Girls can now look forward to becoming Boy Scouts. The Boy Scouts of America Board of Directors unanimously voted yesterday to let girls join their ranks, beginning next year. Not only will young girls be allowed to become Cub Scouts, but older girls will be able to rise to the rank of Eagle Scout. 

The Boy Scouts on Admitting Girls

In a statement on their website, the Boy Scouts said that after receiving many requests from families and evaluating research results, they’ve decided to help families meet the “character development needs of all their children.” 

“The values of Scouting — trustworthy, loyal, helpful, kinds, brave and reverent, for example — are important for both young men and women,” said BSA’s Chief Scout Executive Michael Surbaugh. “We believe it is critical to evolve how our programs meet the needs of families interested in positive and lifelong experiences for their children.”

Cub Scouts are organized as local “packs,” which in have “dens” as smaller groups within them. A pack can be all boys, all girls, or mixed, but the dens will not be co-ed; each den will be boys-only or girls-only. Local scout leaders will decide which of those types of packs will be established.

Girl Scouts Pushing Back

Not everyone’s happy about the change. The Girl Scouts, in a statement on their website, sought to highlight their superiority in training girls to be leaders:

The benefit of the single-gender environment has been well-documented by educators, scholars, other girl- and youth-serving organizations, and Girl Scouts and their families. Girl Scouts offers a one-of-a-kind experience for girls with a program tailored specifically to their unique developmental needs. 

They added, “The need for female leadership has never been clearer or more urgent than it is today — and only Girl Scouts has the expertise to give girls and young women the tools they need for success. … We’re committed to preparing the next generation of women leaders, and we’re here to stay.”

Political Correctness?

Many people criticized the Boys Scouts for caving to political correctness in allowing girls to join. 

Boys are boy scouts girls are girl scouts. No not everyone gets a trophy. There are winners & losers it's called life#PoliticalCorrectness pic.twitter.com/wDphNZpQ7x

— Kat™ The Hammer ⚒️ (@KatTheHammer1) October 12, 2017

https://twitter.com/mrwalsh__/status/918276562335739904

Others just seemed confused, tweeting, “Whats going to happen to the ‘Girl Scouts’ …. ????

https://twitter.com/JoeTheMailman/status/918452775561736192

I am an Eagle Scout

Only boys should be in Boy Scouts

Only girls should be in Girl Scouts

Don't change things that work

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) October 11, 2017

Even Donald Trump, Jr. got in on the conversation. “Strange, I thought that’s what the Girl Scouts was for???”

Strange, I thought that's what the Girl Scouts was for??? https://t.co/8Dhub01Ihi

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) October 11, 2017

The BSA estimates that nearly 2.3 million young people between the ages of 7 and 21 participate in the Boy Scout program. 

In 2018, girls can sign up for Cub Scouts. A program will be announced for older girls that will allow them to earn the Eagle Scout rank. The latter program is expected to be available in 2019.