women on April 30, 1934, and subsequently ER's concept of a nationwide jobless women's camp was achieved. While the public largely supported the New Deal programs and the CCC was a huge success, employing a quarter of a million young men annually until the program transitioned into and onto military bases at the advent of World War II to build the infrastructure needed for the drafted troops, the women's version barely topped 5,000 women annually by 1936 and overall served 8,500 as a result of ER's support.

President Franklin Roosevelt valued the CCC because it was fueled both by his passion for rural life and the philosophy of William James. James deemed this sort of program the “moral equivalency of war”. Although administered by US Army officers, the camps were designed not to be militaristic since the Administration did not want any resemblance to the “Hitler Youth” of Germany. These “tree armies” kept the young male population occupied and engaged with conservation, fighting wildland fires, building dams and creating man-made lakes. Much of the state's parkland was improved even before the National Parks but, “what about the women?” asked Eleanor Roosevelt.

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