Should Scouting America be for boys only?

Absolutely NOT. I grew up in a family with two brothers who both became Eagle Scouts and then continued as junior assistant scout masters (ASM) (with the same troop). My Dad was the troop chairman for at least 2 decades. I was active as a volunteer and helped with several activities - i could NOT join b/c i was a woman. I spent summers at a camp in New England while my brothers went to scout camp. One of the strongest arguments against integration of the BSA was b/c of the GSA organization. While the GSA does a lot of good things for girls, it is NOT run as an organization remotely the same way, and in my view, it's a loss for girls and is more about the management than actually supporting girls. I found GSA activities were more dated and not why i'd want to join scouting. First - most GSA troops are aged/grade based where as most BSA troops are made of different ages. The role model system in BSA encourages younger kids to follow the older ones and allows the older scouts to learn leadership. Most GSA troops (exceptions are out there) only have maybe one or two grades. There is no learning from those older and teaching those younger. You lose a lot from that. GSA troops disband more quickly as a result. My troop last 2 years, and there were no other locally for me to get involved with. I'm not saying that there aren't BSA troops that work like this. There absolutely are, but most BSA organizations do function like this and thrive on growth year to year. Second - GSA as an organization. I am continually disappointed by issues that have come up with GSA at large. The cookie sales scam, where troops receive almost nothing for that $6 box. Most of it goes to the national organizations. I wouldn't mind as much if the troops could independently fundraise. They can NOT do that. GSA has absurd insurance requirements that require troops to go through their state and won't allow individual troops to have their own policies in place - while some oversight is important, this makes doing certain things VERY difficult and planning and executing events needlessly administrative and inefficient. Third - Values. This is a struggle for me as I do think there are women's specific issues that GSA does explore that are important but i do think GSA sometimes puts TOO much emphasis on that. While some is important, I don't want to go to camp or participate in scouting only to hear women's empowerment lectures and why the world is out destroy women. I wanted to learn to camp, hike, and explore. I want to do things. I want to help others. I wanted to do the same things my brothers were doing, but instead, I was getting a history lesson about Gloria Stynam and making pom-poms to go cheer for the local HS football team. My brother was out hiking the AT or paddling Canoes in Maine. They were community service projects to help others- we were selling cookies. Fourth - Prestige. Eagle Scouts get notoriety. Eagles scouts get significant attention on college applications and resumes. Getting you Gold in GSA - which is insanely labourous and harder imo than the Eagle Scout award, does NOT get this kind of notoriety. Things are changing, but it's still not the same, and knowing several girls he completed their Golds, it felt like nothing to them. Eagle Scouts get recognition at the state and even federal levels. When i was growing up, most Gold awardees did not. BSA have access to some incredible places like Philmont, SeaBass, and others. GSA does not! As a young girl growing up, i was angry and a bit jealous i didn't get to do all these things and i couldn't do them even if i wanted too. These are issues with GSA vs BSA organizationally. There are some arguments against women in scouting b/c boy need time to be boys. I completely get that and respect that viewpoint but scouting isn't less about boys being boys and more about learning certain skills, serving the community etc. Scouting has been moving towards integration since the 90s and anyone involved in scouting is aware of that b/c of the rise of Adventure Crews. My brother's troop has integrated but has done it such a way that i think creates a healthy and wonderful dynamic. They have a boys troop and a girls troop. They do activities together, and they do things apart. They get different camp sites and it's created a great dynamic!