Girls will be able to join the Cub Scouts, a unit of Boy Scouts of America, in the Vancouver-Portland area starting on Jan. 15.
The new opportunity fulfills the desires of local parents and families, according to the Portland-based Cascade Pacific Council of the Boy Scouts, which said that surveys have found parents eager for a single organization where the whole family can get involved, instead of different ones that are segregated by gender.
“I have an 11-year-old son, an 8-year-old son and a 4-year-old daughter,” said Jason Macpherson, director of field service for the Cascade Pacific Council. “The literal challenge of getting three kids in three different directions is overwhelming. It’s far more complicated than when I was a kid. Folks wanted to see this happen for ease, for convenience.”
“We believe it is critical to evolve,” said a statement from Matt Devore, executive of the Cascade Pacific Council. “We strive to bring what Scouting does best — developing character and leadership for young people — to as many families and youth as possible throughout our 18 counties.”
The Cascade Pacific Council of the Boy Scouts of America is the umbrella organization for 20,000 young members and 10,000 volunteers in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Local districts in Southwest Washington include the Fort Vancouver District, which covers nearly all of Clark County, and the Columbia Gorge District, which covers east Vancouver and east county, including Camas and Washougal.
A club of her own?
While this new opportunity has been welcomed by many, it’s been bitterly opposed by the Girl Scouts of America, which argues that young girls need nurturing and development in a different sort of environment than boys do. The Girl Scouts’ curriculum is different and designed “to meet girls’ specific developmental needs,” says a statement issued this week by the Girl Scouts of Oregon and Southwest Washington.
“In a world of boys’ clubs, give her one of her own,” says an article posted on the Girl Scouts of Oregon and Southwest Washington website. It argues that males enjoy favorable treatment and advantages in school and in society in general, and that girls deserve to learn and thrive in a separate space of their own, without having to compete with boys.
“Ninety-nine percent of your daughter’s life is experienced alongside boys, where she either has to fight for attention or dodge the unwanted kind,” the article says. “Make sure she’s getting some high-quality time surrounded by girls and girls only.”
Officials at the Cascade Pacific Council said boys and girls will always be in separate groups — but the curriculum is exactly the same. The only thing that will be different is the name, Macpherson said. “Girls won’t be joining the Boy Scouts of America program, but they’ll be using the same curriculum,” he said.
Girls in grades K-4 can sign up starting Jan. 15, said field director Claire Osterman, and in 2019 older girls will be invited into a new program that hasn’t been named yet, but will lead to the possibility of attaining the rank of Eagle Scout.
The Girl Scouts of America have also accused the Boy Scouts of America of making what’s essentially a competitive move, announced nationally last fall, in order to shore up declining membership. Boy Scouts of America membership peaked at more than 4 million in the late 1980s but fell to 2.2 million in 2016, according to annual reports from the organization. Some speculate that the decline is because of new policies welcoming to gay and transgender members and families.
Macpherson said declining membership isn’t a problem here, but IRS forms filed by the organization report that membership in the Cascade Pacific Council hovered around 35,000 in 2010 through 2014 — but dropped to 21,500 members in 2015, the last year figures were available.
Nationally, the Girl Scouts of America report 1.8 million youth members. Locally, the Girl Scouts of Oregon and Southwest Washington report 14,381 youth members.
Visit www.beascout.org or www.cpcbsa.org/familyscouting to learn more about the Cub Scouts.
