Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Boy Scouts to open ranks to girls starting next year
NEW YORK — The Boy Scouts of America will admit girls into the Cub Scouts starting next year and establish a new program for older girls based on the Boy Scout curriculum that enables them to aspire to the coveted Eagle Scout rank.
Founded in 1910 and long considered a bastion of tradition, the Boy Scouts has undergone major changes in the past five years, agreeing to accept openly gay youth members and adult volunteers, as well as transgender boys.
The expansion of girls’ participation was announced Wednesday after unanimous approval by the organization’s board of directors.
Many Scouting organizations in other countries already allow both sexes and use gender-free names such as Scouts Canada. But for now, the Boy Scout label will remain.
“There are no plans to change our name at this time,” spokesman Effie Delimarkos said in an email.
Under the new plan, Cub Scout dens — the smallest unit — will be single-sex, either all-boys or all-girls. The larger Cub Scout packs will have the option to remain single sex or welcome both sexes. The program for older girls is expected to start in 2019 and will enable girls to earn the same Eagle Scout rank that has been attained by male astronauts, admirals, senators and other luminaries.
Boy Scout leaders said the change was needed to provide more options for parents.
“The values of Scouting — trustworthy, loyal, helpful, kind, brave and reverent, for example — are important for both young men and women,” said Michael Surbaugh, chief scout executive.
Randall Stephenson, the group’s national board chairman, added: “I’ve seen nothing that develops leadership skills and discipline like this organization. It is time to make these outstanding leadership development programs available to girls.”
The announcement follows many months of outreach by the Boy Scouts of America, which distributed videos and held meetings to discuss the possibility of expanding girls’ participation beyond existing programs, such as Venturing, Exploring and Sea Scouts.
Surveys conducted by the Boy Scouts showed strong support for the change among parents not currently connected to the Scouts, including Hispanic and Asian families that the organization has been trying to attract. Among families already in the Scouting community, the biggest worry, according to Surbaugh, was that the positive aspects of single-sex comradeship might be jeopardized.
“We’ll make sure those environments are protected,” he said.
During the outreach, some parents expressed concern about possible problems related to overnight camping trips. Surbaugh said there would continue to be a ban on mixed-sex overnight outings for Scouts ages 11-14. Cub Scout camping trips, he noted, were usually family affairs with less need for rigid polices.
Northwest Arkansas’ Boy Scout Council convened a focus group made up of Scout leaders and parents in July to discuss the possibility of girls joining the Boy Scouts, said Rolf Wilkin, an Eagle Scout, Scout dad and committee chairman of Troop 46 in Fayetteville.
“After we listened to the whole pitch, we voted unanimously that it was a good idea. So I was happy to hear the news today,” Wilkin said.
Girls have long participated in their brother’s Scouting activities, Wilkin said. Scouting is a family affair and parents and siblings often help a Scout with his duties and participate in his activities, such as camping, he said.
Integrating girls into the Boy Scouts will likely be a slow but steady process as adjustments are made, Wilins said.
“But at the end of the day, the girls will be equal members enjoying the Scouting experience,” he said.
Wilkin said a name change could come as well.
“We might be the only country that have ‘Boy Scouts’ and ‘Girl Scouts’; many countries have just ‘Scouts,’ he said. “‘Scouts of America’ would make sense.”
John Carman, chief executive of the Quapaw Area Council, the Boy Scout division covering 39 of Arkansas’ 75 counties, met this year with more than 200 volunteers for what he called “fireside chats” to discuss the changes. Some had questions and concerns about how the shift will be implemented, but the reception was largely positive, Carman said.
“Based on the response I got at the fireside chats, people are anxious to get started,” he said.
Earlier this year, the National Organization for Women urged the Boy Scouts to allow girls to join. That organization said it was inspired by the efforts of a 15-year-old New York City girl, Sydney Ireland, to emulate her older brother, who is an Eagle Scout.
But the Girl Scouts of the USA has criticized the Boy Scouts of America’s initiative, saying it strains the century-old bond between the two organizations. Girl Scouts officials have suggested the Boy Scouts’ move was driven partly by a need to boost revenue, and they contended that there is fiscal stress in part because of past settlements paid by the Boy Scouts of America in sex-abuse cases.
In August, the president of the Girl Scouts, Kathy Hopinkah Hannan, accused the Boy Scouts of seeking to covertly recruit girls into their programs while disparaging the Girl Scouts’ operations. On Monday, Hispanic civic leader Charles Garcia, just days after being named to the Girl Scouts’ national board, wrote an opinion piece for the Huffington Post calling the Boy Scouts’ overture to girls “a terrible idea.”
“Instead of addressing systemic issues of continuing sexual assault, financial mismanagement and deficient programming, [Boy Scouts of America’s] senior management wants to add an accelerant to the house fire by recruiting girls,” Garcia wrote.
Instead of recruiting girls, Garcia said the Boy Scouts should focus on attracting more black, Hispanic and Asian boys — particularly those from low-income households.