On May 2鈥攖wo days after I got to tell the story of the Girl Rangers, the first听all-female Boy Scout troop from the 1970s鈥攖he Boy Scouts of America announced that it will drop the male modifier from its name next year and become, simply, Scouts BSA. Quite predictably, this re-ignited the same 听 over听whether boys and girls belong in the same scout troop. Here's one representative tweet in response to a story we ran after the news:
But co-ed Scouting is already a settled issue. For decades, European Scouts have allowed both boys and girls to be members. The Canadian Boy Scouts changed their name to Scouts Canada in 1976 and embraced听full gender-neutral policies听16 years later. In the U.S., senior BSA programs (such as the Explorers) opened their doors to women in 1970, while boys and girls as young as 13 have been unofficially camping with each other as Scouts for nearly 50 years in various local troops. A few months ago, Cub Scouts began welcoming girls ages six to ten听as Early Adopters. The newly named Scouts BSA will admit girls 11 to 17 next year.
What often gets lost in the flare-ups over co-ed Scouting is that these groups will still often be divided along gender lines. Local BSA branches will be free to create boy- and girl-only troops.听(The national BSA organization has always given its local charters plenty of autonomy to run their groups as the communities see fit.) Soon it will be possible for a whole family to join the Scouts鈥攎om and dad as leaders, son and daughter as members. That works for lots of modern-day families who are trying to squeeze in soccer games, piano lessons, and play practice, and need to streamline their travel and extracurricular activities.
While the BSA has struggled to define its role in the 21st century, the Girl Scouts have had a consistent message.
This is an overwhelmingly positive step forward for the BSA. Young women in this country should听have the same Scouting opportunities as young men. Not every community has a Girl Scout program with high-adventure opportunities鈥攚ithout access to the Boy Scouts, young women often can鈥檛 get formal experience climbing mountains, paddling rivers, riding horses, or the like. Young women should be able to听apply to college as an Eagle Scout, as thousands of boys do each year.
Of course,听that doesn鈥檛 mean co-ed Scouting is right for everyone. It certainly wasn鈥檛 what I wanted at age 14 when I and dozens of other girls in Spartanburg, South Carolina, put on our makeshift Boy Scout uniforms and showed up for weekly meetings at the local Episcopal Church as part of the first wave of female Explorer Scouts. We didn鈥檛 join for the badges and ceremonies. We joined it for adventure. We stayed for the sisterhood. Had there been boys in my Rangers troop, I never would have joined.
That鈥檚 what gives me hope for the Girl Scouts of America, which is rightfully squirming over the BSA鈥檚 name change. In response to the BSA announcement, the Girls Scouts fired back with a tweet on May 3:听
While the BSA has struggled to define its role in the 21st century鈥攂adly stumbling through skirmishes over policies that were hostile toward听atheism and homosexuality,听and confronting allegations of sexual abuse by troop leaders鈥攖he Girl Scouts have had a consistent message. Their program, they say, 鈥渋s a free space for girls to learn and thrive.鈥 听
There are thousands of girls like me who flourish in an all-female environment. Women鈥檚 colleges have been proclaiming the benefits of single-sex programs for decades, and most of their graduates agree. Some young women are more comfortable taking leadership roles without the presence of men.
Ultimately, I鈥檇 like to see both organizations thrive鈥攁nd get along. Yet both are confronted with precipitous declines in membership; each has lost roughly a million members since 2000. Boy Scouts is down to 2.3 million members; Girl Scouts is at 1.8 million. The BSA has made a series of tactical adjustments, including this latest one, to stay relevant in the 21st century. The Girl Scouts will now have to do the same.
As with single-gender colleges, Girl Scouts has a huge challenge ahead of it as more parents take the easy route and enroll their children in one program鈥擲couts BSA鈥攊nstead of two separate ones. Roughly 3,000 girls so far have joined the BSA鈥檚 Early Adopter Cub Scout program and will officially become BSA members this summer, according to the BSA.
Perhaps the future for Girl Scouts may be found in more focused听groups, like my high-adventure Girl Rangers, or the of Oakland, California, a Brownie-like social justice troop built on 鈥渇ierce sisterhood.鈥 Each of those groups have operated outside the Girls Scout model and burned brightly.听
My money鈥檚 on Girl Scouts' survival. But really, so long as girls and young women get equal opportunities for adventure, I'm in.听