Opinion: Are the Boy Scouts trying to grab new audience, revenue?

The Boy Scouts recently announced they were letting girls join. Is that right? Columnist Tauri Hagemann looks into it.

This decision seems insane. The decision for the Boy Scouts to recruit girls is an entirely economically centered move, and their sole purpose in doing so is boosting their membership. It’s entirely possible that the Boy Scouts are thinking progressively and they just want to be more inclusive by allowing girls in, although it’s very unlikely that this is their main motivation. The Boy Scouts, at their core, are a company, and the main drive for any company are to boost membership and sales; the best way for the Boy Scouts to do this is by expanding their corporation to include the other 51 percent of the population who are female.

However, the Girl Scouts’ enraged reaction hardly seems appropriate in the given situation. If they’re so upset about Boy Scouts stealing their membership, then perhaps Girl Scouts should allow girls the opportunity to earn more badges in survival skills and wilderness activities rather than badges such as tea-pouring and dinner party hostess badges. The Girl Scouts were established in 1912 to help boost women forward into the world of business, but their curriculum hasn’t changed since then.

Ultimately, the fault for this decision lies on both scout regimens, boys and girls; the girls for not providing equal opportunities to girls as the boy scouts receive, and the boys for looking from a business perspective and deciding that the only way to boost membership would be to include girls rather than changing or adding to their curriculum. The focus of both of these groups is supposed to be providing a fun and educational environment for children who want to learn business and survival skills, and it’s entirely inappropriate for the groups to be focusing on boosting numbers and revenue. They’re focusing more on their revenue than their children, and it’s horrendously disappointing to see.