Today we celebrate Day of the Girl, an international holiday dedicated to the empowerment of young women around the world. Launched in 2011 by the United Nations, the day is meant to “to help galvanize worldwide enthusiasm for goals to better girls’ lives, providing an opportunity for them to show leadership and reach their full potential.” It’s quite a powerful statement and mission to say the least.
So it might surprise you to find out that today one of the top headlines today concerning girls, came from the Boy Scouts of America.
The hundred plus-year-old organization will now allow girls to join, which sounds great and inclusive. Right…
Girls will be able to join Cub Scouts starting next year, but will be kept in single-gender dens. Existing packs will be allowed to decide whether or not they want to let the girl join them. Plans to allow older girls to join are still in the works and will be announced at a later date. Are you cringing yet?
And what better day than the Day of the Girl to make such an announcement, opening up such valuable leadership lessons to the little ladies of the world. Or as its National Board member Randall Stephenson said, “It is time to make these outstanding leadership development programs available to girls.”
Yes, it’s a shame no one’s been working on that for oh, I don’t know, the last 105+ years…
"Blowing out someone else's candle won't make yours shine brighter." #IDG2017 @IDG_Summit pic.twitter.com/OhQdCNNNzL
— Girl Scouts (@girlscouts) October 11, 2017
Yes, proud Girl Scout here. I cherish all of the lessons this fantastic organization for female empowerment taught me—teamwork, resourcefulness, personal strength, and shade.
I want to be clear that I applaud the thought here. I’m all for inclusiveness, and I have to believe (literally, for my own sanity) that this was not inspired purely by membership.
What bothers me here is the pretense that such programs were not previously available to girls. It’s more than a little condescending towards the organizations out there that have been doing just that. There’s work to be done in empowering young women around the world, that is for certain, and the Girl Scouts have been working on it for more than a century.
So, thank you, Boy Scouts, for inviting the girls. I sincerely hope you do amazing things for young women. Perhaps your first step could be consulting a well-established expert on the subject…
…bi-daily smile…
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