UPDATE (2023-04-05): BSA used misinformation and toxic, racist, and sexist folklore to ban a coed-troop option. This is wrong and must stop. The right option is to allow coed.
ORIGINAL:
BSA’s Boy Scout program, for ages 11-17, includes girls starting February 1, 2019. It also gets a new name: Scouts BSA.
While Scouts BSA troops will be single-gender, BSA has two models for how girl- and boy-troops could relate: linked or separated.
I can summarize this article with three points:
- Use the linked-troop model in almost all cases.
- Program separation between the boy- and girl-troops should only be the minimum needed to comply with BSA guidelines and the desires of the girl-troop.
- Concerns about including girls in Scouting are false or overblown.
The separated-troop model is where a girl-troop is independent. While that’s the classic model for forming a new troop, I think these will be rare: new, independent troops are difficult to start and get going.
I recommend the linked-troop model (more info). That is where a boy-troop and girl-troop, while technically separate troops with their own, separate Scoutmasters and youth leadership, share a troop number. Linked troops may also share:
- adult leaders, except for the Scoutmaster
- activities
- assets
- meeting times and locations (note: While troops can share meeting openings and closings, BSA says troops “should” conduct separate meeting programs. “Should” is not “must” or “always”.)
Also, I recommend that linked troops be construed so that the girl-troop has full access to the resources and programs that the boy-troop. That is, any separation between the linked troops should only be the minimum required by BSA. Any additional separation would be a voluntary decision of the girl-troop.
Why do I believe this so strongly? Let’s think about what happens if we don’t go linked.
First, the #1 complaint from my Cub Scout pack’s girls? That they aren’t in the same dens as their male friends! Most just want to be Scouts, with the boys. While Cub Scouts and Scouts BSA are not technically co-ed, the separated-troop model maximizes the barrier between boys and girls.
Second, starting an independent troop is a lot of work: learning the program, creating customs, gaining assets, and more. Except for a highly motivated group of girls and parents, requiring an independent troop is an unfair burden to push on new Scouts simply because they happen to be girls.
Let’s also consider this from the perspective of Cub Scouts: when my pack gets new dens (of either gender!), the pack’s leaders and I do all we can to equip and support them to our pre-existing, successful program.
That is a good metaphor for new Scouts BSA girl-troops: leaders of existing troops should support all new Scouts into a successful program. Imposing arbitrary hurdles, due to a generic factor the Scout did not select, contravenes this.
A caution: it is possible to have an “in name only” (INO) linked troop. By this, I mean a girl-troop that meets the criteria for being a linked-troop but is not offered program sharing or support. INO girl-troops are about the same as separated-model girl-troops. Look for linked girl-troops where the linked model is well implemented.
I believe the right linked-troop model is where girl-troops have full access to all programs, customs, and assets of the extant boy-troop. It would be the girl-troop’s prerogative as to when to have activity separation.
Now for the overblown or false concerns: occasionally I hear of boys or their parents expressing concerns about how boys’ behaviors change when around girls. My experience is this isn’t a problem.
I am Cubmaster of a huge Cub Scout pack. Adding girls has been a complete non-issue for the boys. My Webelos son still picks his boogers and laughs at farts even when girls are around.
Also, let’s think of the behaviors boys do less of when girls are around. They are things the boys should do less of anyway!
I am also an Advisor for a new, large Venturing crew. Venturing, and its predecessor program, have been co-ed since the 1970s. About a quarter of my crew’s members are girls, and all members are ninth graders (ages 14 or 15). It has gone swimmingly well.
There is nothing special about ages 12 and 13–the only ages generally exclusive* to the Scouts BSA program–that makes inclusion of girls a special problem.
A final point: most Scout units are chartered by churches. In 2020, after the LDS church ends its Scouting affiliation, the United Methodist Church will be the largest chartering organization. My son’s troop is chartered by a church in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, also a major charterer of Scouting units. Both churches have clear social positions that are difficult to reconcile with anything other than maximizing inclusion of girls in Scouting programs to the greatest degree permitted by BSA and that the girls are interested in.
To conclude, the right thing for most new girl troops will be the linked-troop model, with separation between the troops minimized.
*A Scout can join a Venturing crew at age 13 if completed 8th grade (source).
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