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On October 11th, the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) made an announcement that broke barriers and stirred the pot; girls are now going to be allowed to join an organization of Cub Scouts to earn the rank of Eagle Scout, which is the highest ranking, and I think it’s about damn time girls can earn that ranking.

While some families might think it’s not a good idea for the Boy Scouts to allow girls to earn the highest ranking of Eagle Scout, I think it’s awesome for the lone fact of empowering young girls. Allowing them to work up to the ranking not only would mean that girls can do what boys can do, but I believe it’d make them feel proud of themselves for being able to accomplish so much.

Something else I think should happen is just combining both the Boy and Girl Scouts of America. It would keep from both attacking each other in the future and they could easily teach both girls and boys things at the same time and that way no specific group feels left out of any kind of activity. No child would feel discriminated against either. Which is something I think is incredibly important.

The Atlantic got an interview with Tammy Proctor, the author of “Scouting for Girls: A Century of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts,” and she said something that was rather interesting to me.

“In Europe, in places like Scandinavia, they’ve merged Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts into one organization,” said Proctor. “But in those cases, the two organizations worked together and they merged to create a co-educational movement.”

That’s exactly what I think we should be doing here in the U.S. as well. It’d be breaking all the barriers but in a good way. If I were a parent, I’d think that’d be the best move and I wouldn’t be mad at all. In fact, I’d be applauding both the Scouts for finally making a move that would motivate and encourage all the genders to work together and be great together.

Back in 2013 the Boys Scout made the bold move of removing the ban on not allowing openly gay scouts. And then, in 2015, they started allowing gay leaders. They’ve been making moves towards the right direction and straying away from discriminating.

This move forward being done on behalf of the Boy Scouts is great; however, according to Buzzfeed News, they had quotes from a letter that Kathy Hopinkah Hanna, Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) national president, sent to the national president of BSA, Randall Stephenson. She had a lot to say.

“Stay focused on serving the 90 percent of American boys not currently participating in Boy Scouts….not consider expanding to recruit girls.” said Hanna. While maybe the Boy Scouts should focus on all the American boys, there’s no harm in wanting to recruit American girls and allowing them to participate in something that might be rewarding to them.

“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,” the Girl Scouts said in a statement they released on October 11th.

To an extent, I agree that having female leaderships is important. However, I don’t think we should allegiant them from being able to work together with males. Participating with one another in the Eagle Scout program would allow the young girls to work with young boys and prepare them for whatever may come in the future. Which is important. It’s allowing the girls to gain skills that they wouldn’t be able to gain because the Girl Scouts cater to just girls, rather than both girls and boys.

In a way, it sounds like if girls and young women go elsewhere they won’t be successful because they don’t have the right tools. But honestly, who really does have the right tools to be successful? Isn’t it just a matter of having grit? Or so that’s what I think it takes and a lot of passion for whatever it is one might want to get done.

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