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I don’t have a daughter. But what if I did?
This thought drifted through my mind when the idea of a column about the Boy Scouts first came to me. The Boy Scouts of America is, generally speaking, a fine organization with a good mission, but it is not without its membership and leadership controversies in the 21st century. The most recent of those is BSA’s choice to open membership to both boys and girls.
I’m father to two young boys, to whom I teach respect, fair treatment of others, preparation, trying hard, community, equal opportunity, and the virtue of listening, among others. These values are not exclusive to boys; if I had a daughter, the principles I aspire to pass along to the new generation would be the same.
And so I celebrate last year’s announcement by the Boy Scouts to include girls among their ranks. BSA began this year admitting girls from Kindergarten to fifth grade to the Cub Scouts, while in 2019, girls can achieve the rank of Eagle Scout. Even the name will change to Scouts BSA.
It’s not difficult to see the virtue in this. “After all,” the Scouts’ website says, “the values of Scouting as outlined in the Scout Law—trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent—are relevant and important values for both young men and women.” Hard to argue against that ethic.
Consider too how the Boy Scouts must have faced enormous pressure from outdoor organizations like Outward Bound and even old school clubs like the Appalachian Mountain Club, who offer many of the same—if not better and more sophisticated—backcountry programs without the separation of genders. Other Scout-sponsored learning opportunities like woodworking or community service also face competition from online, retail, religious, and community-based resources. If a 17-year-old girl wants to construct a park bench every bit as good as a boy striving for the rank of Eagle Scout, just YouTube instructions or find designs on Pinterest.
Besides, all you moms who have served as den leaders, raise your hands. Why would it be that a woman can lead an organized pack of young boys and teach them the virtues of scouting, but to teach her daughter the same principles, she’d have to do it outside of Scouts? BSA solved that ridiculousness with its choice for gender integration.
And yet, change remains difficult for many to accept. Even on the day I write this, a letter to the editor appeared in the Tribune-Review of Pittsburgh from a 17-year-old boy claiming integration is “ruining Boy Scouts” and that he joined BSA to “do and talk about guy activity.”
“My troop has permitted two girls to join, and they have participated in camping trips and are working merit badges, even though they are not supposed to join until February 2019,” he wrote. “This is unfair and untrustworthy; a Boy Scout is trustworthy.” Not sure how this fits into the Boy Scout tradition of being “courteous” or even “brave,” but I trust he’ll figure it out eventually.
“Frankly,” wrote Betsey Bayless, former secretary of state for Arizona, in May to the Arizona Republic, “I see [BSA’s] move as a grave disservice to girls. And a cynical response to their financial problems and declining enrollment.”
There’s also pushback coming from, of all places, the Girl Scouts of America. From the CEO to local leaders, the message has been that BSA simply does not provide adequate programming to meet the needs of girls.
“Girls Scouts is the premier leadership development organization for girls,” Sylvia Acevedo, CEO of Girls Scouts of USA, said to USA Today earlier this year. “We are, and will remain, the first choice for girls and parents.”
Yeah, okay, but as I said, moms have been leading Boy Scouts for a long, long time, so I’m confident BSA will figure out how to improve the integration of girls into their ranks. Listen to your mother. I’m quite certain we—men and women, boys and girls—have heard that one before, and the Boy Scouts would be wise to adhere to that principle as it continues to integrate its ranks. Sure, Girl Scouts have more than a century of experience teaching girls, but who’s to say in this new century the new Scouts BSA won’t figure it out? Or, perhaps even better, they might create programs teaching the virtues of community and outdoor skills in a way that fosters respect between the genders.
Change all across our society is happening fast. It can make you feel uncomfortable, question the very need for the change, and lament what could be lost. Traditions are important, too, but so are new opportunities. If our contemporary marketplace and society has taught us anything, another scouting organization would’ve risen up to challenge the Boy and Girl Scouts’ tradition of gender exclusivity, and BSA chose to get ahead of that inevitability.
I don’t need to wonder about having a daughter when it comes to the Boy Scouts. Our two boys attend school with girls, ride bikes in the neighborhood with girls, play sports with girls, and so on. Should they choose to join Scouts BSA, and they find themselves carving Pinewood Derby cars or hiking the Appalachian Trail alongside girls, well, it seems perfectly normal.
Dave Pidgeon is a writer and photographer from Lancaster. You can follow him on Twitter and Instagram at PidgeonsEyeView and at WritingIntheAfternoon.com.
