Women and Girls in the Boy Scouts of America (BSA)
When it started in 1910, the Boy Scouts of America was all boys and men. There were no positions that a woman could hold, and girls who wanted a Scout-like program had to join the Camp Fire Girls (started in 1910), or later the separate Girl Scouts organization started in 1912 (the American version of the international Girl Guide program started by Baden-Powell). In the decades since, many Scouting programs around the world have become partially or fully coed, and often the separate Boy Scout and Girl Guide organizations in those countries have merged. But the US has not rushed to join the trend toward coeducation.
The Camp Fire Girls are now called just Camp Fire, and have been coed since 1975, though still with far more female than male youth. The Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) still insists on female youth only and female adult leadership. While the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) and GSUSA have discussed areas of mutual interest, and even mumbled about merging, the two organizations have different philosophies and share a century-long history of non-cooperation. So they have separate national headquarters, separate local Councils, separate professional staffs, separate camping properties, and separate programs & units; and they solicit donations and support for "Scouting" separately.
The Boy Scout Organization's Name
The Boy Scouts of America was incorporated on 8 February 1910, and has maintained that name to the present day. The national office has stated that even as the BSA begins to offer programs for girls from Kindergarten through adulthood, they will not be changing the organization's name. Starting in 1972, BSA briefly used the communications name Scouting/USA, but still retained the official corporate name. Scouting/USA was part of BSA's attempt to eliminate the term 'boy' lest young men (including young men of color) somehow feel demeaned. Boy Scouts became Scouts, the Boy Scout Handbook became simply the Scout Handbook, etc. BSA quietly dropped the Scouting/USA term and went back to using 'Boy Scout' by about 1980. I suspect the Girl Scouts of the USA also objected to BSA calling itself Scouting/USA.
There has been confusion in the US for over a century among donors and the general public about the two completely separate national "Scouting" programs, and it's all the fault of Juliette Gordon 'Daisy' Low, the founder of the US girls' organization. When Baden-Powell founded a worldwide program for girls comparable to Boy Scouting, he called it Girl Guiding to prevent any confusion between the two programs. But after a year of limited growth as Girl Guides, Low decided to rename her American organization Girl Scouts, and there has been confusion ever since.
Adult Women in the Boy Scouts of America
1910—Boy Scouting is for boys, aged 12 until 18. Scoutmasters, Assistant Scoutmasters, committee members, professional staff are all men. Separate programs for younger and older boys have yet to be created. The organization's new handbook is called the Handbook for Boys (and later the Boy Scout Handbook). Moms can provide indirect support of their sons' troop through bake sales or similar, but women cannot hold any position of authority, and may not attend campouts or other outings with their sons' troop.
1911—A new magazine aimed at Boy Scouts (and all boys) is called Boys Life. BSA buys the magazine in 1912, and it's still called Boys Life today.
1930—BSA creates the Cubbing program (later renamed Cub Scouting) for boys aged 9 through 11. Dens are led by a Boy Scout 'Den Chief' with no direct adult involvement. The pack is led by a male Cubmaster.
1936—BSA adds the optional (and unregistered) office of Den Mother (from 1936 to 1967, Den Mother is the first and only office closed to men). The handbooks state that the Den Mother should be ready to help when needed "but she leaves the actual running of the Den to the Den Chief."
1948—Den Mother becomes a registered position. But the 1949 handbook still reminds the Den Mother that she "helps the Den Chief plan Den fun." By the mid 1950's, the Den Mother becomes the actual den leader, assisted by the Boy Scout Den Chief.
1954—BSA moves the Webelos program (started in 1941) from a regular den to its own separate den for the final six months of a boy's time in the pack. The Webelos leader is a man who prepares the boys for entry into a Boy Scout troop.
1967—Leadership of regular dens is opened to men, and the Den Mother position is renamed Den Leader.
1969—BSA allows women to serve on the national Cub Scout Committee.
1971—Adult leader positions in Exploring (program for older youth) are opened to women as female youth are admitted to Exploring.
1972—BSA opens troop committee positions to women.
1976—BSA opens the Cubmaster position to women.
1988—BSA opens the Webelos Den Leader position to women, along with all other Scouting positions in all Scouting programs *, including allowing adult women associated with a Boy Scout troop to be elected to the Order of the Arrow honor camping society.
*—The asterisk (*) means that BSA allows chartering partners that are religious institutions to restrict the roles they allow women to hold in their sponsored units.
Female Youth in the Boy Scouts of America
1910—Boy Scout troops are for boys only. Girls can join the new Camp Fire Girls (no connection to BSA, but with significant input from a number of leading BSA officials).
1912—Sea Scouting begins, for boys only. Girls can now also join the new Girl Guides of America (later Girl Scouts of the USA; no connection to Boy Scouts of America).
1930—Cubbing (later Cub Scouting) begins, for boys only.
1935—Senior Scouting begins, consisting of Sea Scouting and Explorer Scouting (later adding Air Scouting). All are restricted to male youth and adults.
1969—Explorer posts (later development of Explorer Scouting) are allowed to admit young women as non-registered "associate" members.
1971—Explorer posts become fully coed *, the first section of the BSA open to female youth. The successor Venturing program, and Sea Scouting, are also fully coed.
*—The asterisk (*) means that female Explorers are almost equal to male Explorers. The Eagle Scout award, BSA's highest recognition for youth, remains closed to females. The requirements state that an Explorer/Venturer/Sea Scout who wants to earn Eagle must first earn the ranks up through First Class in a Boy Scout troop, which conveniently prevents girls from earning the award. This restriction may change in 2019.
2018—Cub Scouting opens to girls as well as boys. Packs may now choose to be male youth only, female youth only, or mixed. Although packs may be open to girls and boys, each den in a mixed pack must be single gender (though two dens may meet together). All Cub Scout handbooks are being revised to use non-gender-specific terminology and to add pictures of girls.
2019—A new program for Scout-age girls (11-17) is under development for release in 2019. Boy Scout troops will remain male youth only, and girls will be able to join troops for female youth only. While many details won't be announced until later in 2018, the girls program should be identical to the boys program, including rank advancement culminating with Eagle Scout. It is likely that the first official female Eagle Scout will earn the award in 2019 or 2020. The Boy Scout Handbook (presumably re-titled) is being revised to use non-gender-specific terminology and to add pictures of female Scouts (it has not yet been determined if the girls will be called Scouts or something else). Content of the Handbook and advancement requirements will remain unchanged. It remains to be seen if the 107-year-old Boys Life will get a new name, or just be subtitled 'for boys and girls'.
2019—It appears that the Order of the Arrow honor society will remain male-youth only (even though adult women associated with Boy Scout troops can be elected). BSA is hinting that they will create a separate female-only honor society for the girls in the new 11-17 year-old girls program (to be announced later in 2018).
The Future?
First, all of us in Scouting, and the girls and their families who might want to join, are all most anxious to find out the details of the new girls program planned for 2019. We'll put the information here as soon as we know it. Then we'll all be curious to see how the coed pack and troop programs actually work. Will there be growing acceptance of mixed activities, both in our society and in Scouting? We also wonder what sort of impact this will have on the program sections of the Girl Scouts of the USA. Back in 1971, the Girl Scout Senior program section suffered significant losses when the BSA Exploring program went coed.
That takes us to the obvious next question: Will the BSA ultimately make its packs and troops fully coed, and if so, when? And will male participation decline because of the coed programs? [This happened to several European Scouting organizations when they went coed.] Time will tell.
