What is the BSA position on girls in Scouting?
Date: 16 Sept 1998
The BSA is a coed organization with some single gender programs
and some mixed gender programs. Coed programs include: Learning
for Life (all school aged youth), Exploring (14-20),
Sea Scouting (14-20), and Venture Scouting (14-20).
Cub Scouting, Boy Scouting, and Varsity are for young men.
Adult Leadership positions in all programs are open to both
genders.
From a BSA Position Statement issued 6/6/91:
The Boy Scouts of America is chartered by Congress "...to promote...
the ability of boys to do things for themselves and others, to
train them in Scoutcraft, and to teach them patriotism, courage,
self-reliance, and kindred virtues..." The Girl Scouts, U.S.A.,
operates under a similar Congressional charter for the benefit of
girls.
The Cub Scout and Boy Scout programs were designed to meet the
emotional, psychological, physical and other needs of boys
between the ages of 8 and 14. Boys in this age range
seek out and enjoy group activities with other boys.
The Cub Scout and Boy Scout programs were carefully developed
with these considerations in mind.
The Exploring program, however, is designed to provide a
variety of programs for both boys and girls between
the ages of 14 and 21. Approximately 40% of the nation's
more than one million Explorers are female.
There are no plans to restructure Cub Scouting and
Boy Scouting to allow for the registration of girls.
JSsd
6/6/91
Doyle, Kevin
Thu, 17 Sep 1998 08:38:12 -1000
xxx was able to recall enough of the discussion where he heard about
the possibility of a BSA task force of co-ed Cub Scouting (thanks, xxx)
for me to go back to the source (a Philmont Training Center discussion group
Q&A) and get the scoop. I spoke with Rick Williamson, director of BSA's Cub
Scouting division and here's what I learned:
There is no task force or committee currently looking into, or studying,
co-ed Cub Scouting. The National Cub Scout Committee does have, as part of
its long-range plan, a plan to establish a task force in 2002 to look at Cub
Scouting and the family to see if we are meeting their needs. This may
involve changing our program to better accommodate family needs. One of the
recommendations may or may not be that we need to be co-educational to
better meet the needs of the family. There could be a lot of other changes
or no changes recommended at all. Whether or not that is even an issue will
be determined by the Family Needs Task Force in the year 2002.
As most of you are aware, the National Cub Scout Committee regularly uses
task forces to look at all aspects of the Cub Scouting program to see if
Cub Scouting is meeting current needs. These have included task forces on
uniforming, advancement, CS Trainer wood badge, camping, etc. The task
force on family needs will provide a welcome assessment of how we are doing
in this area and recommendations for doing better.
Kevin Doyle
Aloha Council