HOME—US Scouting—Scouting America (BSA)

Women and Girls in Scouting America (Boy Scouts of America / BSA)

Organization Names

Scouting America—The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) was incorporated on 8 February 1910, and maintained that name through 2024, when it updated the corporate name to Scouting America, reflecting its changing programs as it gradually opened to girls between 1969 and 2019. For a brief period (1976 to about 1980), BSA used the 'communications name' Scouting/USA, but still retained the official corporate name. I imagine that objections from the Girl Scouts of the USA encouraged BSA to quietly drop the Scouting/USA term. But with girls now active in all its programs, BSA is at last changing its corporate name to drop the term 'boy'. The new name came into use as of May, 2024, and will become official with the organization's 115th anniversary on 8 February 2025.

Girl Guides or Girl Scouts?—Internationally the girls' version of Boy Scouting was named Girl Guiding by its Founders (Baden-Powell and his sister Agnes) to distinguish the girls program from the boys program, and that is the most common name today for girl-only programs around the world. When Juliette Gordon 'Daisy' Low started the US girls program in 1912, she named it Girl Guides of America. But after a year of limited growth as Girl Guides, Low decided she needed to capitalize on the name & reputation of the Boy Scouts, so renamed her American organization Girl Scouts, causing confusion among donors and the general public about the two unrelated national "Scouting" programs ever since. While BSA and GSUSA (Girl Scouts of the USA) have discussed areas of mutual interest, and even mumbled about merging, the two organizations share a more than 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.

Timeline of Girls and Adult Women in the BSA / Scouting 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). All adult positions are open to men only, and camping is for boys & men only.
1911—The organization's new handbook is called the Handbook for Boys (and later the Boy Scout Handbook). A new magazine aimed at Boy Scouts (and all boys) is called Boys Life. BSA buys the magazine in 1912.
1912—Sea Scouting begins, for boys only. Girls can now also join the new Girl Guides of America (renamed Girl Scouts of the US in 1913; no connection to Boy Scouts of America).
1930—Cubbing (later Cub Scouting) begins, for boys only. Dens are led by a Boy Scout 'Den Chief' with no direct adult involvement. The pack is led by a male Cubmaster.
1935—Senior Scouting begins, consisting of Sea Scouting and Explorer Scouting (later adding Air Scouting). All are restricted to male youth and adults.
1936—BSA adds the optional (and unregistered) position of Den Mother (from 1936 to 1967, Den Mother is the first and only position 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—Explorer posts (later development of Explorer Scouting) are allowed to admit young women as non-registered "associate" members. BSA allows women to serve on the national Cub Scout Committee.
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. At the same time, adult leader positions in Exploring are opened to women.
*—The asterisk (*) means that female Venturers and Sea Scouts were almost equal to male Venturers. Male Explorers/Venturers and Sea Scouts have always had a path to earn the Eagle Scout award, which was closed to female Explorers/Venturers and Sea Scouts until February 2019.
1972—BSA opens troop committee positions to women.
1975—Camp Fire Girls renames itself Camp Fire as it opens its membership to boys for the first time.
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.
2018—Cub Scouting opens to girls as well as boys. Packs could now choose to be male youth only, female youth only, or mixed. In mixed packs (called 'family' packs), each den had to be single gender. All Cub Scout handbooks have been revised to use non-gender-specific terminology and to include photos of male & female Cub Scouts.
2018—The Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) sues the BSA in an attempt to prevent BSA from accepting girls as Scouts. GSUSA lost in court.
2019—BSA begins allowing troops for Scout-age girls (11-17). Troops must be for girls only or boys only (no coed troops yet), though a chartered organization may sponsor both a boys' troop and a girls' troop, which can be operated by a single troop committee or by separate committees. A boys' troop and a girls' troop with the same chartered organization may also share the same troop number, and are officially referred to as 'linked' troops. The Scouting programs for boys and girls are identical, including rank advancement culminating with Eagle Scout. The first female Eagle Scouts earned the award in autumn 2020. For the first time, there are now TWO essentially identical Scout Handbooks, one for boys (entitled Scouts BSA Handbook for Boys) and one for girls (Scouts BSA Handbook for Girls). The only differences are gender-specific photos and drawings. Both boys and girls in Scouts BSA are referred to simply as 'Scouts'. Female Venturers and Sea Scouts can now also earn the Eagle Scout award, if they have earned the ranks through First Class in a Scout troop (same requirement as for male Venturers and Sea Scouts); and the Order of the Arrow honor society, formerly open only to Boy Scout youth and adults, is now open to male and female youth and adults from the Scout, Venturing, and Sea Scout programs.
2021—BSA renames its flagship magazine from Boys Life to Scout Life.
2023—BSA allows dens in Cub Scout 'family' packs to be coed through 4th grade. Fifth grade 'AOL' dens must still be single-gender. Like 'family packs', BSA refers to coed dens as 'family dens'. [Should the 'Combined Troop Pilot Program' (see below) be adopted in early 2026, coed AOL dens might also become an option.]
2024—For the first time since its founding in 1910, the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) changes its corporate name to Scouting America (on 7 May 2024). While the new name is intended for immediate use, it becomes official on BSA's 115th anniversary (on 8 February 2025).
2024—BSA begins a 'Combined Troop Pilot Program' to test how to integrate girls and boys into the same troop. If the test is successful, by early 2026 troops will be able to choose to be boy only, girl only, or 'combined'. During the pilot program (and possibly after), patrols in combined troops can be single-gender or coed (with chartered partner approval). Either way, sleeping arrangements must be single-gender.

Remaining Gender Discrimination in the BSA

While Venturing, Sea Scouting, Exploring, STEM Scouts, and Learning for Life may be fully coed at all levels, as may Cub Scout dens through 4th grade, fifth grade dens and all Scouts BSA troops must still maintain 'separate but equal' gender-specific AOL dens & Scouts BSA troops. This may officially end by February 2026, assuming the current 'Combined Troop Pilot Program' is adopted.
Boys in Cub Scout packs and Scout troops can be led by men, women, or both, and an all-male or all-female group of registered adults could provide supervision to any boy-only activity. On the other hand, any pack or troop activity involving girls must include at least one registered female adult over age 21.

Some questions & answers about girls in the BSA (PDF)

For more information about Scouting in the US, see Scouting America (BSA).

For information about Guiding [Girl Scouts] in the US, see Girl Scouts of the USA.

For information on Camp Fire and other alternatives to Scouting, see our Scout-like Organizations page.