Girl Scouts Aren’t Happy After Boy Scouts Offer to Let Girls Join

In conjunction with International Day of the Girl, the Boy Scouts of America announced it would allow girls to join its organization from Cub Scouts to the highest rank, Eagle Scout.

While many saw the decision as an indication of progress, the Girl Scouts of the USA aren’t exactly pleased. On Thursday, the Girl Scouts issued a scathing rebuke of the decision made by the Boy Scouts to begin letting girls join the highest ranks of their troops.

“The Boy Scouts’ house is on fire,” Girl Scouts told ABC News in a statement today. “Instead of addressing systemic issues of continuing sexual assault, financial mismanagement and deficient programming, BSA’s senior management wants to add an accelerant to the house fire by recruiting girls.”

The Girl Scouts have been upset for months with the Boy Scouts. This past August, Girl Scouts of the USA President Kathy Hopinkah Hannan wrote a strongly worded letter shared via Buzzfeed that read they were “disappointed in the lack of transparency” as the Boy Scouts were “surreptitiously testing the appeal of a girls’ offering to millennial parents.”

A spokesperson confirmed that Hannan called the merge a “potentially dangerous and bad idea,” citing research supporting “single gender programming,” in which girls learn best in an “all-girls environment” when it comes to scouting.

“It is inherently dishonest to claim to be a single gender organization while simultaneously endeavoring upon a co-ed model,” Hannan wrote in her letter.

Scroll through to read some of the comments made by users on social media over the new decision made by the Boy Scouts of America.

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While Hannan’s letter mentions “millennial parents,” many conservatives are annoyed and venting their frustrations on “liberals” for the new move made by the Boy Scouts of America.

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Some users took to social media to voice that the lack of boys signing up to be part of the Boy Scouts today is the actual reason behind such a move toward inclusivity.

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The Boy Scouts of America said they’re just giving kids and parents what they’ve been asking for after years of conversation: access to the Boy Scouts. In response to the news announced Wednesday, the Girl Scouts wrote a blog posted titled “Girl Scouts Are the Girl Leadership Experts,” reminding all that they have been serving girls for more than 100 years.

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But some took to social media to share their own experiences with what the Girl Scouts has been for years, adding that being in the Boy Scouts would break the stigma and push forth a stronger rhetoric for feminism. 

Photo credit: Education Images / Getty