Boy Scouts.

Or, should it be Scouting for Leadership?

Today’s announcement that the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) is now allowing girls has left many people stunned.  But should it?  Here are some facts, which I would like to unpack a bit:

—BSA was founded in 1910, nine years before the 19th amendment gave women the right to vote

—BSA already allows girls to join their Venturing, Sea Scouting and STEM Scouts.

—These girls do not have a current trajectory to obtain the coveted Eagle Scout rank.

—This new procedure would allow girls to join an all-girl’s troop, separating them from all-boys troops.

—Maybe this opportunity should not be called Boy Scouts?

I should probably reveal my own involvement in Scouts.  I was a Cub Scout as a boy, so many years ago that I cannot even remember much about it.  Our “den” was a group of boys who lived in my neighborhood, and the “den mother” was the mother of one of the boys.  That was my first influence from a woman in the Boy Scouts.  I really don’t know why I was not allowed to stay in the Boy Scouts.  I just remember really wanting to stay, but I was getting ready to go up to Weblos level and that required purchase of uniform supplies that my parents, at the time, were not able or willing to purchase.  I still remember the Pinewood Derby as one of the most fun things I did in scouting.

Years later, I worked at a boy scout camp as a volunteer physician in residency.  About ten years after that I was appointed to be the medical director of that same boy scout camp, a position that I still share with another faculty member in my department.  Although I rarely, if ever, am present at the actual camp site, I oversee the resident physicians who provide care there, and I am on call by phone 24/7 for the seven weeks that the camp is in session.

I was never an Eagle Scout, but I understand BSA.  I meet regularly with the local leadership.  I donate lots of money to this very deserving organization.  I love BSA.

So, what do I think of this change?

Let’s think about the impact of women in the world now, and about our ever-evolving understanding of how much women have to contribute to society.

I remember growing up thinking that a woman doctor was a curiosity, a rarity.  Now, I am surrounded by very capable women who work circles around their male colleagues simply because they have a chance.  For my own medical care, I have chosen a female physician, for the simple reason that she is the best doctor I know.  Seriously.  She is the best doctor I know.  In our Family Medicine residency, about half of our doctors are women. It is a different world, people, than 1910.

Some comments today have been about the “blending of sexes.”  “There is a Boy Scouts, and there is a Girl Scouts.”  Well, these organizations are not in any way comparable.  For many years, I was an owner in several businesses, in the position to hire employees.  In my current position, I take an active part in recruiting new residents.  On a resume, a designation as an Eagle Scout carries an enormous amount of weight.  The current process in the BSA prohibits 50% of the current population of youth from attaining this rank.  It is simply not fair.  I am thankful for BSA for recognizing this.  There is nothing anywhere close to the same impact in the Girl Scouts. So, the “blending of sexes?”  Let me name a few other places where this happens:  School.  Church youth groups.  Band.  High school sporting events with football players and cheerleaders traveling to the same place.  Want me to go on?  Believe me, there are many more.  So, the argument about “raging hormones” isn’t valid, now, is it?  Anyway, BSA is still keeping entirely female and entirely male troops as separate entities, completely invalidating that argument.  

Another argument I have heard is the “Christian Principles” argument.  

Church Youth Camps?  

I rest my case.

So, now, the other half of our population has the opportunity to attain Eagle Scout like the male half of the population has had for the past 107 years.  Even now, this is on a separate but equal trajectory from the boys.  

Some of you need to be tolerant.  Some of you need to understand the changing face of society is not for the worse, but for the better.

And some of you, especially professional women in careers you wouldn’t have had a snowball’s chance in Hell of entering in 1910 need to stop posting about how this is a bad thing.

Welcome to the new face of Scouting for Leadership, a new template for the future of Scouting, as we remember that women are equal, or just maybe a little bit better than men at almost anything they try.

Peace,

Anthony