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Adjusting to a New Houselife

Household Chores

Fred K. Schaefer doing the dishes.

Scattergood also required more relaxed gender roles. In Germany, men had worked for pay and provided for the family, while the women had most often taken care of the household duties.

Scattergood guests were expected to conduct all tasks within the Hostel regardless of gender. Many of the men helped out with the dishes and the laundry, chores they would normally view as feminine. Initially, the men of Scattergood considered it a novelty to do these tasks. As time went on, they would come to think of this as the "Midwestern way of doing things."