Camping and the gender gap

From time to time the topics of Bertha's articles have had something to do with the gender gap—the differences between the sexes—especially in terms of their approach to various activities and problem solving.

I remember writing about the differences in the way men and women orient themselves on this planet. Most men use north, south, east and west. Most women use landmarks.
Then there is the issue of the thermostat. According to my extensive polling data, men turn it down. Women turn it up. Of course, traditional clothing styles contribute to gender temperature disparity. At certain events, men are required to wear suits, some of them consisting of three pieces layered over a shirt or two. Those are the same events at which women wear strapless, sleeveless, backless, and other abbreviated clothing. What is up with that?

Well, those issues are weak when it comes to this one: how did girls and guys get to be so far apart on the proper way of getting in touch with nature? As we make plans for yet another girls' camp experience, I find myself wondering about that once more.
As you know, guys tend not to plan their outdoor experiences. They throw some food and gear into the truck and head for the great outdoors where they seem to feel comfortable wearing wet shoes and sleeping with bears.

Girls, on the other hand, bring along everything required to make the experience not only comfortable but also healthy, enlightening, civilized, educational, worthwhile and memorable. So they need (minimum) the correct food and equipment to cook it, field books, showers, journals, cameras, three changes of clothes per day, shoes to complement all of the above outfits, toilet paper, soap, towels, electronic devices such as cell phones and hair dryers, and table centerpieces.

Once when I conscripted my 18-year-old son into bringing his pickup truck to carry a load of gear home from girls camp, his patient nature was taxed when he had to help me carry many loads of stuff from the campsite to his truck. Even I, a girl, was embarrassed.

“What do girls do with all of this stuff?” he grumbled. I had a hard time explaining it myself.

However, only a girl would leave her hiking boots home and go on a five-mile trail hike in strappy sandals. And only a girl would bring the scallions and leave the matches home.

Camping has been described as something we all did before we discovered houses. And then there are girls like my sister who see absolutely no point in regression, individually or collectively, which attitude may explain the need for girls to make the outdoor experience as much like being at home as possible.

It was probably women tired of camping who invented houses. Then men feeling the need to go far and wide in search of game invented tents, and camping became a recreational sport rather than a way of living. Then someone remembered that the wheel had been invented and put those on little houses and almost everyone was happier.

But when youth groups go camping, they don't go in camp trailers. So we're back to square one. Girls just need more in the out-of-doors to make them happy than boys do.
This little story illustrates my point about the gender gap:

My outdoor-enthusiast son went through the process of bringing three offspring into the world without getting a son of his own. (I know, there is a bit of a gender gap in that whole process as well.) After waiting for about eight years to get a son to take into the wilderness with him, he gave up and invited his oldest daughter.
“Hey Sis. let's you and I go camping and fishing this weekend.”

She had an immediate response.
“Why?”