For years, Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts have been separated and different. It was only in 2017 did The Boy Scouts of America, BSA, begin to allow girls to join Cub Scouts, from Kindergarten to fifth grade. 

Two years later, on February 1st, 2019, an announcement was made that BSA would be accepting girls into the organization’s older youth program, Boy Scouts. BSA even plans on creating the dream of becoming an Eagle Scout for girls in 2020, a reality. 

During that time, BSA announced that they would be altering the name of their Boy Scouts organization. It is now known as Scouts BSA, a change made as girls would soon be joining the program.

All these groundbreaking announcements haven’t been met with open arms by everyone though. Upon the official statement being released, The Girl Scouts of America released a statement regarding that the “benefit of the single-gender environment has been well-documented by educators, scholars, other girl-and youth-serving organizations, and Girl Scouts and their families.” BuzzFeed News had obtained a letter reportedly from the GSUSA president who accused BSA of welcoming girls to help their diminished enrollment numbers. 

Regardless, there have been very few numbers of girls following through with the enrollment into the program, most female-troops in Scouts BSA have a single female, resulting in that female being classified as a lone-scout until more can join the troop. In comparison, several have been joining Cub Scouts and soon, some will be ranking up to Scouts BSA if they so choose.

For a program that had only involved groups of boys for more than a century, deciding to include girls has opened a variety of doors and opportunities for these teens that some might not have had elsewhere. 

SOURCES

Information

Official announcements from BSA, troop meetings, and scout master.