Girls don’t need Boy Scouts
In the latest of high-profile moves to open up its membership, the Boy Scouts of America announced this week that it would allow girls and young women to participate in more of its programming. Many see this as a big step forward for girls; another wall keeping young women from certain opportunities has fallen. And for some young women, the chance to participate in Boy Scouting programs will give them a chance to pursue their goals in exciting ways. But the new policy isn’t a straightforward win for girls.
Initial reports on the Boy Scouts’ policy indicate that small groups for young members (known in the Boy Scouts as Cub Scout dens) will continue to be single gender, so girls will still have access to leadership opportunities in a single-gender environment. But there’s a difference between being in a girl-led group within a larger entity whose entire history and mission has been about serving boys and being part of an organization like the Girl Scouts whose central focus has always been on building “girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place.”
It’s not just that opening up the Boy Scouts to girls has the potential to move girls out of a girl-led, girl-centered organization. Even for girls who aren’t currently participating in Girl Scouts, the move sends a troubling message: You can do more as a girl in a boys’ organization than you can as a girl in a girls’ organization.
Achieving Eagle Scout status is a significant accomplishment, and the young men who earn it deserve the respect they get. And yes, the Eagle Scout rank is far more familiar to many Americans than the Gold Award. Indeed, I’ve spent the last 15 years explaining my Girl Scout Gold Award to friends, colleagues and prospective employers as the “Girl Scout version” of the Eagle Scout rank. But the solution to that imbalance shouldn’t be telling girls to abandon their Girl Scout troops to go after the boys’ honor.
By telling young women that they need to earn Eagle Scout rank to get the recognition and benefits it conveys, we are sending a crystal-clear message: To get the respect you deserve for your achievements, you have to join a historically male-oriented organization and meet that group’s definition of success. Putting in the hard work to make a difference in your community as part of a girl-centered organization just isn’t enough.
The Boy Scouts’ policy change isn’t just about the opportunities it creates for individual girls. It’s about what we convey to young women about their achievements and the context in which they pursue them—that they are less valuable, simply because they weren’t designed by men.