The Boy Scouts of America announced plans on Wednesday to broadly accept girls, marking a historic shift for the century-old organization and setting off a debate about where girls better learn how to be leaders.
The Boy Scouts, which has seen dwindling membership numbers in recent decades, said that its programs could nurture girls as well as boys, and that the switch would make life easier for busy parents, who might prefer to shuttle children to a single organization regardless of gender.
“I’ve seen nothing that develops leadership skills and discipline like this organization,” said Randall Stephenson, the group’s national board chairman. “It is time to make these outstanding leadership development programs available to girls.”
“We’ve had 105 years of supporting girls and a girl-only safe space,” said Lisa Margosian, chief customer officer for the Girl Scouts, who added that the organization felt “blindsided” by the announcement. “So much of a girl’s life is a life where she is in a coed environment, and we have so much research and data that suggests that girls really thrive in an environment where they can experiment, take risk and stretch themselves in the company of other girls.”
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The Boy Scouts has significantly loosened its membership requirements in recent years, but not without lengthy debates among its leaders and members. In January, the organization announced it would accept transgender members. In 2013, the group lifted a ban on openly gay members, and in 2015, it stopped barring gay Scout leaders.
The decision was celebrated by many women, but criticized by the Girl Scouts, which said that girls flourish in all-female groups.
http://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/11/us/boy-scouts-girls.html
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